Volunteer with Knowbility

Knowbility has welcomed volunteers in key roles in our work for more than 20 years.

Knowbility involves volunteers because we want the experience of advocating for accessibility to go beyond our employees and consultants: volunteers play an essential, unique role in evangelizing about digital inclusion. We also believe strongly in creating opportunities for stakeholders, activists and community members to participate in our work and see what we do first hand, and to have input into that work. We also involve volunteers so that we can tap into skills, experiences, talents, networks and ideas beyond what our excellent professional staff already bring to our organization and its work. We highly value the openness and viewpoints that are unique to volunteers.

Knowbility volunteers fill a variety of leadership and support roles, from serving on advisory boards and providing expert advice to helping with simple online research or supporting staff at onsite events. Some volunteers help just once for a few hours; others help for months and even years. Volunteer work locations are flexible, from entirely online to in-person roles in Austin, Texas and other locations at programs and events we participate in. We are happy to work with those seeking unpaid internships as a part of their university studies, as well as those needing community service hours.

Volunteer roles with Knowbility

Events support volunteers (onsite in Austin, Texas): such volunteers help support events such as the Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR), AccessU conference or open house / awareness-building events in our office. They may volunteer just on the day(s) of the event or help with preparation.
Web design volunteers (online or onsite): such volunteers may want to participate online in the Accessibility Internet Rally on a team, may want to help a nonprofit online after AIR with moving their new website to their own service or help them with minor things like adding new pages, or may want to help onsite with minor web site updates here at the Knowbility offices in Austin, Texas.
Sponsorship cultivation and research (online or onsite): such volunteers help identify potential corporate sponsors (funders), nonprofit partners, and grant opportunities for our community programs (AIR, AccessWorks, AccessU, and the K-12 Access Toolkit).
Translation (online): such volunteers translate some of our documents for nonprofits that participate in AIR into French, Spanish or other languages.
Board membership: our board members are fiscally responsible for Knowbility and provide leadership regarding fundraising, outreach to community and industry leaders and in promoting the vision for our organization.
Research (online): such volunteers may be asked to make a list of all the nonprofit organizations with a particular type of mission in a specific region or country, using Google or Bing or any other search engine. They may be asked to make a list of all the companies that sponsored a particular event last year. These tasks take about five hours to complete within a week’s time.

Note: current, urgent & calls for specific volunteers are posted on Knowbility’s VolunteerMatch page.

Qualifications:

Interest in digital inclusion, human rights, accessibility/equal access, etc.
Belief in corporate social responsibility
Excellent attention to detail and commitment to quality
Commitment to being on time for assignments that have a scheduled time
A love of communicating online (via email) and a love of learning to use new tech tools (novices are welcomed - but please bring an attitude of adventure and excitement when it comes to using new Internet tools!)
Skills and experience relating to the tasks you sign up for (if you sign up to help translate something into French, you are fluent in French, for instance; if you sign up to help update web pages, you understand HTML, for instance)

Please note that Knowbility cannot provide transportation to or from any onsite event you sign up as a volunteer to support.

To express interest in volunteering:

First Name Required

Last Name Required

Email Required

Phone Required

LinkedIn Profile

How did you hear about Knowbility and/or our volunteering opportunities? Required

Why do you want to volunteer with Knowbility? What about us, or what about a specific program, has attracted you to want to be a part of our work? Required

What skills would you like to offer as a volunteer with Knowbility? (web design/development, language translation, online research to support marketing, fundraising or program goals, onsite event support, sponsorship cultivation, legal guidance, human resources management guidance, grants research, nonprofit board membership experience, etc.) Required

What activities or roles with Knowbility are you most interested in as a volunteer? Required

How many hours a month are you available to volunteer with Knowbility? Required

Do you understand that by volunteer, Knowbility means entirely unpaid roles? Required