Digital Inclusion of Disabled Individuals in Online and Offline Voluntary Work: Interview Data, 2024

In today’s interconnected world, internet access is often considered critical for accessing work. However, reliance on the internet also poses challenges for some disabled people, who may be vulnerable to digital exclusion. This innovative project delivered by an interprofessional team of social scientists, voluntary sector organisations, vocational rehabilitation practitioners, disability researchers, disabled people, and digital engagement specialists examined digital inclusion of disabled adults in voluntary work.

The project aimed to:
(1) advance understanding of how digital inclusion of disabled individuals fosters social inclusion in online and offline voluntary work; and
(2) identify effective principles to boost participation, inclusivity, and leverage the potential of digital technologies in the voluntary sector organisations.

A mixed-methods approach is adopted for a more comprehensive understanding of the research problem. This included qualitative interviews and analysis that will provide deeper understanding and explanations for these patterns through analysis of the lived experiences of disabled adults and survey data analysis.

The key findings included:
• Link Between Digital Inclusion and Volunteering: For disabled adults, being included in online and offline volunteering depends on how well they can access and use digital technology in general. The same devices, technologies, social support, and skills used in employment and other areas of life are often applied to volunteering. Because disabled adults often have less access to devices and the internet and use them less than non-disabled adults, they are more likely to miss out on volunteering opportunities that require it.
• Digital Access and Divide: Most disabled adults in the UK are connected digitally, but the digital divide persists. Disabled adults face greater digital challenges and exclusion compared to non-disabled adults, with the disability digital gap remaining largely unchanged since 2018.
• Digital exclusion: Nearly one million disabled adults don’t have Internet at home, 1.4 million don’t use the Internet, and about two million don’t own a smartphone or computer.
• Frequency of Use and Online Exclusion: Disabled adults use the Internet less often than non-disabled adults and they are more likely to be left out of common online activities like browsing, emailing, social media, online banking, and streaming videos.
• Double Disadvantage and Additional Challenges: Disabled people often come from groups that with already more limited access to the Internet and devices, such as older adults, those with low incomes, benefit recipients, renters from local authorities, people with less education and those living alone. On top of these existing barriers, being disabled means facing even more difficulties in accessing and using digital technology.
• Individual Nature of Disability Experience with Digital Tools: Disabled adults’ experiences with digital tools are highly individual, shaped by factors such as impairment type, severity, presence of multiple impairments, and their social context.
• Double-Edged Sword of Digital Technology and Online Volunteering: Digital technology is crucial for inclusion but can also be source of exclusion for those struggling with technology. Disabled adults are more inclined to engage in online volunteering, because of its accessibility. However, online volunteering also presents challenges that may deter some disabled volunteers. Despite some digital barriers, disabled adults show higher interest in online volunteering compared to non-disabled adults.
• Importance of Internet Access for Engaging in Volunteering: Internet access and usage are crucial for enabling disabled individuals to engage in volunteering, including both online and in-person opportunities. Those who use the Internet more frequently are more likely to volunteer, even after considering their socioeconomic background.
• Internet Access, Use, Devices and Volunteering Hours and Frequency: For disabled individuals, owning devices does not affect the number of volunteer hours. More frequent Internet use is linked to volunteering more hours, with exception of frequent Internet users (daily or weekly) who volunteer fewer hours. Device ownership and Internet use do not impact the frequency of volunteering.
• Digital Barriers and Enablers of Volunteering:
o Technology over-reliance: Over-reliance on technology can complicate volunteer journeys, especially when IT systems or support is unavailable or inadequate.
o Technological assumptions: Organisations often assume people understand how to use technology and devices and may not recognise the need for support or training.
o Variation in suitability of assistive devices: The effectiveness of assistive devices can facilitate or hinder participation, depending on their suitability and the level of support provided. Malfunctioning or unsuitable assistive devices can exacerbate challenges for disabled individuals. Disabled adults can experience a mismatched between requirements and devices available or provided that can lead to exclusion form volunteering opportunities.
o Reliance of support networks: To be effective, use of assistive devices draws on the skills and experience of informal support networks. Organisations should remain attuned to prioritising supporting people rather than supporting technology.
o Organisational culture: Organisations should encourage a culture of listening and providing empathetic support to address the specific needs of disabled volunteers and reduce digital barriers to volunteering. Support structures should be inclusive and allow volunteers to discuss their needs, ensuring parity with paid staff support.
• Volunteering and Employment: Our findings suggest that, rather than volunteering serving as a direct path to paid work, employment helps disabled individuals overcome digital barriers to volunteering. The confidence, skills and resources acquired through paid employment, as well as the social capital that often comes from being part of being a part of more diverse networks that includes work colleagues as well as more personal relationships, means that those in employment might be better able to navigate some of the barriers to securing volunteering roles. Such resources are less easily initiated in volunteer roles - we heard frustrations that the Access to Work scheme, which supports paid employment, does not cover voluntary work.
• Discrimination and Volunteering. Disabled people continue to experience indirect and direct discrimination. For some, the lack of appropriate devices, limited training, and organisational cultures that make people reluctant to seek support all imply a level of discrimination that makes it difficult for those in volunteering roles to always excel. Such discrimination was not always so indirect. There is evidence to indicate that those who have been in successful volunteering positions for some time suggested they are being denied employment opportunities because they are disabled.