LB Disability Justice is led by Rev Alex Camp, who is minister of Streatham Vale Baptist Church and Rev Steff Wright, minister of Brandon Baptist Church.

‍Welcome!

The Disability Justice Hub Aims to:

Equip ministers, churches, members, and church communities so they can:

• Avoid, challenge, and stop issues of accessibility and justice.  
• Challenge issues, resolve conflicts and, or advocate for people who need support.

In time we aim to raise awareness of wider issues of justice; develop links with disability justice groups and develop a support network for ministers and churches on disability and accessibility.

This page includes links to resources, self-assessment tools, ideas and organisations which may be able to help you and your church evaluate and improve the accessibility for all. The aim of accessibility is to remove barriers which stop us belonging. There are links to other resources further down the page, but in particular this article by Ruth Wilde suggests five practical steps to take when trying to better include people in church:  

• Do not act out of fear
• Be open to learning
• Do not assume disabled people are just passive and not active
• Make your church as accessible as possible
• Begin a conversation around the language of deficit, perfection and healing

Where to begin?

A good first step is to invite input from members of your community; around how they enter the building, access seats and toilets without assistance, can they hear and understand the sermon, can they read the words or images in hymn books or on screen?  

The next stage will be to consider the accessibility needs you may not have covered which prepares you for new visitors. To do this you can carry out an Accessibility Audit. Whether this is carried out in house, or by an external company; in one go, or over a course of weeks; it will provide insights of things to work towards in terms of accessibility for all. A good accessibility audit will be extensive as they cover access to buildings and facilities, communications and printed materials, to screen use, language and websites. However, these are not all instant targets and can be tackled over time.

From the outcomes of the audit, an Access Statement can be written to share on noticeboards or your website. The Sensory Trust has guidelines on how to write an access statement which should reflect the work you’ve done, and the church’s aims and plans for the future.  

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Download the resources document for further resources and information on helping to make your church more accessible for all.