Access For All
Church Accessibility
At Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church disabled and chronically ill people* lead, participate, contribute, and belong. Disabilities are a natural part of life and can be acquired at any time. In 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that one in five Americans are disabled. Whether physical, intellectual, psychological, or sensory, many barriers faced by disabled people result from attitudes and environments that we create and can change. Such attitudes and environments exclude people from church.
We know that the spiritual, physical, and psychological needs of disabled and chronically ill people, and often their caregivers, have historically been neglected. This includes the Christian leaders who lobbied for churches to have partial exemption from the Americans With Disabilities Act. But, ableism is antithetical to following Jesus. We affirm that disabled and chronically ill people are created in the image of God. And that the presence and insight of disabled people enriches the diverse ecology of our community.
We seek to provide accommodations while being upfront and honest about our limitations. While our building is ADA compliant, we know that access needs surpass ADA guidelines. Sometimes, access needs conflict. Please contact our administrator or our rector, Reverend Lindsey Briggs, with any questions about whether we can provide for your access needs at Saint Mary’s. Additionally, we’d love to seek out ways to modify any policy, practice, procedure, or architecture that excludes people from congregational life.
*Note: Our Priest, who is chronically ill and disabled, prefers Identity First, rather than Person First, language. This article describes Identity-First and Person-First language. Our Priest also knows that depending on your disability or chronic illness you may have your own language preferences. They’d love to hear about the language that feels best to you.
Website Accessibility Statement
We want everyone to access our website with ease. With guidance from our web development company, we’ve consulted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for a variety of disabled people.
Using the principles and best practices of digital accessibility, we set ourselves the goal to work towards AAA-level accessibility—acknowledging that we have limited means to pay for advanced website programming.
While we monitor our website regularly, we’d love to hear from you about ways we can improve access.
Let us know what you think. If you enjoyed using this website, or if you had trouble with any part of it, please get in touch by using our contact form.