Everybody belongs. Everybody serves.
Disability
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Here you'll find resources posted by individuals, churches, and ministries. Add comments, give a 'thumbs up', or post your own. Can't find something? Use the chat box to let us know.
This article identifies several disempowering attitudes that create a lack of trust in the church of people who are blind or have low vision.
For Disability Week this year (October 13 through 20), we are highlighting the value and importance of disability advocates.
This message by Dan Vander Plaats, Director of Advancement at Elim Christian Services, winsomely challenges his audience to examine their own attitudes toward people who have disabilities.
Disability Week encourages congregations to grow in becoming places of belonging for everyone and places to engage their gifts in ministry — with a particular focus on people with disabilities.
What is the most disabling condition in any community or church community? Vinnie Adam's answer will surprise and challenge you.
These brief videos reflect on crucial aspects of community and belonging. Though produced for a general audience, they apply well within a church context too.
These slides are suitable for projection during worship and highlight Disability Awareness.
These one to three minute video interviews of people living with disabilities will work well for showing in a worship service, Sunday School class, or other settings.
These two brief videos featuring people with disabilities talking about their jobs and a journal article make the same point in very different ways: don't be afraid to hiring people who have disabilities.
The Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition has helpful resources for congregations to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
According to a new study, hiring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is good for business. Yet 85% of those are unemployed. HuffPost Live looks at a new initiative that aims to change this.
What barriers of architecture, communication, and attitude are keeping people with various disabilities from coming or getting involved in your church? This tool from Disabilty Concerns will help you identify these barriers and give ideas for overcoming them.
Are you planning a Disability Worship Service? Wondering what to do? Perhaps setting up a panel discussion as part of the message will work for you and your church!
A responsive prayer
To offer at a Disability Awareness Sunday
These are the Disability Emphasis Week devotionals (volume 2) by special education teacher Barbara Newman.
These are the Disability Emphasis Week devotionals (volume 1) by special education teacher Barbara Newman.
This hymn was commissioned for a national conference on disabilities hosted by Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Presbyterians for Disability Concerns has posted it on their website. This hymn was included in the United Church of Canada’s hymnal supplement, More Voices.
The Lord calls us as his covenant people to care for each other. We who belong to Christ must answer his call to serve each other in his name...
If it is true that people are excluded from church for social- skill reasons, what changes might be instituted within the social environment that would benefit not only persons with disabilities but the larger population as well? What “social ramp” would cause more people to have access and find social acceptance?
Kathie Snow's website has a host of great resources. Don't miss the newsletter sign-up, her articles on people-first language, and that list at the bottom of her homepage.
According this 2010 report, only 50 percent of people with disabilities attend church at least once a month, compared to 57 percent of people without disabilities.
Caring begins with something as simple as a friendly greeting. Here are some tips for proper etiquette with a person with a disability.
Together, we create disability. Once we recognize and admit to our participation in other people’s disability, we can begin to remove the barriers to participation that we have erected.