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Article Provided by the Interfaith
Disabilities Network, a program of the Atlanta Alliance on
Developmental Disabilities
1. Be willing to admit that this can be a scary conversation.
This fear is natural if you don’t happen to know anyone with a
disability. Create space for an initial conversation where fear is
allowed and real education about the gifts and the needs of people
with disabilities and their families can begin.
2. Always consult people who have disabilities prior to doing any
accessibility modification. Many congregations have spent money,
making modifications that were not a good use of the community’s
resources. When people with disabilities and their families are
consulted, they will help guide the community to make important
decisions about the allocation of limited resources.
3. Get the buy-in of your religious leader prior to beginning work
on accessibility and hospitality to people with disabilities. Ask
him/her to provide leadership around the issues in the community. One
way this can happen is by asking them to give a sermon or teach a
class on the stories of your particular faith tradition that provide a
basis for ministry with people with disabilities and their families.
4. Your denomination may have resources that are helpful as you
begin to think about accessibility and full-inclusion of people with
disabilities.
5. Consider networking with neighboring faith communities in your
area about how their faith communities have overcome the barriers to
the full-inclusion of people with disabilities. You do not have to
re-create the wheel to do this work effectively.
6. Everyone learns from being a part of a supportive community that
includes people who live with disabilities. Always endeavor to
include everyone in worship, study, service, and leadership in your
faith community. If we bring people with disabilities into our
congregations and segregate them in “special” programs, everyone loses
the benefits of an inclusive community.
7. Learn to recognize the gifts of all of the members of your
congregation. Society is proficient at pointing out all of the
things that are wrong with us. What might it be like if our faith
communities become places where all of our gifts are welcomed and used
to strengthen our congregations?
8. Ask, Listen, and Support. Ask: How do you want to
participate here? Listen: Listen fully to the response. Support:
Support the person with a disability in being a part of the faith
community in ways that are meaningful to her/him.
9. Celebrate the ways your community is already welcoming people
with disabilities.
10. Plan for what remains to be done. The work of building a
community that includes us all is work that continues on even after
the items on an assessment of accessibility have been completed.
Communities that do this work are stronger communities because they
are capable of receiving and utilizing the gifts of all of their
members.
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There is an
energy in us which makes things happen when the paths of other persons touch
ours.
from the Monks of Weston Priory
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