The Director of Ministry with People with Disabilities at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta recently invited me to view a webinar produced by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.
The webinar was titled: Access to Liturgical Spaces: Welcoming ALL To This Place. The webinar lasts an hour and you can access the presentation here.
I was very impressed with the presenters, especially Robert Habiger, who is an architect. Habiger specializes in design of worship spaces. Mr. Habiger introduced participants in the webinar to a design concept called equivalent experience. Habiger says in an article about the concept from the EnvisionChurch.org web site that equivalent experience involves five key principles. The Principles are:
» Be intentional in discussing prejudices.
» Start with a focus on full, conscious and active participation.
» Explore situations disabled people face when in a worship environment.
» Donâ??t succumb to the belief that it is too difficult to accomplish.
» Think inclusivity, not separation.
If you would like to read more about the concept of equivalent experience in liturgical design you can go here and here.
The webinar is informative and the images used to convey Habiger’s concepts are powerful because they offer a fundamental reorientation to some of the common ways we conceive of congregational accessibility.
I would love to here from people who have been actively engaged in planning and implementation of design and renovation of your sacred spaces. Are Habiger’s concepts provocative? Are the feasible in your experience?
I am grateful for my colleague at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta for his willingness to share this resource with me and I am also grateful to the National Catholic Partnership on Disability for using this tool to help parishes be in this important conversation.
