Where are you on Sunday?
Faith Communities and people with disabilities
Have you ever sat at the entrance of a church with a flight of stairs in front of you? At the top of the stairs are two red doors open for people to enter and a banner that reads, “All are welcome.”
Really?
If we see a sign saying ‘accessible entrance’ but no guide or directions to that entrance, we wonder.
With even that much work put into creating accessibility, it’s easy to think. “ they mean well .“ but people with disabilities are still sitting outside the door of churches all over this country because they’re not accessible.
I am a priest in the Episcopal Church, and I am disabled. I use a motorized wheelchair heavy enough to feel like a small tank 😮. This chair is not one to lift and carry anywhere. Ramps are essential as are other accommodations for people who have other disabilities.
It is no excuse but I have heard more than once- “We don’t need a ramp. No one in this church uses a wheelchair.” Wow.
During Covid's lockdown, we became very creative with online faith gatherings. More accessible and more options to be involved.
Since then, I ask…
Where do you find yourself on Sundays?!
Art:
Love the cartoon by the way.
Sorry, got carried away….finishing….I fought with one of my churches to get a ramp. While they said they “didn’t need one” and couldn’t comply with local ordinances to build one, I knew the answer was “we don’t want to sully the beautiful frontage of our building” which wasn’t THAT beautiful. There would have been at least two people, one wheelchair bound and one who used a walker, who would have been regular attenders. Yet, and of this I was proud, another church carried wheelchairs up the 6 stairs and into to the church until they could afford an ugly black iron “easy assembled but not pretty” ramp which they put right on the front steps where everyone entered. Obviously the Episcopal Church isn’t always of one mind. End of soap box.