Planning For Disabled People

With at least 35 million people with disabilities in America, a worship committee needs to plan to include these people in worship. This process of including people with disabilities begins by determining whether the church building, including the worship space, is fully accessible. This process also involves attitudinal changes, considerations about worship language and worship leaders, and the commitment of the church to be inclusive. The following articles outlines some steps to take in this process. Although I have spent the last ten years in a wheelchair, I have traveled extensively. I have discovered that there are two kinds of institutions that are least likely to be accessible to me and others like me who are disabled. These institutions are medical and religious buildings. Medical institutions assume that people are either healthy or sick and thus dependent. Clinics and office buildings for doctors are thus constructed with very little regard for people who cannot negotiate …