Disabled volunteers said they were left “humiliated” when a council event designed to honour their hard work was held in a venue without wheelchair access.
The five women, who work with local support group Moray Duo, were among 80 people invited to the celebration at Elgin Football Club to receive certificates recognising their long-term service.
But the disabled guests could not join in with the main ceremony – because they could not climb the stairs.
They were forced to have a separate presentation in the club’s boardroom, while the 75 other volunteers received their awards in the main social club hall a floor above.
Moray Duo chairwoman, Sylvia Stobbart, of Portgordon, said the local authority’s treatment of her and her colleagues was “humiliating”.
Council convener Allan Wright, who presented the certificates, said the organisers did everything they could to ensure everyone was included.
Charity Capability Scotland stressed that disabled people should not be made to feel like “second class citizens”.
Mrs Stobbart said: “It’s absolutely disgusting that Moray Council would take us to a venue that we couldn’t get upstairs in.
“We feel totally insulted as we were segregated. They just chucked us in a little room, which was freezing, then a man came along and measured our wheelchairs to see if we could fit in the fire doors.
“How humiliating is that? This is discrimination in a big way.”
Mr Wright said: “I would accept that the venue wasn’t ideal, but there were 80 volunteers there, and they could not all be accommodated downstairs in the little boardroom, so they moved the bulk of volunteers upstairs.
“The disabled were accommodated and it was for a relatively short period.
“I went down to see them first, I presented three of them with long service certificates, and I made a little speech to them using my normal slogan – ‘the council can do a lot but can do a hell of a lot more with people like you’.
“Then I went upstairs and did exactly the same speech and gave out certificates upstairs and then everybody went outside for a photograph.”
The local authority was given free use of the facilities at Elgin City FC’s Borough Briggs and said it was pressed to hold the event in June to mark Volunteers Week, while the town hall was booked.
The council also said it made the volunteers aware of the venue in advance.
A council spokesman added: “We apologise sincerely if the venue proved unsuitable for those volunteers using a wheelchair and we will do our best to ensure this oversight is not repeated.”
Mrs Stobbart started using a wheelchair four years ago following an aneurysm, a stroke and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
The tearful 60-year-old said: “For the people who go through this every day of their lives, it is really hard. We have 50 members in Moray Duo, which is designed to remove the barriers that stop people living life to the full.
“Turning up and finding that these barriers were fully in place, especially considering it was Moray Council who asked us to form this group in the first place, it just beggar’s belief.
“They told us there would be around 50 people there, when they sent out 160 invitations. A simple apology is not good enough this time.”
A Capability Scotland spokeswoman said: “It is so important for organisations to consider the needs of disabled people, whether they are delivering services or planning events.
“Failing to do so can leave disabled people feeling like second class citizens, which is unacceptable in a society where we are striving to deliver equality for all.”