Persons of all gender identities, races, ethnicities, economic backgrounds, and sexual orientations are encouraged to participate fully in every aspect of this community's life together.
At our Seers meeting on Saturday night, we looked briefly at this statement as a possible articulation of one of our core values as a community.
Despite the temptations inherent in laundry-list inclusion, I really wish we could add dis/abilities to that list, but. Inviting someone to church when they can't get in the door, hear the sermon, or share fellowship without going into anaphalactic shock is an empty invitation.
We shouldn't say that people are invited when we can't be fully hospitable to them. I think this is an issue this congregation needs to think about in terms of lots of issues, like race and gender identity, but I'd like to use this Three Things to open a conversation about dis/ability, since disability is a health issue as well as a welcome issue.
Before I ask the questions, two points from disability politics 101:
1. Many of the difficulties disabled individuals face are not inherent to their condition. They are caused by a society that is designed for (temporarily) able-bodied people. Disabled people face many daily impediments that are not inherent to their disability or chronic illness.
2. No one is able-bodied, full stop. If we have general freedom of movement, sight, hearing, etc, we are temporarily able-bodied. That could change at any moment.
So, three things!
1. What are three ways that our worship space is accessible to people with particular mental or physical disabilities? How are people with disabilities able "to participate fully in every aspect of this community's life together"?
2. What are three ways in which our worship space is not accessible to people with particular mental or physical disabilities? How are people with disabilities barred from full participation in every aspect of this community's life together?
Let's talk in this post especially about physical issues: the layout of the worship space, the movements throughout that space, the printed worship material, audibility issues, foodstuffs, etc.
Three ways our church is accessible:
ReplyDelete1. We are street-level with a curb break very near our entrance and there are no stairs in our building.
2. We have a sound system that enables the hard-of-hearing to better hear the parts of the service spoken by the pastor. (Which I totally failed to utilize when I preached two weeks ago, because I fail at disability politics forever).
3. We offer grape juice in addition to wine, and clearly signify this in the bulletin and occasionally through spoken word, which makes the communion feast accessible to alcoholics in recovery (and their teetotaling daughters).
Three ways our church is NOT accessible:
1. Our service isn't interpreted into ASL.
2. Our bathroom is not wheelchair accessible unless I am very much mistaken.
3. We are not conscientious about warning for allergens in the food we serve after (or during) church or in having gluten-free communion bread on hand.
Three ways our church is accessible:
ReplyDeleteI agree on the three things you said - sound system, grape juice in place of wine and the no steps. Also:
1. Pastor Donna and members tried to make others feel welcome as they are and if they needed assistance in any way was willing to go out of the way.
2. Parking in the front and back
3. Location of church that reaches different business and neighborhoods, range of people.
Three ways our church is not accessible
1. Some visitors may be allergic to dogs
2. The front door is not wheel chair accessible also. We discussed it in church before and agreed that we couldn't afford to change the door and bathroom.
3. Quiet room for disabled babies and children (for example with autism)
What is ASL????
ASL is American Sign Language.
ReplyDeleteHi, Ruth Ellen.
ReplyDeleteI posted on my own church's blog about the issue of accessibility, and Kirk (who's Deaf, and worshiped with us until he moved to DC) replied at length. My favorite takeaway from his thoughtful comments was (I'm italicizing because apparently blockquote is an unacceptable use of HTML):
1) readiness with funding have some money ready for requests when/if they do come in. Have enough to ensure that you'll have enough time to find and secure ongoing funding if said Deaf visitor decides to make a regular go of it. Try not to dip into that fund for other needs unless it's absolutely dire need. The day you spend it on something is is probably gonna be the day someone Deaf calls...heh.
2) advertising on the website that ASL interpreting is available on request and a note "please let us know x days in advance if you would like to join us and would benefit from ASL interpreting."
(where x is whatever you've worked out with an interpreter who's willing to come if called. Be aware an agency tends to want 2 weeks notice minimum but if its someone willing to freelance like Liz [the interpreter we had when Kirk was with us] or someone else she knows in the interpreting community, they can be more flexible.
---
This assumes, of course, that this kind of accessibility is something your community is committed to providing, but I really appreciated it because it broke it down into manageable and reasonable pieces, whereas it had previously felt to me like a much more daunting and irresolveable issue.
Thanks for raising this issue and discussing it with me. (Er, that sounds like our discussion is a finite and completed event -- you know I _always_ love discussing church etc. with you :) and one of the major points of this particular conversation is that it is inherently a continuing conversation which is never "finished" -- we are constantly working to bring about God's Kin[g]dom on Earth, and that is work that never ends.)
Love,
Elizabeth
This is a great conversation. I'll add a few, and please, all of you, bring these concerns to the next Seers meeting. Thanks, Ruth Ellen, for raising this up.
ReplyDeleteWays we are accessible:
1. As already stated, the front of our building is great. We have no stairs at all, which is great for folks. We have moveable chairs, which means we can contruct a viewing space for a variety of situations.
2. We are helpful. This is actually an accessibility issue. A lot of the time, you just need to find out what folks need in order to accomodate them. I think a lot of the problems churches run into could be avoided with a simple conversation. Example: it probably looks odd that we have amplified sound in a room as small as we have. But we know that it helps at least two of our members on a weekly basis to have that amp in the back.
3. We do our best to use print large enough to read. I went to a couple of services last week at which I had a little trouble reading, and I'm up to the past-forty-barely-diminished-eyesight stage. I use the lowest level glasses you can buy, and most of the time I don't use them. So I'm sure there were people who could not see the bulletin. I do my best to make the print big, and even notch the font up one level for the Psalm and other spoken responses.
Ways we're not:
1. The bathroom. It is definitely not wheelchair friendly, and that is not good. It can also be hard to get into the bathroom, since there is only one. Some are not able to wait as long as others, so this is an issue.
2. No braille bulletins, no sign language interpretation.
3. We do have the grape juice option, but we do not have gluten-free bread or wafers. Something to think about.
These are all good to think about. We are going to outgrow this space, so we need to be thinking ahead to the next one.