The Episcopal Church Welcomes You
For more than five decades, signs with this message have pointed people to our churches and, we hope, our message of welcome for all of God’s people within our Episcopal church spaces, whether those spaces are online or on site. However, for people with physical disabilities and mobility challenges or people who have low or no vision or hearing, simply entering our church spaces can be difficult, if not impossible. When our physical and virtual spaces have barriers to entry, our message of welcome and, by extension, the gospel of Jesus that all are loved by God can ring hollow.
Although churches are exempt from many accessibility mandates in civil law, God’s law of love calls us to strive to welcome all, meeting them where they are and how they can be met. And, we know that removing barriers and improving accessibility benefits everyone.
To help your congregation begin and continue conversations about how you can improve your welcome and inclusion by increasing the accessibility of your online and on-site spaces, we’ve gathered these resources.
Physical Accessibility
From basic needs like ramps and handicap accessible bathrooms to more welcome-centric concerns like making spaces for wheelchairs in the main pew areas of your naves (instead of making wheelchair users sit in the back!), there are a number of things that you can do in your parish to improve physical accessibility.
- New York State Building Codes
- Federal Standards
- Grants for Churches Seeking to become for ADA Compliant
- Religious Entities Exempt from Title III
- Agencies you can call to support physical accessibility reviews:
Digital Accessibility
The main ideas behind web accessibility center on content being perceivable (e.g., text alternatives for non-text content and using high contrast color combinations), operable (e.g., simple navigation), understandable (e.g., predictable content operations and appearances), and robust (i.e., able to work with accessibility tools like screen readers). Additionally, keep in mind that most people interact with your content on a mobile device and not a computer, so designing with a mobile-inclusive (if not mobile-first!) mindset is important. Reach out to our Communications team for support!
