Accessibility Within The Church
Welcoming Everyone: Accessibility Within the Church
Church is supposed to be the main gathering place for believers, the place where everyone is welcome to join and participate. However, most churches don’t accommodate for the disabled, who still find it hard to attend and participate the way able-bodied people do, leaving not only themselves, but their families without a place to worship and seek out good community. A church that makes accommodations for people with disabilities will show every minority how they are welcome.
Welcoming Those with Special Needs
For families with members who have special needs, it can be hard for them to be able to sit and enjoy a full service. Many children’s ministries are unequipped for providing the kind of attention special needs children require. Special needs adults and youth may find it hard to attend a normal service where they’re required to sit still and silent. For more contemporary churches, the fancy lights and amplified music that add “polish” to a service, can cause a complete overload to those who are easily overstimulated.
For families who have young children with special needs, church can be a struggle so difficult that many stop attending church altogether. As one mother wrote, “Many of us [parents with special needs children] are told that our children are welcome in Sunday School as long as we stay with them. What we hear is that you see our children as our responsibility, not as members of this Church family.”1 Parents who aren’t required to stay with their special needs children are often called out of the sanctuary to resolve an issue their child had that the nursery or children’s church volunteers weren’t equipped to deal with. Other churches offer special needs ministries that are separate from the main children’s areas of their church. While it is a huge step to have ministries like these, not every area of the church is able to provide something entirely separate from the rest of the congregation. When these special needs children enter middle school, will they have a place within the youth group? Will they be able to stay in the special needs ministry or will they outgrow it? Will they be forced to attend bible study with their parent or would it be easier for their family to stop attending church altogether?
When asked about what they’d learned during their experience with disabilities within the church, one person remarked how it’s the intentionality of church leadership that matters most.2 While necessary steps can vary depending on the type of disability and even within the same diagnosis, it’s important for churches to be flexible and willing to set up something for the disabled children within their congregation. For the families of these special individuals, knowing that their child isn’t only cared for, but loved enough to have someone go through trial and error in order to welcome them with open arms shows the love of Christ.
Welcoming the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
One minority that is often overlooked within the church is the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community. While disabled people may have physical or mental disabilities that impact the way they are able to participate in or enjoy a church service, they are, overall, able to understand the language that the sermon and worship are given in. This isn’t true for the DHH. Although there have been technological advances that allow for real-time captioning and sound amplifying machines the DHH can purchase, these devices often come with high prices, technical bugs, and frustrations. The main problem with captioning and amplifying spoken English is that DHH individuals’ main language is American Sign Language (ASL), a language with a completely different grammar structure and flow than the English used by hearing people. On the whole, only two percent of the Deaf community has access to the gospel in their language. To better bridge this gap, the DHH need ASL interpreters, people who can take the spoken English and translate it into signed ASL in real time. While this would be a huge step forward for the Church, it is by no means where the efforts to reach the DHH should stop.
The Deaf/Hard of Hearing community is one full of pride, so much so that in the community there is a difference between deaf (lower case d) and Deaf (uppercase D).3 While deaf simply signifies someone with a hearing impairment, Deaf signifies an individual with an identity in Deaf culture and ASL. Deaf people, despite what many hearing people believe, have little to no interest in being able to hear and are proud of the world they get to be a part of. A part of this pride in this Deaf World of theirs comes with a resistance to hearing people hijacking the language that is primarily theirs. While Deaf people encourage the hearing to learn ASL, they have strong feelings about hearing people teaching ASL. To best provide a way for the DHH to truly be a part of the Church, there needs to be more Deaf churches planted worldwide.
One site shared that there are over four million Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in America, while there are less than two hundred Deaf churches.4 As Paul Chitwood put it, “knowing that many Deaf around the world die lost every day, we know there is not a moment to spare.”5 The need for resources and Deaf churches is a big one, but there are many first steps churches can take to provide for this community. Paying for interpreters in weekly services, providing spaces for Deaf Bible studies and events, and offering ASL classes within the church are all ways the church can show the DHH community that not only they are welcomed, but that their identity is encouraged and their community has a place within the walls of the church. Another way individual members of the church can reach the DHH is by attending local Deaf chats (monthly coffee meet ups within the Deaf community) and finding Deaf people to learn sign language from. Once a Deaf community has formed within the church, it’s advised that church leadership begins looking for Deaf individuals with a heart for leadership and begin to look at how to plant a Deaf church, even if within the walls of the hearing church.
Welcoming in the Small Ways
While the task of providing accommodation for those with disabilities can seem like a daunting task, there are many smaller steps that can help a church get started. As Joey Grizzle, a Church of God pastor, once said, “Women in spiritual positions lets minorities know they’re welcome.” He went on to explain how women speaking in church, leading worship, and being on leadership teams sends out a message to minorities that the church is a place that they can call home. By giving women a voice, the church shows minorities that they too have something to add to the body of Christ and illustrate how God has no favoritism (Romans 2:11). Something small like this sends a larger message, that their church is a place where people who are different than the majority of the congregation are welcomed with open arms.
One way the church can provide for those with disabilities or restrictions is being intentional to recognize the gaps not being filled in the church. For example, one church member with a severe gluten allergy stated that, they knew that “there are gluten free [communion] wafers, but [their church doesn’t] use them” and that it was something they came to expect, that they wouldn’t be able to eat at a church function.6 Unfortunately, many church goers with Celiac’s disease or a gluten allergy aren’t able to partake in communion and if they do, they’re bound to experience pain later in the day. In the same vein, are there visible places where the disabled can serve? Could a wheelchair user be a greeter or serve on the worship team? Is the main stage wheelchair accessible? Is the baptismal pool? While the disabled are in the minority, showing intentionality with how we think about accessibility even in these seemingly small ways can have a major impact not only on the individuals currently within the church, but the ones who have yet to enter the sanctuary. Inside the sanctuary, however, there exists one more boundary that affects those with disabilities.
Ignorance is just as prevalent within the four walls of the church as it is out in the world. While many people believe they have a decent understanding of disabilities, there is a large amount of misunderstanding and lack of forethought within every congregation. When meeting someone with disabilities, these misunderstandings begin to come up in questions asked by the congregation. “How can Deaf people worship since they can’t hear the music?” “Are people with Down Syndrome able to understand the gospel?” “Aren't you expected to take communion even if you have Celiac’s disease?” While these comments may come from good intentions, there are deeper theological issues that come alongside them. As Chris Hulshof pointed out, “a pastor may assert that the image of God is tied to the relational qualities that human beings possess without considering what that means for a person with severe autism who lacks any deep and meaningful relationships in his or her life.”7 When these misunderstandings and egregious lack of foresight come from a pastor who has disabled or special needs members of his congregation, it can not only be off-putting to those individuals but their friends and family alongside them.
What It’s Ultimately About
As previously mentioned, there is nothing inherently wrong with providing space outside of the main parts of the church for those with disabilities. However, this shouldn’t be the entirety of where the disabled are able to join. Special needs children shouldn’t be limited to a sensory room and the DHH shouldn’t be limited to a single Deaf Bible study and a Sunday interpreted service. No one deserves to be unprovided for or have their church experience restricted, nor should the church overlook the needs of the disabled. As stated within the Great Commission, “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
God wants His children to be united in His name. As Paul prayed, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6, emphasis added). With this earnest appeal, it’s impossible to ignore the importance of inclusion and accessibility within the church. Jesus didn’t tell us to each be in a church with those that are easy to understand or to separate ourselves into different churches according to our differences, He told us to go to all the nations and show mercy to everyone (Luke 10: 29-37). As the early church led in their example to us, we are to be “day by day, attending [church] together and breaking bread in [our] homes” (Acts 2:46). When it comes to inclusion, “it’s about relationships. More to the point, friendships. It’s about family and belonging. If [my child with special needs] is not able to make it to church for an event, he wants to know that he will be missed. That he belongs... Belonging is what it means to be the gospel of Jesus Christ to one another”8
Conclusion
While church is called to hold open arms for all people, most churches lack in this area, overlooking the minorities, disabled, and special needs in their community. If, however, members of each congregation looked for gaps that their church leadership were unable to meet and take steps to fill them, the church would find their aisles overflowing. By showing intentionality, being willing to admit areas of ignorance, and taking steps to learn, churches can show every minority that their sanctuary is a welcoming place where they can come as they are, being as fully accepted and loved by their neighbor as the Father loves them.
Bibliography
Earls, Aaron. “Special needs ministry remains an untapped opportunity for many churches.” Lifeway Newsroom, (May 30th, 2024): https://news.lifeway.com/2024/05/30/special-needs-ministry-remains-an-untapped-opportunity-for-many-churches/
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Illinois: Crossway., 2016.
Hubach, Stephanie O. Same Lake, Different Boat. New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company, 2020.
Hulshof, Chris. “3 Barriers Keeping the Disabled from Church.” Lifeway Research, (August 31st, 2018): https://research.lifeway.com/2018/08/31/3-barriers-keeping-the-disabled-from-church/
Lovell, Ann. “IMB celebrates work of Deaf Pathway Global.” International Missions Board, (July 1st, 2021): https://www.imb.org/2021/07/01/imb-celebrates-work-deaf-pathway-global/
Maxwell, Natalie. “When Disabilities Aren’t Welcome at Church.” Focus on the Family. September 3rd, 2020: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/pro-life/special-needs/when-disabilities-arent-welcome-at-church/
Scheetz, Nancy A. Deaf Education in the 21st Century. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2012.
“Facts” Deaf Church Planting. https://deafchurchplanting.com/facts/#:~:text=The%20Deaf%20Church%20is%20where,disciples%20and%20Deaf%20leaders%20emerge
