What guides us
Accessibility
How we work toward becoming a more accessible and inclusive organization.
Our Commitment
At the Law Foundation of BC, we are committed to identifying, removing, and preventing barriers that limit full and equal participation for disabled people, staff, grantees, and the communities we serve. This commitment is grounded in our values of equity, decolonization, and transformation.
As a primary legal funder in BC, we welcome the opportunity – alongside the legal profession and the non-profit sector – to advance accessibility for people with disabilities and strengthen systemic access to justice.
Our Accessibility Plan
Our inaugural Accessibility Plan, published in June 2025, outlines how we identify and address barriers across our organization – from our physical office and digital platforms to our grantmaking practices and internal policies.
The plan was developed in the spirit of “Nothing about us without us.” Staff, Governors, and Advisors were consulted throughout the process. Our Accessibility Committee, which includes representation from across the organization and centers the voices of those with lived experience of disability, continues to guide this work.
To request an alternative format, please contact us at [email protected].
Our Website
This website meets Level AA conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, tested in June 2026. We are committed to maintaining this standard on all future updates.
Our Grants Portal
Our Accessibility Plan 2025-2028 commits us to auditing our technology, addressing the barriers we find, and making improvements wherever reasonable and possible. In 2025 we engaged Easy Surf, a disability-led accessibility consultancy, to audit the SmartSimple platform we use.
Please see below user guidance for applicants and grantees who use assistive technology.
How we tested and what standard was used
We engaged Easy Surf to evaluate the SmartSimple platform against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA. WCAG is the internationally recognised standard for digital accessibility. The 2025 evaluation combined automated and manual testing of the platform. It included screen reader testing (NVDA and VoiceOver), speech recognition testing (Apple Voice Control and Windows Voice Access), and testing with screen magnification and colour inversion.
Identified potential barriers
The Foundation uses the grants portal SmartSimple.
The system was audited in 2025 for accessibility and barriers were identified that most often affect people who use screen readers, voice control, or keyboard navigation.
The main accessibility barriers are:
- The budget and expense section of an application, where some controls and labels do not work well with screen readers.
- Data tables, such as lists of grants or reports, where sorting and navigation can be confusing.
- Forms with checkboxes or radio buttons, where the choices may not be announced clearly to screen readers or reliably selected with voice control.
These barriers most often affect people who use screen readers, voice control, or keyboard navigation. Some of them can stop a person from finishing an application. Some guidance on how to address common issues is provided on our How Funding Works page in the Grants Portal FAQs.
Share Your Feedback
We know our Accessibility Plan does not capture every barrier people may experience when interacting with us. Your lived experience matters to this work, and we want to hear from you.
Whether you have encountered a barrier in our physical space, on our website, in our communications, or anywhere else in your interactions with the Foundation, we invite you to share it with us.
You can submit feedback in four ways:
- Complete our anonymous online form
- Email us at [email protected]
- Leave a voice message at 604-688-2337, extension 103
- Mail us at: Law Foundation of BC, 1500 – 675 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1N2
How We Handle Your Feedback
We review all submissions carefully and use them to identify and prioritize improvements. Where appropriate, we may follow up for more information. We cannot guarantee that every barrier can be resolved, but we are committed to taking every submission seriously.
Please note that feedback unrelated to accessibility, or outside the scope of our programs, may not receive a response and may be deleted in accordance with privacy and information retention requirements.
Your Privacy
The Law Foundation of BC collects accessibility feedback for the purpose of identifying, removing, and preventing barriers, in compliance with the Accessible British Columbia Act. Our Privacy Policy outlines more information about how we collect and use personal information.