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In addition to training staff in involving volunteers virtually, we encourage your entire staff to become familiar with readily-available guidelines for working with people with disabilities, and to consider having staff go through training in disability awareness and etiquette. Such guidelines and training can help your staff make welcome people with a variety of disabilities.

The most difficult obstacles to surmount for a person with a disability can be the attitudes of others, such as prejudice and stereotyping. An important part of your organization's efforts to welcome and actively recruit people with disabilities as volunteers is to get a sense of your own and your staff's sensitivity to and knowledge about people with disabilities. Youth Volunteer Corps provides two questionnaires to help you measure your own and your staff's views of people with disabilities: Scale of Attitudes towards Disabled Persons (SADP), and the Disability Quotient Questionnaire, as well as excercises to encourage staff discussions. These worksheets are available by calling Youth Volunteer Corps at 913-864-4095.

 
 
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• Take a person-first approach to working with volunteers who have disabilities. A volunteer's disability should only be considered in the context of deciding what accommodations will work best for that volunteer.

• If the disability isn't germane to the story or conversation, don't mention it.

• Make reference to the person first, then the disability. Say "a person with a disability" rather than "a disabled person." The latter is acceptable in the interest of conserving print space or saving announcing time.

• A person is not a condition, so avoid describing a person as such. Don't present someone as "an epileptic" or "a post polio". Instead, say "a person with epilepsy" or "a person who has had polio."

• The term "handicapped" comes from the image of a person standing on the corner with a cap in hand, begging for money. A disability is a functional limitation that interferes with a person's ability to walk, hear, talk, learn, etc. Use "handicap" to describe a situation or barrier imposed by society, the environment or oneself.

• Remember, a person who has a disability isn't necessarily chronically sick or unhealthy. He or she is often just disabled.

• Don't assume that a voluteer with a sight-impairment can read Braille. Many people with such impairments acquired them later in life, and never learned Braille.

• When speaking about people with disabilities, emphasize their achievements, abilities and individual qualities. Portray them as they are in real life: as parents, employees, business owners, etc.

• Relax. Don't be embarrassed if you use common expressions such as "See ya later" or "Gotta run."

"An accommodation is any adjustment made to the environment which enhances access to, and use of the area. Accomodations very greatly in complexity and expense" (2). Volunteers with disabilities probably know more about assistive technologies -- software and hardware that allows them to surf the 'Net, write documents, etc. -- and how to obtain such technologies, than you do. Still, it's a good idea to be aware of some of the tools out there; it will help you see just how much a person can help your organization via the Internet regardless of physical disability.

• If you are uncertain about the wants or needs of a volunteer with a disability, ASK! Give volunteers opportunities to tell you what changes might need to be made.

• Remember in your Web site design that people with disabilities use special tools to browse the Web, and these tools can be confused by some Web site designs and functions. Impact Online has information and links to tools to help you make your Web site accessible to as many users as possible.

• When planning events which could involve persons with disabilities, consider their needs before choosing a location.

• Accommodations for online volunteers who have
  learning disabilities or emotional and anxiety disorders

• Recruitment

• Volunteer Orientation and Matching

• Credits and Additional Resources
  

 
Credits

Some of this information was adapted from other sources, which offer excellent additional information about working with volunteers with disabilities, on or offline.

We would like to expand the resources on this page, by including others' suggestions and first hand narratives. If you would like to share information with the Virtual Volunteering Project about your own experiences working with volunteers virtually, please contact us.

If you have helped or are helping organizations as a volunteer via your home or work computer, please complete our online survey for volunteers and tell us about your experiences.

Also view

• First Person: Benefits of Virtual Volunteering
  for People With Disabilities
  We have received several testimonials via our online survey and online volunteer application from people with disabilities serving as online volunteers for various organizations around the United States. These are excerpts, to show first hand how virtual volunteering creates new opportunities for people with disabilities.

• Examples of Experiences Involving Online Volunteers and Youth With Disabilities
  A few real-life examples of how volunteers and youth with disabilities are interacting with others via Cyberspace, to give you an idea of the limitless possibilities and benefits of virtual volunteering.

• Making an agency virtually accessible to people with disabilities
  Our own suggestions for Web site design, as well as links to other organizations

• Online information on disability-related issues in general
  For agencies seeking more information about the concerns of disabled population. Good resources to use in staff training.