Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast Episode #1:
In this first podcast of the Interfaith Disability Connection Director Mark Crenshaw interviews Ginny Thornburgh, Director of the Interfaith Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, DC, Thornburgh will serve as an event facilitator at the 2nd annual IDC Summit this Sunday, August 9, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. Click the play button on the player below to listen to the podcast.
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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.
Darcee over at Simply Catholic has written an a step by step account about the social story that she wrote for her daughter, who lives with autism to help her prepare for her First Communion.
I think the story provides a wonderful model for educating people who have developmental disabilities about the rituals and movements of our congregations.
Please read the post and offer your comments. Have any of you used social stories to help facilitate your family member’s inclusion in your congregation or other social setting?
Zoila Martinez, is a member of St. Brigid Catholic Church in Johns Creek. I witnessed a wonderful presentation given by Mrs. Martinez about the process of helping her daughter prepare for her First Communion using a process very much like the one the writer of Simply Catholic describes.
Mrs. Martinez has accepted my invitation to be a part of a workshop on Inclusion of people with disabilities in study and service at the 2009 Interfaith Disability Connection Summit. You will be hearing more about the summit in the weeks to come.
