Disability services auction item ideas that actually sell

For the general list, see our 100+ silent auction item ideas. Two categories here are specific to the organization and one of them is routinely overlooked.

Equipment and provision sponsorship

• A communication device, a wheelchair, a seating assessment
• Adaptive sports equipment, or a season in an adaptive programme
• A ramp, a grab rail set, a bathroom adaptation
• A job coach's month, or a supported-employment placement
• A week of respite for a family
• Sensory equipment for a classroom or a home

The structure and the privacy terms: adaptive equipment sponsorship.

Expertise, which is the overlooked one

• An accessibility audit of a business's premises, website or both
• Disability awareness training for a company's staff
• Inclusive hiring consultation for an employer
• An accessible-event review for another organization's venue or conference
• Assistive technology assessment and setup for a family
• A talk to a school, a service club or a workplace

This is the strongest category most of these organizations never list. Employers pay consultants for exactly this, your staff do it daily, and offering it turns a donation ask into a two-way relationship with a business that then keeps engaging.

Accessible experience lots

• An adaptive recreation experience — sailing, riding, skiing, cycling
• Accessible travel: a stay at a genuinely accessible property, described honestly
• Theatre or sport with accessible seating and a described-audio or captioned performance
• A restaurant meal at a venue you can vouch for

Describe access honestly on every one of these. An experience listed as accessible that turns out not to be is a specific and avoidable failure, and this audience will tell each other.

Ordinary lots

Restaurants, retail, wellness, experiences. There is no need for a catalogue to be thematic — a supporter is giving because of the goal.

What to avoid

• Inspiration framing, or pity framing, in any item description
• A person's name, photograph, diagnosis or circumstances without their own offer
• Staff speaking on someone's behalf about their own experience
• Experience lots described as accessible without verifying it
• Items whose enjoyment assumes physical capabilities the description does not state
• Simulation experiences — a wheelchair for a day, a blindfold exercise — which the community has long objected to and which teach less than they appear to

The last one arrives with good intentions from someone who has seen it done. It is worth having the answer ready and an alternative to offer, which is usually the training item done properly.

General information, not legal or accessibility-compliance advice for your organization. Accessibility obligations, and the language conventions your own community prefers, differ — the people you serve and your own leadership decide how any of this applies.