What do you mean by "positively impacting accessibility and inclusion benefiting persons with vision, hearing, and/or mobility disabilities?"
What if the Difference Makers are a group of students working on a project together, or are part of a club?
What if the person has been nominated or received a RHFSP Difference Maker Award before?
Why do I have to tell the person I am nominating before I submit my nomination to RHF?
Can I nominate a youth that turned 19?
Can I nominate a teacher?
Can I nominate myself, my friend or a family member?
Any tips on submitting a nomination?
Meet Award Recipients
1. What do you mean by "positively impacting accessibility and inclusion benefiting persons with vision, hearing, and/or mobility disabilities?"
RHF recognizes projects that consider Universal Design for all. Your project may not have been designed or created specifically for people with vision, hearing, and/or mobility disabilities, however, if you can describe how your project can also impact those disabilities, it may be considered eligible. An example may be enhancements to a sensory room in a school, which mainly benefits students with sensory processing disorder, but is also designed to ensure ease of use for students with mobility disabilities and navigation for students with vision disabilities.
2. What if the Difference Makers are a group of students working on a project together, or are part of a club?
Nominees can be individuals or a youth group who participate in a joint project or start a club, for example.
3. What if the person has been nominated or received a RHFSP Difference Maker Award before?
If an individual or group was previously nominated and did not receive an award, they can be nominated again as long as they are being nominated for a project where the majority of work took place between May 1, 2025-April 5, 2026. If an individual or group received an award in the past 3 years, they are ineligible to be nominated again.
4. Why do I have to tell the person I am nominating before I submit my nomination to RHF?
RHF would like to celebrate the great work of all the Nominees and may share information about the nomination through emails and social media channels leading up to the award announcement during National AccessAbility Week. For this reason, we require that the Nominator has the permission of the Nominee to submit the online nomination.
5. Can I nominate a youth that turned 19?
If the Nominee turns 19 during the nomination period, that is acceptable – as long as they were 18 for the majority of the project period. Anyone over the age of 18 for the majority of the project period is not eligible.
6. Can I nominate a teacher?
While we have awarded educators, coaches, and youth group leaders in the past, the 2025-26 RHFSP Difference Maker of the Year awards will be awarded to youth between the ages of 5-18.
7. Can I nominate myself, my friend or a family member?
Yes, you are welcome to nominate yourself, a friend, or a family member! If you are nominating yourself, you will be asked to provide a reference from an unrelated adult that knows you and has knowledge of the project undertaken.
8. Any tips on submitting a nomination?
Your description should provide a well-rounded picture of the Nominee and the positive impact of their actions. Concrete examples of the general and specific efforts and contributions the Nominee makes in the school or community and their impact, the qualities that make the individual or group/class a worthy recipient, and how these have improved inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities. If the Nominee’s project/activity did not focus on a vision, hearing, and/or mobility disability, please be sure to describe how the project may also benefit those with a vision, hearing, and/or mobility disability, otherwise the project may be considered ineligible. Projects that include input from people with lived experience of disabilities will receive additional points.
If you have any further questions about the Difference Maker Awards, please contact us at schools@rickhansen.com.
Meet Award Recipients
Learn about some of our past award recipients, their inspiration, and their impact here
