Volunteering by People with Disabilities: A Route to Opportunity

Filiz Niyazi

This book will help you:

Separate fact from fiction about people with disabilities

Design volunteer work to accommodate physical challenges

Overcome resistance to this idea from staff and volunteers

The National Centre for Volunteering, 1996, 25 pages, ISBN 1-897708-52-1, electronic version only

Electronic version:


Price: US$5.00

Susan Says:

A guide with a mission: to change perceptions of people with disabilities from the "cared-for" to carers themselves. Identifies the main attractions of volunteering to the disabled and shows how volunteering is empowering to the volunteer. Then it tackles the issue of creating a culture of equality and looks honestly at the problem of official attitudes. Written for a British audience, but universal in its message.

 
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Brief Excerpt
The issue for disabled people is to reject other people’s views of how they should behave and what their needs are. They do not necessarily want to be the same as anyone else, but they want to be equal to anyone else: they want to gain an identity as a disabled person. Disability awareness helps non-disabled people to do what they want to do.

One way in which disabled people can demonstrate their independence is by taking up voluntary work. The problem is, however, that the premises are not always physically accessible. Their advertising does not always make it clear that disabled people are as welcome as anyone else. Despite their much-vaunted equal opportunities policies, they are not always prepared to foot the bill for the extra support disabled volunteers sometimes need (there are not always extra costs involved). And the kind of training they provide for their volunteers rarely takes account of disabled people in its design, content and delivery.
 

Table of Contents

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