Getting Organized – Our Doors Are Open – Nos portes sont ouvertes

To start making your faith community more accessible follow these three steps:

Form an Inclusion Committee
Identify barriers
Make a plan

You can learn more about each step in the sections below.

Step 1: Form an Inclusion Committee

A good way to make inclusion and accessibility a priority in your community is to form an Inclusion Committee (also called a “disability awareness committee” or an “accessibility committee”); this is a group of people in your faith community that looks after the needs of people with diverse abilities. Members of inclusion committees are the community’s champions for accessibility for people with disabilities.

You can begin by recruiting people with disabilities for leadership roles within your community. Having people with lived experience of disability in leadership positions is critical for creating and supporting a more inclusive infrastructure. They will be able to give advice on accessibility and inclusion matters within your community based on their personal/professional knowledge, expertise, and experience.

Tips for the Inclusion Committee meetings

Meet regularly, at least three times per year.
Discuss the needs of people with disabilities.
Plan ways to change the space and their practices in order to improve access.
Find (and take steps to repair) areas that have challenges for people with disabilities.
A representative from the Inclusion Committee should be part of the place of worship’s management or operations team to ensure that accessibility is given prominence on management agendas.

Help your community sustain its diverse membership and maintain enthusiasm for diversity goals by bringing up the topic of inclusion when planning all activities and continuing to take steps that continually improve and integrate inclusive thinking.

Step 2: Identify Barriers

Although accessibility may seem like a practical issue, it is also a theological one. When a faith community has barriers to accessing its facilities, rituals, and practices, the community is making a statement about its beliefs and about who should be included. Identifying and removing barriers is a key step in the inclusion process.

Brief Accessibility Checklist

Your inclusion committee will be especially helpful for identifying barriers in your faith community. Barriers were described in the Getting Started section above. You can use our checklist to begin checking the accessibility of your services and facilities in the resources section.

Step 3: Make a Plan

Are you missing a few things from the Brief Accessibility Checklist? Perhaps all you need is a simple tweak. You may be worried that adding some of the features on the checklist may be too costly. Don’t worry! There are always creative ways to tackle problems that are innovative and affordable. Read the rest of the guide for ideas. Also, check out our website (/category/welcoming-communities) for what other communities are already doing. Do you have an accessibility solution that you are really proud of? Share your idea with us on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OurDoorsAreOpen/).

Some Ideas for Making Your Plan