While the 2012 updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act expanded accessibility and accommodation with regards to commercial and municipal spaces, as well as programming offered in these entities, houses of worship continue to be largely exempt from adhering to the same guidelines. That does not mean, however, that churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., are not making efforts to bring individuals with disabilities closer to their particular faith.
Right as 2011 came to a close, a religious think tank known as the Alban Institute published Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability and Inclusion. Written by Mark Pinsky, a longtime religion writer for the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel, among others, the stories in Amazing Gifts approach inclusion of people with disabilities from an experiential standpoint and how it enriched the congregation, whether or not structural accommodation were part of the transition.
As such, Amazing Gifts was well received by both the faith-based community and advocates for people with disabilities. On the book’s Goodreads page, a poster called Kara, who identifies herself as an individual with multiple disabilities, says she can “resonate with the people in the book who just want to be accepted for who they are as a whole person.” On the Equual Access blog, which “promotes equality and access for Unitarian Universalists with Disabilities,” host Reverend Naomi King suggested the following approach for faith-based communities in her February 16 review:
Small groups could easily pursue one section at a time over the course of a year, sharing what they learn and imagine with their faith communities, and exploring building faithful ministries that include everyone. All the stories will leave readers wanting to know more, a yearning we can turn toward our own work of acceptance and inclusion.
Last Thursdsay, Pinsky’s syndicated column “Learning from (dis)ability” was published in The Washington Post, providing some insights into the author’s experience in writing Amazing Gifts; beginning with his lack of familiarity with the subject. But as we noted about the organizers of the Sprout Film Festival, the Alban Institute understood that getting the perspective of people who lack experience with disability is a key component of achieving inclusion. What was more important was Pinsky’s ability to relate stories that “grip hearts and minds, showing struggles and solutions,” as he writes.
What’s admirable about Pinsky’s column is the candidness in assessing the positives and negatives of the individuals and institutions he has encountered while writing Amazing Gifts. What’s heartening is the lesson that there were many paths toward achieving inclusion of individuals with disabilities in houses or worship; some, Pinsky writes, “in retrospect should have been obvious.” He then goes on to share some of these simpler practices:
Those with disabilities can be invited to write first-person articles for congregational bulletins. Members with Down syndrome who wish to participate can be service greeters. Qualified volunteers can offer monthly respite support for caregivers of those with more severe disabilities, and anyone with a driver’s license can provide occasional rides to services and activities.
Excerpts from Amazing Gifts can be found on both The Huffington Post and at the American Association of People with Disabilities website. The book can be purchased through Amazon, among other online outlets.
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Image by St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral-Memphis (Mary Constance), used under its Creative Commons license.