Summarizing Accessibility Survey & Congregational Conversation
EMBRACING DIFFERENCES BY IMPOROVING ACCESSIBILITY

(Fall 2006 & March 2007)

Accessibility Committee Information

On Sunday March 4, 2007 the Accessibility Concern’s Task Force for the church hosted after-service brunches with members to discuss the results of last fall’s accessibility survey, and to gather ideas from members about the accommodations we would be willing to make to improve access to our community.  Seventy-seven people sent in survey responses.  Fifty-three people attended the two congregational conversations.  Input is summarized here for other interested members who may not have attended the gatherings.

A proposed Congregational Project to promote better accessibility within our FUSD community is presented in draft form at the end of this workshop summary for your consideration.

  1. Of 77 respondents to the accessibility survey, 29 have some type of disability.
    • This is 38% of all respondents.
    • 21 of 29 (72% of people with disabilities) reported multiple disabilities, creating more complex challenges for accommodation.
    • 88% of all respondents are aware of members of the congregation with some sort of disability.
    • While more than 3/4 (79%) are comfortable having others know, some people are not. Several spoke to sharing the information with a few trusted friends. Others spoke to concerns about compromising professional standing.
    • 55% feel welcome and accepted at FUSD, and others usually do. Some noted that it has taken a few years to feel that way.
    • “FUSD currently has less stigma about mental illness than most other environments.”

  2. Types of Disabilities and Measures to Accommodate
    • Mood and emotional disorders (55% of survey respondents w/ disabilities)
      • It is risky to share about a mental illness and hurtful to have to live with the label "uninterested in the church" instead.
      • “I know I need to make friends and other connections, but I'm afraid of people and sometimes treat them badly.”
      • “I had difficulty dealing with children with mental illness when teaching Sunday school long ago. It has always has been a question for me whether we could handle this better.”
      • I'm uncertain about an individual's wish to disclose mental illness. That can be a very private situation and I'm not comfortable enough to know how to help anyway
      • Have workshops for members and for RE teachers about recognizing, understanding, and dealing with mood and emotional disorders
      • Establish a contact person within FUSD who can be a point person for helping with disabilities (either identified by the person or by people/programs trying to work with the person). Stress training, competence, confidentiality. Let people know how to access.
      • Establish support groups for families and individuals dealing with these issues
      • Sermons related to disability/mental illness (41%)
      • Educational event related to disability/mental illness (31%)
      • I would find it helpful to have members of the congregation who have mental illness or disabilities, or their families, share their experiences.
      • Although I would not identify myself in public as having a mental illness, if there were an opportunity in a service for "anyone who has or lives with someone or supports someone with a mental illness" to stand, I would welcome a chance to be included.
      • I would like to help FUSD decrease the stigma that often exists re: mental illness. This is a critical objective for me!
      • Help educate FUSD about what it is like to live with depression and anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and maybe meet others w/ same problem

    • Mobility limitations (48% of respondents w/ disabilities)
      • Some of these members can access the first floor of the church (some can’t manage the steep ramp); most cannot access the basement or 2nd floor facilities.
      • Keep the center aisle in the sanctuary wide enough that people in wheelchairs can navigate; reserve some spaces midway and up front (not in aisles, not just in back) where people in chairs can sit
      • Work with kids to understand the difficulties of people who are unsteady on their feet; help them avoid creating a threat by running around in coffee hour
      • Arrange furniture in the community room during coffee hour with small round tables, some tables and some open spaces around to accommodate who are unstable on their feet or in wheelchairs can participate
      • Train ushers and greeters on how to ask and assist
      • Train members to help people transfer to and from a car more easily
      • Reserve parking in back for people with difficulty getting into the building, even without stickers
      • Install more railings throughout the facility
      • Building access (52% of all survey respondents, repeated in meeting)
      • Elevator access to all floors (48% of survey respondents)
      • Ramp with easier incline
      • Reserved accessible parking spaces - esp. at night, risk of falling (31% survey)
      • Ride sharing, more accessible parking
      • Sanctuary chairs with low back support -- after 40 min I'm in pain, after 1-1/2 hours I can barely walk. Can't use a back pillow with no lip to hold it.

    • Hearing & vision loss (24%)
      • Coffee hour and socializing in large groups is impossible
      • Incidence rises with aging
      • Conditions can be particularly isolating and require customized accommodations
      • Change the welcoming statement at the beginning of each service to include specific mention of people with disabilities.
      • Get more earphones like we have in the sanctuary for participation in meetings throughout the church. Advertise and put them where people don’t have to ask.  Keep them clean and maintained.  Come up with a way to collect them so they aren’t lost.
      • Ask an acoustic consultant/architect to help us create a salon in part of the community room with soundproofing so people can have conversations.
      • Educate members about in deaf culture
      • Write a grant to set up ASL classes at the church, hire interpreters for church/RE services; attempt to have home grown interpreters w/in 2 years
      • Train greeters to help people with vision impairment, ask if they want help to get settled and find a seat.
      • Sit people who are hard of hearing or visually impaired closer to the front.
      • Put an audio version of the Ploughshare on the website
      • Put a transcript of the 3/4/07 service on the website in HTML.  Print a copy of the service and sell them among Mike’s best hits.
      • Provide CD versions of sermons
      • Invest in a portable (not cumbersome) PA system for use throughout building
      • Invest in some large print hymnals
      • Produce large print orders of service and Ploughshares (Use Verbatim 12 or 14 point script for easiest reading)
      • Color code rooms and provide more contrast for low vision folks

    • Learning differences (10%)
      • Include visual-spatial challenges, sensory integration dysfunction, and autism spectrum disorder
      • Differences affect how members take in and process information, social interactions and demonstrate knowledge
      • Present information in different ways to appeal to different learning strengths; consider a big screen projector in the sanctuary
      • Set aside a quieter area for coffee hour so people don’t get overloaded by all the sensory inputs
      • Set up a buddy system so people who need to process verbally have someone they can talk to one-on-one about the sermons.

    • Assorted other disabilities (14%) include asthma, prematurity syndrome, post traumatic stress disorder, self-injury, Tourette’s syndrome, and speech problems following stroke
      • Allergies triggered by dust, strong perfumes, pet dander or flowers can set off asthmatic attacks
      • Brain injury can create comprehension and follow-up issues.  Giving the person an opportunity to paraphrase agreements and having a buddy remind the person of commitments can help them contribute.
      • Some disabilities are hidden and episodic.
      • Accommodations require the congregation to be open to individual solutions.
    • RE: While the incidence of disability rises with age, FUSD’s disability issues cross age and program spectra: Almost 20% of respondents with disability raised issues of disability with children in RE program,
      • Difficulties with children finding peer groups,
      • Difficulty knowing how to deal with children’s differences in RE classes
      • Youth asked that we focus on differences, not disabilities
      • Provide more activities using different kinds of skills, different ways of communicating
      • Be aware that all people don’t read well
      • Make sure teachers know of disabilities and communicate our commitment to serve all children
      • Do education classes on different kinds of differences, etiquette in dealing with differences
  3. What other changes would make participation easier?
    • Increased understanding by church members (28%)
    • Increased understanding by church leaders (17%)
    • Please encourage committee members and leaders to double check their assumptions about why certain members do not volunteer.
    • Can't volunteer to expected degree because I don't know in advance how well I can cope. I wish people would understand it isn't because I'm irresponsible
    • There are lots of smaller disabilities, like mine, that can and will get progressively worse. There are times I hesitate to come to church on a bad back day or volunteering or attending a meeting at night.
    • It means a great deal to me to have mental and physical disability addressed at FUSD
    • I appreciate your providing this survey -- another reason I am pleased and proud to be a Unitarian
    • While the money donated for the elevator could be used for another purpose, I don't want to diminish the value of long-term goals coming to fruition for the congregation. It certainly can be a tremendous agent for solidifying and bringing better definition to a group. I'm concerned that taking money that was donated for one purpose and using it for another may not be appropriate.
    • Opportunities to help without being on committees and going to meetings
    • Most importantly, I want to be recognized as a person, a member of the congregation
    • I would like to be accepted as who I am and not a person with a disability
    • I would like the church to think outside the box about different ways that people with few financial resources can contribute. Maybe making some lesser cost items available at Winterfest, etc.
    • Opportunity to serve within the church in a limited capacity that can be managed with the disability (17%)
    • If there is an immediate need -- like someone didn't show up and I'm doing okay that day – I’d love to help. I don't want to commit and call in sick and disappoint, but I can't know in advance whether I’going to be able to function.
    • One-time commitments, opportunities for one-time events to help with and not doing stressful things
    • Committee involvement by means other than meetings; alternately, remote meeting attendance capability
    • Conference call capability for meetings, rides to meetings and activities

CONTACT TO PROPOSE CHANGES:
Elizabeth Winslow
(303) 300-0782
or
Colleen Bryan
(303) 722-5078

FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF DENVER

Proposed Congregational Project

“Embracing Differences by Improving Accessibility”

As Unitarian Universalists, this Congregation stands in covenant to affirm and promote:

The goal of this project is:

The strategies for this project include:

Planned actions under this project include: