Ever Thought of Disability and Volunteering?

A Practical Checklist for organisations involving people with disabilities as volunteers.

• Actively encourage people with disabilities to volunteer through targeted promotion, and the use of appealing recruitment campaigns.
• Overcome physical barriers to involving volunteers, eg buildings, transport, information, equipment, to be more accessible to every form of disability.
• Be creative, and develop volunteering opportunities which can be carried out by people with disabilities.
• Allow for flexible volunteering opportunities.
• Train staff and volunteers in equal opportunities and disability awareness, so that myths and stereotyping do not lead to negative attitudes, or assumptions about what people can and cannot do.
• Meet volunteers' needs and match them to tasks.
• Make support available on an ongoing basis to the volunteers.
• Pay out-of-pocket expenses, and give clear information around volunteering when on welfare benefits, so that fear of losing benefits does not become a barrier to volunteering.
• Ask staff to remember that the person is a person first - the disability is second.
• Follow good practice in the management of volunteers in all instances, eg volunteer policy, recruitment and selection, induction, training, support and supervision.
• Have fully operational equal opportunities policies which encourage people with disabilities to volunteer, and to be involved effectively.