Disability Awareness Sunday

As United Methodists, “We recognize that God made all creation and saw that it was good.  As a diverse people of God who bring special gifts and evidence of God’s grace to the unity of the Church and to society, we are called to be faithful to the example of Jesus’ ministry to [and with] all persons. Inclusiveness means openness, acceptance, and support that enables all persons to participate in the life of the Church, the community, and the world.” ¶140 (1)  We believe that the church is not complete until everyone, with and without disabilities, is able to attend, belong, and participate fully.

The Book of Discipline (¶265) (1)  states “Disability Awareness Sunday (2) shall be observed annually on a date to be determined by the annual conference. Disability Awareness Sunday calls the Church to celebrate the gifts and graces of persons with disabilities and calls the Church and society to full inclusion of persons with disabilities in the community.”

About one out of four persons lives with a disability. (3) Any of us may acquire a disability at any time, especially as we get older. People with disabilities are less likely than people without disabilities to attend church regularly because of inaccessible buildings, lack of transportation, or being made to feel unwelcome. (4) Disability Awareness Sunday helps change attitudes, priorities, and practices.

If your annual conference has not set a date, pick any date that works for your congregation. Popular times are mid-October, early November, or early February before Lent begins. You might target an observance such as Autism Acceptance Month (April), Mental Health Awareness Month (May) or Disability Employment Awareness Month (October) and utilize the many on-line resources available. Plan to celebrate annually with a different emphasis and theme each year.

Your lay leaders and administrative chairpersons should articulate a vision and lead the congregation in celebrating the vision for inclusivity and awareness. Buy-in from a pastor is helpful, but a few committed people are all it takes to get something started. Members with disabilities and their families must be represented on the planning team. If your congregation has a Disability Ministries or Accessibility team, they should be involved.

Consider recruiting a community member who has a disability related to your theme and paying them as a consultant to help lead your event and to educate your congregation on current issues around disability justice. You might enlist a panel of youth and adults from different experiences with disabilities as paid presenters. Have children and adults with disabilities participate in all aspects of the service, serving as speakers, musicians, ushers, and liturgists. For instance, a Deaf person could sign the scripture, with the ASL interpreter providing voice interpretation to the congregation.

Take into account what the congregation and community already understand and what they need to learn. Set a goal. What long-term changes are you hoping for?

Complete an accessibility audit (5) to make sure your building and program will support the event.  Involve the trustees and include persons with disabilities in this process.  Find ways to improve your accessibility, e.g., rent a ramp to the chancel, borrow assisted listening devices (6), and hire an interpreter. If needed, hold the service outdoors or in the fellowship hall or other accessible space. Print bulletins in a larger, bolder font and remind parishioners to avoid wearing fragrances. If communion is offered, use gluten-free bread for everyone.

Advertise through community calendars. Offer transportation to persons who no longer drive as well as persons in nearby group homes or nursing homes.

It’s fine to start small and important to start somewhere! Typical Disability Awareness Sunday celebrations offer worship centered around God’s love and acceptance of all of us. Read a children’s time story that features a child or parent with a disability and presents disability as one aspect of diversity. Teach everyone a song or prayer in sign language. (6) Take an offering for the Disability Ministries Committee (DMC) Advance #3021054 (7) to support accessibility projects, and/or help fund an accessibility project for your congregation or community.

Offer an adult forum on a specific topic, e.g., mental health, Alzheimer’s, or resources for people with low vision. During Sunday School have the children meet people with disabilities who might demonstrate the equipment and techniques they use and talk about living with a disability.

Host a potluck if local COVID guidelines allow this. Encourage foods that everyone can enjoy, including healthy low-carb, low-sodium, vegan, and gluten-free options. Have members bring a copy of their recipe so others can check for foods they may be allergic to. Arrange for a speaker from the disability community.

You might plan a Disability Awareness Week with additional events. These could include a movie viewing and discussion (Crip Camp (8) is a great choice), a disability open mic event, or art shows by artists with disabilities. You could organize a service project such as building a wheelchair ramp for a local family – a local ramp-building ministry would appreciate the help! (9) 

Start with your theme and select hymns that reflect the message you want to convey. Pick liturgy and songs that mention diversity, unity, and serving together. See this list of hymns (10) from United Methodist resources. Consider classical music written by composers with disabilities for the offertory or introit. Include information about these composers in your bulletin. Do not use hymns that equate deafness or blindness with sin, or that speak of persons with disabilities as objects of charity who need to be fixed or ministered to. Check DMC resources on Ableism (11) to make sure that your music and liturgy selections are not sending the wrong message.

The Disability Ministries Committee (DMC) Worship webpage (12) includes litanies, hymn and scripture suggestions, sermon starters, and more.

The United Methodist Committee on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Ministries has Deaf Awareness Week Activities, bulletin inserts, and many other resources available for your use. (13)

If your event focuses on mental health issues, find resources on the DMC’s Mental Health page. (14) Another helpful website is Mental Health Ministries. (15)

To find out whether your annual conference disability ministries committee has set a date and has resources, speakers, or grants available, visit the Disability Committees page (16) which is organized by state.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference has a page of resources for Disability Awareness Sunday, including a liturgy and bulletin inserts. (17)

Community Life UMC in Gulf Breeze, FL shared a summary and photos of their 8-14-2019 service with the Florida Conference. (18)

The West Ohio Conference’s Disability Awareness Sunday page (19) has recorded video clips of calls to worship, music, and sermons that you are free to incorporate into your own worship services.

Watch on-line services, such as those from St. John UMC in Anchorage, AK, 7-25-2021 or 8-9-2020 (20) to get more ideas.

No! In the past, a way to raise awareness was for people to be assigned a disability for a day. It is not recommended because sitting in a wheelchair, being blindfolded, or wearing ear plugs do not give one a realistic sense of what living with a disability is like. Instead, simulations tend to make participants feel sorry for people with disabilities, or to minimize what those of us with disabilities go through daily. We do not gain empathy towards any other marginalized groups by mimicking them!

People with disabilities learn many strategies to carry out everyday tasks despite physical and social barriers. Instead of simulation, try pairing participants with people who have disabilities and have them accomplish a task together. (21) For instance, complete an accessibility audit with someone who uses a wheelchair or view your church website with a person who is blind and uses a screen reader.

Create evaluations so those who attend give you feedback and suggestions for next year’s Disability Awareness Sunday. Share the results with the church administrative council. This evaluation process will help build the expectation that this is an ongoing and essential part of your church’s vision and mission. Work with the finance committee and administrative council to designate a line item in your worship budget for Disability Awareness Sunday.

Over time, annual events begin to take on a life of their own. Themes emerge from experiences of the congregation and observations of the disability ministries team. 

One year, a congregation selected the topic of autism after hearing members were blaming behavior of a child with autism on poor parenting. Coincidentally (or not!) this was scheduled prior to the pastor’s grandchild receiving an autism spectrum diagnosis. The child’s mother added her witness to the event. The church now has five participants who are on the spectrum and integrated into the life of the congregation!