Accessibility / Equal Access
Impairments, Disabilities, Blind, Visual, Deaf, Hearing, Learning, Cognitive, Mobility, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Psychiatric, Invisible
We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We believe that each and every person is important. We affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. We believe that all people should be treated fairly. We affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. We believe that our churches are places where all people are accepted, and where we keep on learning together.
—Reading 594, Singing the Living Tradition
Our accessibility pages are a resource for us all on our Journey Toward Wholeness. It is journey for all of us, including those of us who are working on this site. We wish to thank the Accessibilities Committee for their foundational accessibility publications, which have been incorporated into the current material, and the many people with disabilities who helped create this website. We welcome your suggestions.
Disability 101: Introduction The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 defines a disability as a "...physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity." Examples of major life activities include seeing, hearing, walking, thinking, breathing, speaking, and learning, among many others. There are visible disabilities in which a physical disability is obvious (someone is using a wheelchair, canes, or an oxygen tank, for example) or invisible (someone has a learning, behavior, or psychiatric disability, diabetes, heart disease, chemical sensitivities, or epilepsy, among many others). Nearly 50 million people (1 in 5 of the U.S. population) in the United States have a disability. As the baby boomer population ages, the numbers are expected to climb to 100 million or 40 percent of the population. People of all ages, races, sexual orientations, cultures, economic and social backgrounds, and religions may be born with or acquire a disability at any point in their life. Fewer than 15% of disabilities occur at birth; over 85% are acquired over a lifetime as a result of illness, accident, war, trauma, age, or genetics, just to name a few of the causes of disability. Many people with disabilities are able to use devices to reduce the limitations resulting from their disability; wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids, language boards, computers, medications and insulin, and oxygen tanks all increase the level of freedom and independence for people with mobility, speech, systemic, and breathing limitations. For many people with invisible or learning, behavioral, or psychiatric disabilities, social and environmental "devices" may increase freedom and independence such as assignment of a buddy, sound systems, proper lighting, social cueing, and use of non-toxic cleaning products. These are only a few examples. For everyone, though, whether having a disability or not, the environment in which we live, learn, play, sing, work, and meditate, reflect, and pray must feel "welcome" in order for everyone to grow and thrive.
We Bid You Welcome
We bid you welcome, who enter this hall as a homecoming, Who have found here room for your spirit. Who find in this people a family. Whoever you are, whatever you are, Wherever you are in your journey. We bid you welcome.
—Richard S. Gilbert (Singing The Living Tradition, Reading 442)
Our hymnal speaks these moving words. Yet how our congregations are able to bid people welcome depends on many things—in part, on how and when our individual churches were built. Almost all of our Unitarian Universalist churches were constructed before the Americans with Disabilities Act, before there was consciousness about making churches physically accessible to everybody—whether that person walked or wheeled in. In fact, our older churches were inaccessible by design: "Ralph Adams Cram, renowned ecclesiastical architect and critic of American church design, identified the elevation of sacred space as central to the practice of faith. According to Cram, places of worship...were to be spiritual oases, set apart from their pedestrian environment through substantial, soaring walls and monumental stairs approaching impressive entrances well above the street. "Unfortunately, our legacy is daunting stairs, heavy doors, and soaring walls. Much as our hearts may want to welcome everyone to enter our halls 'as a homecoming' the reality is that we are sometimes confronted with architectural designs that make hospitality a difficult undertaking, to say the least."
The quote above is from a 54-page online publication Accessible Faith: A Technical Guide for Accessibility in Houses of Worship. In the Environment section, we will be making frequent reference to this booklet, well worth downloading if you are planning or hoping to make physical changes in your congregational environment. There is a saying in the Disability Community "Nothing about us without us." For any accessibility planning, we encourage you to contact your local Independent Living Center. Independent Living Centers are non-residential, non-profit, consumer-controlled, community-based organizations providing services and advocacy by and for people with disabilities. They have expert staff, and can help you with your assessment and discussion of changes. Remember, everyone whether they live with a disability or not, is unique. Therefore, it is impossible to make universal decisions about what accommodations will be completely welcoming to everyone. As with all reciprocal relationships, it is always important and appropriate to ask the people being welcomed what will work for them. The accessibility audits in this section were created with many thanks to the United Methodist Church, who permitted us to freely use material from their comprehensive accessibility manual, Accessibility Audit for Churches, 2nd edition, edited by the Rev. Kathy N. Reeves.
Beyond the Building—Congregational Life
Our congregations are rich with activities that bring us together into community. Our newsletters tell us about choir rehearsals, potluck dinners, church picnics board of trustees meetings, Volunteer Appreciation Day, Women's Alliance luncheons, Our Whole Lives classes, Caring Circle gatherings, Coming of Age overnights...Unitarian Universalists are on a journey toward a faith community that welcomes and affirms all people, a faith community that invites people with disabilities to participate fully—in all of the activities we post in our church calendars. We can learn a lot by finding out how other congregations are doing this work, and we can discover resources that will help on the journey toward creating a truly accessible faith community. Begin with the Accessibilities Committee's video "A Call to Action." Read other congregations' inclusive mission statements and bylaws, and other inclusive documents. Share your documents and experiences with us. Send materials about ways to create inclusive congregational life.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
