Summary

Strengthen both sides of inclusive participation: build the skills, confidence, agency and opportunities of young persons with disabilities, while equipping staff, volunteers, members and leadership with the knowledge and tools needed to support inclusion effectively. Empowerment involves actions to address:

• Inclusive communication (3.5)
• Recruitment (4.1)
• Internal adjustments (4.2)
• Onboarding and continuing education (4.3)
• Organisational knowledge (2.3)
• Leadership (3.3)

Bolded actions are required for the corresponding level of YO-IN Quality Label Certification.

Inclusive Communication (3.5)

Actions

• Basic: Use respectful disability terminology and portray young persons with disabilities as active and diverse participants in the organisation and activities.
• Intermediate: Provide simple communication guidance and involve persons with disabilities when reviewing representation and language.
• Advanced: Integrate inclusive representation standards into communication guides, training and quality review or audits.

Milestones

• Communications reinforce participation rather than stereotypes and exclusion.

Considerations and Decisions

• What guidance and review processes are needed for inclusive communication?

Recruitment (4.1)

Actions

• Basic: State equal-opportunity commitments and make applicants aware that adjustments are available.
• Intermediate: Actively share recruitment information with disability networks.
• Advanced:
  • Monitor recruitment and progression, review barriers to recruitment and retention with persons with disabilities.
  • Embed inclusive recruitment across workforce and volunteer planning.

Milestones

• Young persons with disabilities are represented as staff, volunteers, and/or members.

Considerations and Decisions

• Where are candidates being lost or excluded and how will the organisation address this?

Internal Adjustments (4.2)

Actions

• Basic: Respond flexible to adjustment requests from applicants, staff, volunteers, or members using an identified contact point.
• Intermediate: Establish a clear, confidential process for requesting, deciding, resourcing, and reviewing reasonable accommodation requests from staff, volunteers, members, and leadership.
• Advanced: Raise awareness of reasonable accommodation among staff and managers, integrating the practice further across employment, volunteering and membership systems.

Milestones

• Reasonable accommodation mechanisms are in place.

Considerations and Decisions

• Who oversees reasonable adjustment requests and related processes?
• What are the legal obligations and financial supports related to reasonable accommodation in your context?

Onboarding and Continuing Education (4.3)

Actions

• Basic: Give new staff, volunteers, and members basic disability inclusion and accessibility information.
• Intermediate: Include accessibility guides in onboarding and offer recurring awareness raising, materials or role-relevant training.
• Advanced:
  • Maintain a structured learning programme with refreshers, applied practice, and differentiated training for roles and responsibilities.
  • Encourage staff to link disability inclusion to annual objectives.

Milestones

• People have the knowledge to apply inclusion in their role.

Considerations and Decisions

• What competencies are required for each role and when should learning recur?

Organisational Knowledge (2.3)

Actions

• Basic: Identify key knowledge gaps among leadership and use trusted resources or external learning to address them.
• Intermediate: Integrate disability inclusion training and awareness into mandates for leadership positions.
• Advanced: Schedule recurring leadership learning opportunities on disability inclusion, accessibility and organisational responsibilities.

Milestones

• Leadership knowledge survives personnel changes.

Considerations and Decisions

• Which capabilities must be retained internally, even in the face of leadership change?

Leadership (3.3)

Actions

• Basic: Encourage young persons with disabilities to take visible leadership roles.
• Intermediate: Identify barriers to youth leadership and representation in the organisation and establish a plan of action.
• Advanced: Create or designate supported representative, coordination, or leadership roles specifically for young persons with disabilities.

Milestones

• Participation or young persons with disabilities extends to power and responsibility.

Considerations and Decisions

• Do leadership structures need to be redesigned to support access for young persons with disabilities?

Go to Step 6: Embed