According to the 4^th General Social Survey conducted in 2014 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the number of people who volunteer to help others in their community declined. This statistic is of particular concern because it’s the first time that volunteering has declined since data on volunteer rates first began to be measured in 1995. The same survey found that while many people want to help others, most face significant obstacles to volunteering.

Increasing Diversity Key to Reducing Barriers to Volunteering

Finding enough volunteers to be able to meet their service objectives and fulfill their mission is a critical goal for most nonprofits. By working together to increase inclusion and diversity within their organisations, CEOs, boards, and administrators can increase fairness while reducing the barriers to volunteering. Taking this simple step will make it easier for nonprofits to find the talented and skilled recruits that they need to help them accomplish their good works.

In a 2009 survey on disability, the ABS also found that 1 in 5 Australians have a disability. In the past, nonprofits were more likely to interact with the disabled when they were recipients of services, but this is changing. By taking steps to be more open and accessible, and searching for creative ways to accommodate those with limitations, many nonprofits are now finding that some of their best volunteers also happen to have some type of disability.

4 Tips to Better Manage Volunteers with Disabilities

The following strategies can help nonprofits to be able to better manage their volunteers that have a disability. These steps also make volunteering accessible to a greater number of people, whether or not someone has limitations that hinder their ability to volunteer. In addition to physical impairments, other common limitations include language or cultural barriers, or even time constraints.

Offer Flexible Schedules

A lack of time is one of the biggest barriers to volunteering. Offering volunteers flexible schedules, with lengthy deadlines to complete projects, is one way to increase accessibility to those with and without disabilities.

Look for Ways to Offer Accommodations to Everyone

Another way to make volunteering easier for the disabled, or those with other limitations, is to break projects into smaller tasks. This way, if you have a volunteer that can complete most of the duties of a specific volunteer project, but not all of them, you are able to accommodate these volunteers by assigning the individual tasks that they cannot do to others in your non-profit.

Breaking projects down into individual tasks, and then spreading the work load and responsibility out across multiple volunteers, not only helps those with disabilities and limitations, it helps to reduce stress and prevent burn out among all of your volunteers.

Sometimes, there is not a way to make a reasonable accommodation in order for a specific volunteer to fulfill a specific role. If this occurs, let the volunteer know why you were not able to offer an accommodation for a specific project, and then let them know of your organisation’s other volunteer opportunities for which their skills and abilities would be a good match.

Seek to Uncover Hidden Barriers to Volunteering

Many times, disabilities, or other limitations and barriers to volunteering are not obvious. When you interview potential recruits, or talk to existing volunteers about a specific project, you really shouldn’t directly ask if someone has a disability. Talk to volunteers about the duties and requirements of specific tasks and projects. Ask what you can do to make it easier for them to complete the tasks, and what help can you provide, or what accommodation can you make so that they can complete the project

Increase the Accessibility of Your Promotional and Training Materials

Ideally, your pool of volunteers will include many individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.  Whether someone is hard of hearing, deaf, speaks a different language and is just learning yours, or has a learning disability, you can make it easier for everyone to learn more about your organisation and the roles and responsibilities of being a volunteer, by making all of your materials more accessible.

Consider closed captioning and sub-titles to make videos easier to understand for everyone.  Consider offering a translator, or offering your materials and publications in more than one language, to help those who speak a different language to be able to learn and participate. Create an online Wiki, or other guide, on your nonprofit’s intranet to make it easy for everyone to search for and find answers to common questions about your nonprofit and its opportunities for volunteers.

As you make it easier for everyone to volunteer with your nonprofit, you should notice an increase not only in your pool of volunteers, but also in volunteer morale. Your nonprofit’s productivity and creativity will also increase, simply because you’ve made easier for individuals from different backgrounds, and with different ways of thinking, to participate and contribute their best ideas and their talent to your organisation.