This is just the beginning of your journey to creating a more autism affirming volunteering environment. Most of what we have discussed has been values-based, giving you an insight into the autistic community and providing some context for the upcoming resources.

We would like to quickly acknowledge that the volunteering sector has a demonstrated track-record engaging disabled volunteers, making up approximately 27.6% of the total informal volunteers in Australia³. It is likely that you and other volunteering organisations already embody a culture of accessibility towards the autistic community.

Yet, there is always room to increase the capacity and confidence between the autistic community and volunteering sector. We have provided practical and easy to implement changes in the upcoming sections that can greatly increase your accessibility to the autistic community.

To wrap up your first step in this journey, we have provided a checklist, ‘Foundations of an Autism Affirming Volunteering Organisation: A Checklist’. This checklist details four guiding principles and several actions you can take to become a more accessible and inclusive volunteering organisation.

We encourage you to use this checklist as a starting point, or as a reminder, of how you can take to embrace diversity and inclusion.

Foundations of an Autism Affirming Volunteering Organisation: A Checklist:

The 4C’s (Communication, Commitment, Collaboration and Curiosity) convey an attitude, one that embraces the autistic identity and recognises the unique skills and perspectives they can bring to your volunteering organisation. We believe this can be achieved at an individual or organisational level. Please use this checklist for some actions to get you started on your journey!