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September 05, 2005
Disabled Youth Too Can Be Trainees or Volunteers
People with disabilities are under-represented in the workforce and in traineeships and volunteer opportunities, especially those requiring travel to another country. With support from the Swedish government, the Independent Living Institute, http://www.independentliving.org, compiles information about university study, traineeships and volunteer work, http://www.independentliving.org/studyworkabroad/, for all, including people with disabilities. Our online database covers many countries. It is in English, access is free of charge and open to anyone.
We encourage businesses, national and international government agencies as well as non-governmental organizations within and outside the disability field, everywhere, to include disabled people when offering traineeship or volunteer positions.
People with disabilities differ in their need for access or workplace adaptation. What may be inaccessible to one person, may not be an obstacle to another: an upstairs office without an elevator is not a problem for a person with a hearing impairment.
To help businesses and organizations include disabled people we offer a resource kit, with a checklist for assessing organizations’ accessibility, suggestions for a disability policy and similar resources.
Posted by Karen Thomas at September 5, 2005 09:04 AM