What if your church could become a beacon of inclusivity, ensuring that everyone, regardless of ability, can participate fully? Join me, Tracie Corll, in this compelling episode of Indispensable People as we uncover the crucial steps required to break down barriers and make church life accessible for all. We'll explore practical solutions ranging from arranging transportation to understanding assistive device logistics, helping you create a more welcoming environment from the ground up.
Next, discover how simple yet impactful changes in church practices can cater to diverse needs. Imagine the difference a rotating schedule of sign language interpreters could make, or how including allergy-friendly food options at church events can ensure no one is left out. Learn about the importance of varied seating arrangements that accommodate sensory and physical needs, transforming your church spaces into inclusive sanctuaries where everyone feels comfortable and valued. Tune in to learn how to make your church a sanctuary for all, fostering an environment where everyone can grow in faith and contribute their unique gifts.
What if your church could become a beacon of inclusivity, ensuring that everyone, regardless of ability, can participate fully? Join me, Tracie Corll, in this compelling episode of Indispensable People as we uncover the crucial steps required to break down barriers and make church life accessible for all. We'll explore practical solutions ranging from arranging transportation to understanding assistive device logistics, helping you create a more welcoming environment from the ground up.
Next, discover how simple yet impactful changes in church practices can cater to diverse needs. Imagine the difference a rotating schedule of sign language interpreters could make, or how including allergy-friendly food options at church events can ensure no one is left out. Learn about the importance of varied seating arrangements that accommodate sensory and physical needs, transforming your church spaces into inclusive sanctuaries where everyone feels comfortable and valued. Tune in to learn how to make your church a sanctuary for all, fostering an environment where everyone can grow in faith and contribute their unique gifts.
Speaker 1:
Hi, my name is Tracy Corral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas. Hey, hey, and welcome to today's episode of Indispensable People. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 1:
I am ready to talk to you about accessibility, and this may seem like a topic that is easily covered, is easily understood, but let's get down to the understanding that the accessibility of a church goes way beyond the physical. But we're going to address physical today as we look at getting inside the church. Now listen, we know that the body of Christ is not the building. We know that the body of Christ is the group of people, of believers, who are following Jesus. However, most of those people meet regularly inside a building that, if you cannot get in, you can't necessarily participate on a regular basis. So I came across an article recently on brushfirecom and it is called 10 Ways to Make Church Events More Accessible, but the thing that it addressed first was what actually keeps people from attending church events. So they said things like lack of clear communication, inconvenient scheduling, lack of diversity, poor marketing, which are all topics that are valuable, but not for this podcast. The one that we want to focus on is the limited accessibility. Now here's the thing that limited accessibility can go back to the lack of clear communication, the lack of clear communication. If I can't read or see or some type of something like that, where my disability impacts how I can maintain information. That could be an issue to accessibility. Also, how it's getting out there, how it's being delivered, um, all of that kind of stuff. But mostly, can I get there and when I get there, how am I getting inside, how am I navigating the service or the event and what is being provided for assistance to help me? So when we talk about limited accessibility, this article says the event or setup can hinder participation for people with disability or those who require special accommodations.
Speaker 1:
Sometimes people feel uncomfortable reaching out to ask for accommodations, so it's better to work inclusivity into your planning process from the start, prioritizing making events accessible to everyone so people know that you are welcome to your event and that may seem overwhelming. However, there are some really basic, easy steps that you can take to making your space accessible. First and foremost, some individuals with disabilities live maybe on their own or within a group home situation, or maybe with their family, their spouse all different types of kind of situations their spouse all different types of kind of situations. Some of those individuals may live in situations in which they cannot provide their own transportation, so maybe they have to schedule transportation, maybe they have to ask a friend for transportation, but a great benefit, if a church has it available to them, is to provide transportation through a bus pickup, a van pickup. Obviously, there needs to be more consideration for it.
Speaker 1:
When you're considering someone who may have some physical accessibility needs, such as using a wheelchair or some other assistive device, you need to make sure that your transportation, first of all the person who is providing the transportation is knowledgeable and has the ability to help that individual in and out a smaller bus van type thing that has a lift on it, or ways that you can help that individual transfer into your vehicle. Now you can go about figuring all that out in a couple of different ways. First you can just pre-prepare right. You can be prepared beforehand, having all of that worked out as the requests come in for transportation. Then you can ask specific questions like what assistive devices do you use? Do you need assistance getting in and out of the vehicle? What type of assistance do you need? And is there a special vehicle that is preferred or best helps you to get in and out comfortably and moving? Now, not all of those things can you provide for that individual, but you need to know the answers to those questions because you can't.
Speaker 1:
If you pull up to that individual's home and then realize, oh, I can't provide the transportation this, my vehicle doesn't accommodate it, I don't know how to do transfers, all of that kind of stuff, then you put yourself in a more difficult position and it's kind of a letdown at that point because the expectation is, this is happening, I'm gonna get there, they're gonna provide this for me. But if that vehicle pulls up and you're like, oh, this isn't happening, and so I can tell you, my home church only has a 12 passenger van. There is no bus, there is no lift, there is none of that kind of stuff. So transporting someone who may use a mechanical wheelchair especially, could present an issue that there are not provisions that provide. Now. Are there other ways about it? Very possibly. Maybe on occasion that person uses a manual wheelchair and if they use a manual wheelchair, then they can be transferred in and out of that and then use the manual wheelchair at the church, which can be folded up and loaded into all kinds of vehicles.
Speaker 1:
So there are possibilities, but the questions must be asked. So the first, accessibility is can they get to your building? Do you need to provide transportation? Can you find someone within the church that will provide transportation, or can you arrange public transportation, because that is also an option? I live in a small church. It's not a town, it's considered a city that has a busing system and I know that there are ways to schedule transportation. So that is very much a possibility. So even if the church can't do it or doesn't provide those vehicles that are needed, there are options. So it's not just a one and done yes or no, black and white situation. It is you know, check your options, know your area and the things that could be provided. Now next, you want to consider your building right. You want to consider, if it's an outreach reach event, the location that you are having it. Let's be intentional about choosing how and where the event or service is going to take place so that the majority of people can be comfortable and included in that space.
Speaker 1:
So, for example, years ago we used to have a children's church in the upstairs of our church. It was great because there was one big main room and then there are several classrooms so you could do small group or Sunday school type things and then you can do the large group type things. However, there is a large staircase that you have to walk up to get to it, and one of the kids who attended the children's church actually was hit by a car and for several months it was a temporary situation, but it was several months that she had to use a wheelchair. Now you might think this is easy because she's young. You just pick her up, carry her up the steps, and that is possible. That was possible. However, it started the wheels turning and opened up the consideration of going. Listen, this is an issue, and if we have other kids with mobility concerns, we may not be able to include them into our service if we maintain our time upstairs, and so from there they were able to go. Okay, we're going to consider moving where our kids' church is, and at that point we were able to relocate in another portion of the building, which made it possible for her to be included, because there were no stairs, there was nothing in physically, there were no barriers physically blocking her from getting into that space.
Speaker 1:
Now the consideration is long-term. We don't want to waste the building space that we have, right, we want to be good stewards of the place that we have, and so we might want to start considering okay, if the upstairs can be used and there are physical accessibility concerns, what do we consider? Well, we have two big options. Now, these are costly options, so they're not always the easiest to consider, but one is some type of chairlift on that staircase. However, some individuals utilizing a wheelchair, especially a motorized wheelchair, that's going to be an issue, because then you have to think about how you're going to get the wheelchair to the top of the steps and then back down. So the ultimate solution would be some type of elevator. The ultimate solution would be some type of elevator. That's a costly expense, that is also. You know, you have to consider spacing and where would you put that and how would you configure all of that. So those are the options that we would consider long-term.
Speaker 1:
So we made a short-term plan by moving the space and making it accessible, and then a long-term plan of going okay. So these are our options going forward and you know there's all different ways of looking at that. You know fundraising and creating ways to make that possible because obviously, again, they're a little bit more costly solutions, but we were able to, like I said, to make that initial change and come up with a long-term plan if necessary. So what else can we consider? Okay, we're looking at how are they going to get there. What else can we consider? Okay, we're looking at how are they going to get there, making sure that the space that we're choosing to use is accessible. And then we want to consider the potentials of spacing and hallways and things in those spaces. Can the individuals, once they get into our building, can they navigate the space that's in it? It's great to decorate and put chairs in different spaces so people can sit and rest or chat if they would like to, but we need to make sure that our hallways are open and clear of any tripping hazards, anything like that, especially considering someone who may be blind or visually impaired navigating through a lot of things in the hallways make it very difficult or, you know, could be at times dangerous, with tripping hazards and things like that.
Speaker 1:
So, in addition to that, navigating the system and the places, do we have things well marked? Do we have good signage? Do we have signage that has pictures as well as words, as well as Braille for our individuals who maybe can't read for? And that's easy. Those are things that we come across on a daily basis. Right when you go to the restroom, you're going to typically see a sign that says men or women's. Oftentimes you have a stick figure type picture and then you have Braille below it. These are not out of the ordinary type deals.
Speaker 1:
I can tell you that on two occasions I didn't pay close enough attention to those signs. One time I was at Sam's Club and I did basically walk into the men's restroom and my daughter watched me do it and didn't question me. Thankfully, I caught myself before things went too far and thankfully did not catch a glimpse of anything. Another time I was on a road trip with my husband and it was just a long day and we were tired and I almost walked into the men's restroom and my husband said stop, stop, stop. And then eventually I picked it up because I was real tired and went into the proper thing, but anyway, so we can make the wrong turn even when all the signage is there. So we want to provide the best signage, because let me just tell you that experience would have been incredibly embarrassing had I actually run into or caught a glimpse of things that I did not want to see, and that's embarrassing. And so the better signage that we have for all different types of things, not just restrooms, will provide us with clarity and ease of movement and navigation, because you know what's what and you know where to go and you know how to get in and out of those spaces because of good signage.
Speaker 1:
Next is we want to consider having a sign language person or interpreter available. Now listen, if you don't necessarily have someone in your service and you don't want to put them up every single week to do that, that's fine. But if they maybe are either always on call or do a rotation of people so that they take different turns on different weeks, that is a great opportunity to provide for that, because then if it's always there, then someone doesn't have to ask for it, so that's a benefit to that. In addition to that, knowing as you get to meet people and you come across their needs and you understand, then you can not just have it at services but at other events within your church. So it's not just a Sunday morning thing, it could be available for all the events that the church does. And so maybe creating a team of sign language interpreters or interpreters may be beneficial to your church as you reach more people.
Speaker 1:
The other consideration, for example, our church does a family dinner once a month and we want to be considerate of dietary restrictions. We have, like if we just always no nuts of any kind, you know, because we know that's a high need or a high issue, or we always have something gluten free to offer a group of people. So just being aware that those situations can arise and when you have food provided, it's so great to have options so that no one feels like they can't ever have or be or participate. And I'll tell you one of the other things that we do is for VBS, and during that time we always know which kiddos have allergies. We have specific allergy bracelets because we don't ever want to make the mistake and have one of our kiddos sick. But we try to have options that match whatever's being offered. So if we're giving the kids cupcakes and we have gluten allergies, we're going to have gluten-free cupcakes. Gluten allergies, we're going to have gluten-free cupcakes. If we have dye allergies, we're going to provide natural colors or you know non-dye situations, such as like popsicles that match the other popsicles that kids are getting, and sometimes we'll just do it across the board, you know, like all dye-free, all gluten free, or something like that, and then everybody gets the same thing and nobody has any concerns and we don't have to be super concerned about someone getting the wrong thing if the provisions match all the dietary needs. Match all the dietary needs.
Speaker 1:
The other thing that you want to think about is considering seating. Now there are lots of different ways that you have seating provided, whether it's in your sanctuary or in other places around your church, in classrooms, in children's church, in other places around your church, in classrooms, in children's church, in the youth room, whatever. The easiest, most inclusive way to handle this is to provide different optional seating. This may be difficult within the sanctuary, but it is actually much more natural situation to have different types of seating in classrooms or in kids, church or youth because, um, they're your space, isn't all the same. You know you use those rooms for different types of things. So, considering chairs with um, with arms, so that an individual who may need some assistance being propped up has that chair it may be a soft seat, a hard seat, a rocking chair type deal or a chair that has some kind of movement All of those kinds of things being offered provide for sensory needs and for physical needs, so that those people can feel comfortable and workable in those situations.
Speaker 1:
Again, sanctuary may be difficult to do that in because you're getting all kinds of. You're not getting all kinds, you're actually having mostly all the same type of seating. But I can tell you from, for an example, in our sanctuary, what the seating initially was was that there were, we have, seats that are bolted to the floor and they're not pews, they're chairs. They do have arms and they're very cushiony and the seat portion just flips down as you sit, which makes getting in and out nice, especially if you're using an assistive device.
Speaker 1:
However, if you use a wheelchair and you need an accessible seat because you're planning to stay seated in your wheelchair, years ago you would have had to sit in the back of the church because that's where the wheelchair accessible spaces were. So in recent years we have gone and taken out extra seating here and there throughout the sanctuary to provide seats in the front row, in the middle and in the back, so that anybody can choose a space that works for them and where they feel comfortable. For example, if I'm going into the sanctuary, I've got to sit up close, because if I don't sit up close, I'm going to people watch, and if I people watch, then I'm not going to hear the sermon, and so everybody has a different preference on what works for them. Some, maybe you need to sit near the restroom in case you need to get out quickly. Or if you have some any anxiety issues or sensory issues, maybe you need to sit close to the door so that you can leave and not disrupt service. There are all kinds of things that need to be considered, and so giving options is great, because then you don't have to provide things in the moment or they're just naturally there, so people don't feel strange or put off because they're doing something different than everybody else. These are just regular things that are offered, regular things that are offered.
Speaker 1:
Again, we want to consider the sensory things within the spaces and so providing something like earplugs or noise-canceling headphones at the entrances of you know, your doors, your sanctuary, things like that, where sound can be at a high level, those are beneficial. I would also suggest that at your welcome center or your check-in desk or something like that, that you have some sensory bags and in those sensory bags you can have the earplugs and the noise-canceling headphones, but maybe also some fidgets and some communication devices that use visual schedules or show visuals on how to pray or, you know, the child or adult can indicate a need, something like that. Those can be readily available, just hung at your welcome or check-in desk and just be pulled as needed. It's great because they're again readily available. You're not trying to figure something out in the moment and the people who may be using them don't feel like it's a burden because you are already prepared and you already have everything ready for them. Those are great benefits to consider.
Speaker 1:
Some other options are captioning services. You can have some, whether it's a hearing system, whether it is on your videos or you know the video of the sermon in the mornings. All of those different kinds of things for Sundays, for big events, all of those kinds of things are incredibly helpful and an easy easy thing to do is also consider providing a quiet space in your building, whether it's just a room that just has some comfy chairs in it, maybe it has a TV that will show the Sunday service, or something like that, or whatever's going on in the main space, so that they don't miss it. That is going to be a huge benefit. Again, something that is prepared beforehand. It doesn't put the person asking for it, it doesn't put them in a position to feel bad about it or feel like a burden, and they will know that they are welcomed and that they are wanted as you have prepared for them.
Speaker 1:
And I know that space is a big issue for lots of churches. However, you can section off a space, you can put a room divider up, you can use a space for multiple purposes, and all of that can benefit each person who uses it, but also not restrict your building use for other things. So today we're talking about accessibility. We're focusing in on the physical accessibility of a building, but remember that the accessibility goes beyond the physical and we, as the church, need to be socially accessible and we also need to be spiritually accessible, but today we're focusing on getting them in our building, because that's where the body of Christ is operating. That's where they can know Jesus, grow in him and have opportunities to serve him with the gifts that he has given. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given them. Outro Music.
