{"id":646,"date":"2014-01-28T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=646"},"modified":"2022-03-25T07:34:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T14:34:34","slug":"diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/01\/diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"accessibility, diversity &#038; virtual volunteering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/vvbooklittle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-831\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/vvbooklittle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"187\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a>One of the many things I&#8217;m proud of in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/vvbook.shtml\"><strong>The\u00a0<em>Last<\/em>\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/strong><\/a>, is that it features an entire chapter on <strong>accessibility and diversity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>That chapter, and the entire book, provide detailed advice regarding:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the benefits of having online volunteers representing a variety of socio-economic levels, neighborhoods, ages, cultures and other demographics<\/li>\n<li>the benefits of accommodating a diversity of volunteers (an accommodation you make for one particular group often ends up benefiting ALL volunteers)<\/li>\n<li>how to use<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">\u00a0language in such a way as to\u00a0<\/span>accommodate<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">\u00a0and welcome a variety of volunteers\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>how to adapt online tools to accommodate different online volunteers, including those that may have physical disabilities<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">how to\u00a0<\/span>accommodate<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">\u00a0online volunteers with l<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">earning and emotional disabilities<\/span><\/li>\n<li>how to recruit for diversity; and<\/li>\n<li>how to track progress regarding diversity among online volunteer ranks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The chapter on accessibility and diversity is referenced throughout\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/vvbook.shtml\"><strong>The\u00a0<em>Last<\/em>\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0, because Susan and I did not want anyone thinking it was a chapter to take or leave.<\/p>\n<p>I became an advocate for <a href=\"https:\/\/air-rallies.org\/\">accessibility<\/a> and diversity in volunteering and in computer and Internet use in October 1994 when I attended the annual meeting of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility at UC San Diego. There was a panel discussion called &#8220;The Meanings of Access,&#8221; and remarks during that talk, particularly by Deborah Kaplan, then of the World Institute on Disability, changed my life forever. I came to a realization of two things I&#8217;d never had before: accessibility is a human right, and accessibility brings me in contact with awesome people I would never meet or work with otherwise. I became an advocate right then and there.<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, I got funding from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.meaf.org\">Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation<\/a> for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/vv\/\">Virtual Volunteering Project <\/a>to explore <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/vv\/atech\/index.shtml\">how to make online volunteering as accessible as possible<\/a>, and that same year, blew my mouth off at a conference in Austin, Texas about how disappointed I was that the panelists I&#8217;d just listened to, talking about the digital divide, never once mentioned people with disabilities, resulting in one of the greatest personal and professional relationships of my life, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowbility.org\/v\/staff-detail\/Sharron-Rush\/3d\/\">Sharron Rush<\/a>, who was also in the audience and later formed\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowbility.org\">Knowbility<\/a>, a nonprofit that promotes accessibility in technology tools and technology careers.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, I read \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.volunteering.org.uk\/component\/gpb\/lgbt\">InVolving LGBT Volunteers<\/a>,\u201d published by The Consortium of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered voluntary and community organisations, based in London, the United Kingdom, and that solidified my understanding that making\u00a0accessibility and diversity a priority in any program is about <strong>benefits for <em>everyone<\/em> in that program<\/strong>, not just people with disabilities or people who are from minority or under-represented groups. This publication is referenced in <strong>The\u00a0<em>Last<\/em>\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/strong>, and remains one I return to frequently when preparing lectures or workshops about volunteer recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>I have tried to put into practice all that I&#8217;ve heard about regarding virtual volunteering, including accommodations for a variety of people as volunteers and recruiting specifically to create a diverse volunteer pool. I won&#8217;t say I&#8217;m always successful, and I won&#8217;t say trying the methods we promote in the book is always easy, but I will say that it&#8217;s made my work experience oh-so-much richer and interesting, and it&#8217;s always been worth trying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The\u00a0<em>Last<\/em>\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook\u00a0is now\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/vvbook.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">available for purchase as a paperback and an ebook<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many things I&#8217;m proud of in The\u00a0Last\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, is that it features an entire chapter on accessibility and diversity. That chapter, and the entire book, provide detailed advice regarding: the benefits of having online volunteers representing a variety of socio-economic levels, neighborhoods, ages, cultures and other demographics the benefits of accommodating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[703,706,1635,707,561,183,702,807,701,667,705,681,704,570],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","tag-bisexual","tag-disabilities","tag-disability","tag-disabled","tag-diversity","tag-ethnic","tag-gay","tag-inclusion","tag-lesbian","tag-online-volunteers","tag-racial","tag-religious","tag-transgender","tag-virtual-volunteering"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-aq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5537,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/5537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}