FAQs
About the Virtual Volunteering Project
who have disabilities:
recruitment
Before you start recruiting volunteers for your organization, you need to make sure you are ready to place these volunteers immediately into an orientation, intitial evaluation and assignment-matching process. If you are not to ready to start immediately matching volunteers with assignments, you are not ready to recruit volunteers. The Virtual Volunteering Project has a self-evaluation to help you determine if your are ready to institute an online volunteering program.
You can reach people with disabilities via your general virtual volunteering recruitment methods. However, there are several ways you can outreach specifically to these audiences. Send your volunteer opportunities to:
- schools that work specifically with disabled populations
- independent living centers
- vocational rehabilitation agencies
- disability service groups
- regional offices of rehabilitation services of the department of Health, Education and Welfare.
- Internet discussion groups, as appropriate
Other parts of this resource:
- Initial Preparation
- Conversation
- Accommodations
- Conversation
- Accommodations for online volunteers who have
learning disabilities or emotional and anxiety disorders - Volunteer Orientation and Matching
- Credits and Additional Resources
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.
This component of the Virtual Volunteering Project is made possible by a special grant from the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation. We are most grateful for their support and collaboration.