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Friday April 27, 2007

How welcoming is your congregation to the disabled?

The National Organization on Disability outlines 15 ways congregations can be more accessible to people with disabilities. Excerpts from the “Accessible Congregations Campaign” include:

1. Awareness — Recognizing that barriers exist that could prevent children or adults with disabilities from accessing worship, study, service or leadership.

2. Advocacy — Growing support within the congregation to welcome people with disabilities as full participants and to remove barriers (physical or perceived).

3. Discussion — Talking openly (Are there enough people with this need to justify the expense? Will people with disabilities feel comfortable in joining us once barriers have been removed?) and identifying solutions.

4. Planning — Inviting people with disabilities to join the congregation as full, developing action plans achieve the goals set during aforementioned discussions.

5. Accommodation — Making accommodations to increase the participation of people with disabilities (e.g. large print bulletins, trained ushers, accessible parking spaces, ramps and pew cuts, sign language interpreters, improved lighting and sound systems, appropriate religious education for children with disabilities).

6. Inclusion — Increasing participation of people with disabilities in worship, study, service and leadership, and increasing comfort levels of members with a more diverse congregation. Making sure children and adults with disabilities are welcomed, fully included and treated with respect.

7. Leadership — Recruiting of lay members with disabilities for leadership roles within the congregation.

8. Outreach — Sharing strategies, insights and effective practices with other congregations and faith communities.

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