Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Disability Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by The Arc of the United States and other organizations, the conference is a gathering of self-advocates, disability rights advocates, parents, and other experts to learn about the legislative and legal issues currently facing the disability community.
I went for multiple reasons. One, I’m a self-advocate for my own ADHD, anxiety, and depression issues and what that means for me and my relationship within the larger community. Secondly, I am a parent of an autistic child and another child with a speech delay. Finally, I am a pastor concerned about the lack of full inclusion for individuals with disabilities, especially invisible disabilities, in the local church. I wanted to learn and reflect on how the church can better come alongside the disability community in offering support. There was much to learn, even for someone who felt like a fish out of water.
As I listened to the presentations and talked with others within the community, I left with a belief that the church is having separate conversations from the disability community. The church is focused on access, while the disability community talks about inclusion.
The church’s focus on access conversations is necessary for an institution that has struggled to embrace the disability community. Access conversations include discussions on ramps, signage, closed captioning on screens, sensory rooms, wider aisles, and specific ministry opportunities with the disability community. There is also an element of education within these access conversations that focus on what constitutes a disability, what it means to live with them, and how the church can adapt to care for this community.
These are important and necessary conversations that are needed. The problem with access conversations is that they are limited to providing a way for a person to enter the church. We engage these conversations in terms of hospitality and outreach, but not full inclusion or with a desire to be with a community beyond the sanctuary. Access conversations tend to gloss over the deeper questions about humanity, grace, and connection that are necessary to have with the disability community.
What good is an accessible ramp if you are dealing with issues of the lack of respect and dignity that people with disabilities encounter? What good is a sensory room in a church if an individual with a disability is worried about home and community-based services that enable a person to live within a community and not in an institution?
Churches and church leaders need to focus, as well, on inclusion-based conversations that help them to connect with the disability community. The church is not focused on the wrong thing so much as it is not looking at the bigger picture of disability inclusion.
There are questions for the church to wrestle with in its care with the disability community that will only come through engagement and conversations with a person about their disability. The church must engage in conversations about valuing the imago Dei within the person with a disability, and how that comes with a focus on valuing the agency and independence within a person to make choices and to live in ways that honor God. It needs to listen to the stories of the struggles to gain equal access that the community faces. The church also needs to learn about the ways the church has struggled with its words and actions to fully welcome someone with a disability. For the church to be truly inclusive, it needs to gain a deeper appreciation of the disability community’s journey, the current issues facing the community, and what concerns the community is dealing with today.
We cannot be a loving and faithful witness of Christ to the disability community if we are detached from the real concerns within the community about living with the same opportunities as anyone else.
The church has a long way to go to becoming a place that is truly inclusive of people with disabilities. It will require the church to move away from access-only conversations and do the hard work of listening with a desire to gain a deeper understanding of the real concerns that people with disabilities and their communities are currently living with.
Only when that listening begins and the work that comes from the lessons learned is initiated will the church be on the road toward true inclusion.
Shannon Blosser 