Accessibility Advisory Committee

Purpose

The purpose of the Accessibility Advisory Committee is to: 

• Act in fulfillment of the Accessible BC Act requirements by assisting with and advising the City on identifying, removing and preventing barriers in spaces, programs, services, policies and procedures.
• Advise Council and City departments on the existing actions and their implementation in the City’s approved Accessibility Framework and Short-term Action Plan, including new actions aligned with the Framework’s focus areas and the accessibility feedback mechanism. They will also consult on the three-year updates to the Accessibility Framework.  
• Consult City departments on the alignment with the upcoming Accessible Service Delivery Standards under the Accessible BC Act, as well as the City’s existing and new standards and guidelines.
• Provide lived and professional experience expertise on City’s built environment, governance and services.
• Act as a resource and provide advice and recommendations to City Council and staff on evidence, equity, meaningful access and universal design.
• Support capacity building and collaboration in the community.  
• Receive and share information on relevant City activities and updates and/or accessibility undertakings  with community groups, accessibility organizations and “parent” organizations where applicable. 

Terms of Reference

The Committee’s term aligns with Council’s term and will be reviewed as needed.   
Staff will work with the Accessibility Advisory Committee to update the current Terms of Reference.

Eligibility

The Committee is comprised of up to nine (9) voting members of the public appointed by Council for a one-year term. 

• Up to two (2) of these members may have served on the City’s Accessibility Working Group established in 2015.
• Other members shall be appointed from the Capital Region that reflect a diversity of the types of accessibility issues faced by members of the community as outlined in the Accessibility Framework. (Accessibility challenges and lived experience may include developmental, pain-related, flexibility, mobility, mental-health-related, seeing, hearing, dexterity, learning and memory challenges.)
• Membership to the Committee is limited to people with lived experience or accessibility challenges and may also include individuals representing a broad range of under-served and equity seeking groups such as, but not limited to: Indigenous Peoples, faith-based groups, LGBTQ, newcomers, new Canadians, persons living in poverty, people of diverse ethnic or cultural origin, seniors, women and youth.

Time Commitment

The Committee meets monthly on the second Tuesday of the month from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. in a Zoom meeting.
This term will run until October 2026.

About 

The Committee elects a Chair and Vice-Chair. Two members of City Council are appointed to serve as non-voting liaisons to the Committee. Council Liaisons communicate matters from Council on issues that the Committee is discussing and speak on behalf of the motions passed by the Committee that come forward to Council as recommendations.

Staff from the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are assigned to support the Committee. Other direct staff support to the Committee shall be at the discretion of the City Manager. 

Membership

The following individuals are members of the Accessibility Advisory Committee: 

Suzan Jennings (Chair)
Sandra Hough (Vice-Chair)
Chris Marks
Dana Arafeh
Don Monsour
Nate Moss
Christine Paisley
Priyanka Singh
Tricia Pokorny

Background                                    

In 2015, the Accessibility Working Group was established to support the development of a Framework for accessibility and inclusion in the City of Victoria.

With the Accessibility Framework now adopted, the City has transitioned to the new interim Accessibility Advisory Committee, which can include up to two returning members of the Accessibility Working Group to ensure continuity and knowledge transfer. 

Close to 19,000 Victoria citizens live with one or more disabilities. This means approximately one in five people over the age of 15 are impacted by the level of accessibility in Victoria. 

The City of Victoria is committed to making itself a more inclusive community through its Accessibility Framework. Learn more.