Indispensable People
Making the Gospel Accessible to people of ALL abilities so that they may know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with the gifts He has given them.
Indispensable People
Visual Strategies for Churches
This episode emphasizes the importance of visual aids in creating an inclusive environment within the church for individuals with disabilities. By discussing practical tools such as visual schedules, large print resources, and Braille materials, we explore how these adaptations can enhance accessibility and engagement for all congregants.
• Importance of visual aids for enhancing church inclusivity
• Benefits of visual schedules for those with disabilities
• Large print and Braille resources for visually impaired congregants
• Effective use of projectors and clear fonts for communication
• Training volunteers to understand the significance of visual aids
• Assessing specific needs of the congregation for optimal outreach
• Initiating small changes for gradual improvements in accessibility
• Fostering a welcoming atmosphere for everyone in the church
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas. Hey, hey, welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.
Speaker 1:Today we're talking about visuals as supports, schedules, timers, all kinds of things, everything visual, because so much of what we do and the people we serve that have disabilities, visuals are the answer. I mean, you're talking about people with ADHD who need something to come back to, to gain their focus, to get back on track. A visual is a great, great resource. And for people with autism, who need concrete pictures into what they're doing and understanding, visuals it's the answer. You're talking about people with intellectual disabilities who need another way of understanding information. Visuals it's the answers. So, with visuals, using visuals for people with disabilities in a church setting creates an inclusive environment in the church. That's vital for fostering a sense of belonging among all people and accessibility in the church. We've talked about this lots goes beyond the physical right. It is the social and the spiritual. Goes beyond the physical right, it is the social and the spiritual. And when we use these visuals no-transcript everything it levels the playing field and makes so that every person can have input, can belong, knows what's going on and knows what to expect. There's a level of predictability that creates inclusiveness and comfort and these are all really great ways to make sure that all people can be a part of the total life of the. So let's talk about different types of visual aids Now. The main ones that we've been talking about are like visual schedules, visual timers, that kind of stuff. But let's go back to like a visual impairment and what kind of visual aids can benefit those individuals.
Speaker 1:So, large print braille materials you can consider this with your bulletins, your hymnals Offer large print versions of the bulletins or hymnals for those with low vision. A great resource today is using the screens and making sure that the clarity on your screens and also you want to have like a light, dark contrast between your words and your backgrounds. Also, braille resources provide versions of religious texts and service materials for blind congregants. Now don't get me wrong. Braille is important and there are people who use it. It is not as easily accessible because it takes up so much space and you know like a Braille Bible would be books upon books upon books upon books upon books upon books, that kind of thing. But you can have Braille in your signage around you know, restrooms, office to label things. That kind of things is more doable. Again, braille materials is wonderful to have.
Speaker 1:It's probably not as easily accessible in large quantities for those who may need it and there are resources and other things out there available. For example, if you are posting things or sharing things on your website, that kind of stuff, having those visual representations but also visual descriptions and things like that, so that the programs and stuff that they have and are using for their visual impairment will apply to what you have available as well. Posting Bible study material, study guides, that kind of stuff on your website may help some of those things come in more availability. Also considering I already mentioned some of this with the projections and the screens, using those projectors to display song lyrics, scriptures, sermon points and large clear fonts and large, clear fonts. Test it out beforehand, see what it looks like kind of go with an idea of what certain size font goes best on the screens that you use. I mean churches use television screens to projector screens, all of those kinds of things, and they have different impacts. Also, consider a sign language interpreter to be available. Display a video feed of the sign language interpreter on the screens during services. This is a great way to make sure that those people who are deaf or hard of hearing may be able to sit wherever they prefer in the service.
Speaker 1:So let's move on to some other accessible things through visuals, tactile graphics. So this might be a tactile map that shows around your church so someone who may be blind or have low vision can touch it. You may be blind or have low vision can touch it. Textured art is a great way to provide a sensory experience within your space if you have things up and are decorated. Now let's move on to something that we've talked a little bit more about and so we have a little bit bigger familiarity with, and that's event schedules and that's using visual schedules with pictures and symbols to outline the sequence of events, which can be particularly helpful for individuals with autism, adhd, intellectual disabilities.
Speaker 1:This is a very, very simple thing to do. Don't be overwhelmed by it. First, understand if you do a simple Google search, you're gonna come up with visual schedules for churches that are already pre-made and they're free. If you want to be able to go even more specific, clip art, graphics, all of that kind of stuff are so readily available that it's super simple for you to make your own. Make it personal. You can make big ones that you can have up and available in youth or kids church. You can also have individual ones where it's maybe on a clipboard. I've even made them on a paint stick with Velcro before.
Speaker 1:There are all kinds of ways to do these kinds of things to help everyone feel comfortable, engaged, also know how to re-engage if they've missed something. All of those things are really great availabilities, accommodations, so that people feel easily connected and you know there's nothing. If you've ever walked into a new space for the first time before and you're trying to figure out signage, finding the restrooms, getting from place to place, knowing what's going to happen, it is overwhelming. So not only does this help on a first experience, but this helps when those sensory things become overwhelming, when maybe our processing speed doesn't keep up with whatever is going on. You have a reference. There are all kinds of reasons why these things are incredibly important.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk a little bit more about kind of assessing your situation. So an accessibility assessment, conduct an assessment to identify specific needs of your congregation. This will inform types of visuals that could be most beneficial. You never know what someone may be kind of covering or not sharing or not asking for help within your church. Maybe send out a Google form to ask some questions about things that the church finds most helpful and that would help you to identify the most needed things to focus on. The other thing is to train and prepare your church staff, your volunteers, your leaders, helping them to understand visual aids, helping them to understand visual impairments and autism and ADHD, having a handle and some awareness about those disabilities so that you know when those visuals might come into best use.
Speaker 1:Invest in some of those pieces of equipment over time. Maybe you don't have screens right now, but a screen would be beneficial, maybe creating those large print resources. Start, you know, little by little, heart. You know little by little, don't, you know? Try to do everything all at one time, but take, you know, take those ideas and just do. Okay, this month I'm going to focus on creating the large print bulletins and we're going to make sure that those are available. We're going to see how many are used. We're going to see if this is a need currently in our church. You don't ever necessarily want to completely wipe it away, because someone new may come into the church and have that need, and how welcome and accessible will they feel if that's already available to them.
Speaker 1:So, going back to surveying your people like get feedback, ask what they think. You may have professionals in the congregation that can help guide and direct and show you all of those things. So those are really really great things. Feedback is wonderful. They may come up with an idea or something that you haven't thought of. So let's talk a little bit more about the benefits of visual schedules. First of all, they provide predictability and routine. Visual schedules offer that predictability by laying out an order of events, which can reduce anxiety for individuals who thrive on routine. Again, they can enhance focus and attention. We mentioned this about those with ADHD. They provide a visual guide and they help individuals focus on the current activity and prepare for what's coming next, thereby including or improving their overall engagement, independence and autonomy. Visual schedules empower individuals to follow along independently. They foster a sense of autonomy autonomy, sorry, I said that wrong and they navigate through the church service and event more independently. And that's really what everyone wants, right, they want to be as independent as possible. Here's some tips about creating those visual schedules Use clear images and symbols okay, understandable, easily recognizable.
Speaker 1:You can also include with the visual a text description. So a lot of times whenever I create, especially for our respite nights, I create visual schedules for each respite nights. I create visual schedules for each one. I put the picture but then underneath it I say what that picture stands for. So they can get both. And if there is a buddy that's helping that individual navigate and they're utilizing the visual schedule, the buddy makes sure that they're saying the right thing, that matches the picture and all goes well together. Also, you can use like a color coding system where you can differentiate between certain types of activities. So maybe you know you can have certain colors for activities worship, prayer, social time, that kind of stuff that helps them.
Speaker 1:Again, we go back to knowing that you can personalize it. It can be a general schedule that's posted for everyone, but also if you need to be more specific to an individual, you can tailor the schedules to meet their specific needs, considering their preferences and their level of detail that they require. Also, consider flexibility Design schedules that can be easily adjusted in the case of changes to a service or unexpected events, and I think every visual schedule that I've ever used always has Velcro, so it can be moved and changed if needed. Consider where you're going to place the schedules. Make sure they're in a prominent location or readily available for that person to get their personal one. You want to consider those portable formats that we talked about maybe a laminated card, a clipboard, I talked about the paint sticks, all of those kinds of things so that they can take them with them. Also, if you have an iPad or something like that that's used as a communication device, you could also have it in a digital format.
Speaker 1:Again, you're going to want to prep your leadership, your staff, your volunteers, so that they are familiar with it and how to use it and, you know, even do some training things where you ask them to put the schedules together and then practice explaining it and talk about how things work in and through those things. But by incorporating visual schedules into church services, you can create a more structured, supportive environment that caters to diverse needs of your group. These are not just visual schedules, but also visual accommodations. This approach not only enhances accessibility, but also enriches the spiritual experience for all who attend. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given. Thank you,
