Video Transcript: Universal Design

I’m going to talk about what Universal Design might look like within the context of children's ministry. So I really wanted to delight you with some actual congregations doing actual things. And so it's not just me talking, but a chance to see some communities. A reminder, again, we talked now at length about perspective through puzzle piece and how that applies to a variety of situations. We really want to anchor our time now on universal design.

Remember that feature that says, look, we may have planted in some options and ideas for individuals, but this will benefit 100% of the community. So we're going to look at what that might entail. And I think it's important, as we think about this, my best suggestion to you is that this is about options and they're built in so that people, anybody, could access them. This is not about providing an option for Stephanie and John that would be personalized or responsive design. This is just creating options. 

It would be like that summer camp putting in a dock. And on that dock they would have a place for a person who's a wheelchair user to launch into the water along with having everybody else use that same dock. It's just available, but there are options built into the dock so it can be used in a variety of ways. Now we're going to see how some churches have owned that and built in some options that I think you will find delightful. So again, examples of making our congregations accessible by building in those options for anyone to use as they may have need. All right, here we go. 

Fairway Church, they are part of the Michigan Community here. And I absolutely appreciated so many things about Fairway. Their website is one of those places that you go to and it says very clearly, we are an accessible congregation; this is what we have to offer. And so, contact so-and-so if you would desire certain accommodations. And very clear, the first thing on the first page of their website, you'll see statements about accessibility. And I think that's really important for people who are searching for such a community. 

The other thing that I thought was beautiful is they offer valet parking. And so they found some eager teenagers who were delighting in parking other people's cars; this was a fun thing for them. But how excellent, especially for people who may just not want to walk on the ice during the winter. Also, it was used by several people who are single parents, and to carry all that they needed across a parking lot and keep their children safe was a lot. So to be able to just pull up to the door, get out and have somebody else park their car was wonderful. So again, they just offered valet parking for anybody who might like to choose that. 

The other thing that they offered was multiple worship spaces. And we'll talk a little bit more about sensory differences that people may have. But one of those things, as you think about multiple worship space is you can have some people in their congregation three different spots, you're welcome to worship with us in one of three areas. They're not assigning them, they're just offering three worship areas. You can worship in our sanctuary, or you could worship around roundtables in our fellowship room and a live stream. So the service was brought to this room via livestream. Or you can worship in a sensory friendly room where the sound can be down, the lights can be up, and movement is welcome. So they literally have marked three areas that people could choose to worship in, really helping those people who might be sensitive to sounds, really welcoming those people who cannot sit for X amount of time, or who need more structured chairs than what the pews can offer. It was just marvelous how they had that setup; lots of choices. 

They offered also something called sound blockers. Let me find those; just a minute. The sound blockers are a way to offer people a chance to stay in a worshiping area but to literally block the sounds and instead of assigning these to people, what they did was they had them at a checkout area and it said very clearly in the bulletin, if you or a family member would appreciate having sound blockers during the worship service, you can check them out at the Visitor station. Return them after use. So again, this was one way to help people who were pretty sound sensitive in that environment. They just offered them to people. So those are some of the pieces from Fairway.

Union Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, I had a delightful time in that setting. A couple of things that I just want to point out here, it's so unique to this primarily African American church. They offered a website. One of the first pictures that I saw was a person who had limited mobility, but he was very much a part of the worshiping whole. So it clearly showed, by one picture, that we have welcomed people of all abilities, and really encourage congregations to think about what pictures do you have on your website and how can you communicate visually that you are a congregation that welcomes people of all abilities. 

The other thing that I found absolutely amazing, and I've never heard of this before, they offered a time when the staff went out into the parking lot - I don't know if they did it once a month, or how often this was - and they offered drive through prayer where people could literally drive into the parking lot, not have to cross the barrier of those doors, not have to mobility wise get out of their car, if they didn't want to; they could just stay in their car and the staff came to them and prayed with them. And I thought I'd never heard that before. It was this wonderful offering. So they have done a great job with live streaming at Union Baptist.

They're very much welcomed into the community by words. So one of the first words I heard from the microphone were, “we welcome people who are worshiping with us here in the sanctuary, and those joining us via livestream,” and went right on. So recognizing from the beginning that it was a viable part of the congregation. Some very creative ways to use streaming options, and they did it well. Union Baptist, I could have moved at any point in that worship service, partly just because of the nature of what that service was, but there were movement options all the way through, and it was welcomed. 

They had a variety of transportation options. You could park there. They also had some vans that would drive up, it was just well thought of in that people might need to access, transportation-wise, a variety of ways. The other thing that was very clear was who's in charge. Clearly dressed that way, but also with name tags; easy to pick out somebody that I could ask a question of, and it worked very, very well. So again, there were other features there too, but I was so impressed with Union Baptist and what they had to offer. 

Trinity Presbyterian church is in Virginia. And I think this church has just exceeded expectations in terms of Universal Design for worship; but they really have done a marvelous job. They have different seating options so you can sit in sort of this main area. And then there's off to the side, a smaller alcove that's attached, but it has a live stream screen there so that people are a little off to the side. I noticed a lot more movement in that area; people walking around, whereas the main sanctuary there wasn't as much of that. And then they also had, they had turned their what was used to be called a cry room for infants who were crying a place for those, I think they call it their wiggle room, for people who just needed to worship in that space that had a lot of freedom of movement. 

The other thing that they had for one of their services was an American Sign Language interpreter. It's just part of what you could access at one of their services. They always had, in their order of worship, their bulletin, there was always a large print option. And as I mentioned before, part of the seating was this wiggle room, which was used by several during the worship service. 

St. Andrew's church. This is one that I visited in Iowa, they really did a great job of remembering an accessible sanctuary is good, but we should really have an accessible stage area. Again, that makes a statement we're expecting people of all abilities to also lead in worship. And so they had done a wonderful job of making the stage accessible. They had an area with a hearing loop so that those with hearing aids knew where they could sit; it was well marked. And that facilitated those with some hearing differences. Multiple coffee stops. There were some main ones; there were also some that were very remote so that perhaps a person who needed a less congested area for a cup of coffee could find one there as well. They also wanted to train the congregation as a whole. So I spent a whole weekend there; did some things during worship service, did some things as part of conference, but they really wanted to share that perspective with everybody and they made that a priority for a weekend, and it was a really neat opportunity to visit there.

This also, Fourth Reformed, is a church in Michigan. And they have a variety of options available as well. They were the ones that masterminded that beautiful thing called pew pouches. And again, on every pew they have these worship bags, I think they may still call them pew pouches or worship bags, I'm not sure. But they just have a simple sign on the front, feel free to use a fidget item, if it makes it easier to listen, please return to baggies after use. So again, they stock these with a variety of items, but it's just put on every pew; people can access as needed. 

They too, were offered that both the icons are the pictures and the words in the order of worship, as well as that checklist that I referenced a couple of weeks ago. And also, one of the people that you see is on the worship team; they really pulled the gifts of people in the sanctuary in the congregation and try to allow people to use their gifts in service. 

And so this particular gentleman had a degenerative vision situation, but he was a great worship leader. And so they figured out a way for him to be part of the worship team changing magnification and input so that he could play as part of that setting as well. So very much serving based on gifts. 

Memorial Road is a church in Oklahoma, and they too had done this marvelous job of equipping the people and they used a lot of people. So in their children and youth programs, they just recruited additional people knowing that it was better to have three people in a room than two. So their volunteers were rich in that.

Great story of the elevator, also wonderful universal design, and they had to retrofit it. But they didn't yet have any children who needed the use of an elevator. But there were several floors in the children's area. So someone in their congregation, a universal design thinker I would imagine, said, you know what? I can know that there's a day coming when we will need this. So they donated this elevator; had it put in for the time when people would have the need of an elevator in order to either work or volunteer within the children's ministry or participate there. It’s neat.

They had a really amazing thing called the sensory room. And we'll talk a little bit more about that, but they spent a lot of time figuring out what do we want in this space. It was a sort of a break area either that parents could use with their children during worship, or it could be that there might be a volunteer that would take an individual from a learning setting, an educational setting to benefit from this room for a space of time. But again, the sensory room was wonderful. 

I don't know if your community is into this word trauma-informed, but they were putting a lot of effort into training all of their staff, those that work with children through adults, on being a trauma-informed congregation on developing techniques and responses, as when interacting with persons who had experienced trauma. And, again, universal design. They weren't waiting until that happened. These things were just in place. And I thought it was a terrific set of offerings in Oklahoma as well. 

So those are just, I wanted to give you a taste, sample from both children and adults settings for worship settings of what some actual churches are doing. And I know you're all going to figure out how to do drive thru prayer because isn't that fun, but they had just these great array of options, that's what they are, they’re options built in, or it's training built in, or it's opportunities built in, that people can access as needed: multiple spaces to worship, multiple people staffing a room, they just built it in from the beginning without waiting for that one person to walk in that would need X, Y or Z. 

And I hope you're getting excited because I've often said congregations that can really sink some time and energy into this thing called universal design will be far down the path in terms of setting up places where people of all abilities can worship, can learn, can serve together, can fellowship together as part of a congregation or community. 

So the rest of this is going to be very specific tools; going to divided into two sections so as not to overwhelm people that some have appreciated within a children and youth setting. And so I want to just bring you those very practical tools. Again, you may be in an area where you're like there is no way we'd have access to that. That's fine. There may be others of you that are like oh man, we can order that from the store down the road. If you are in one of those places where the actual tools wouldn't exist or wouldn't be practical, can you borrow the intent of the idea? Can you think of some additional tools or alternate tools that might work well in your setting? 

So please ask that you serve as my interpreter. I'll just tell the story before we begin the next session, because it was so funny. I was speaking at a conference where I had an interpreter in both French and in Spanish, and someone came up to me afterwards, dragging the Spanish interpreter along and said, Oh, please, we have a child who does a lot of running. And they were from a country in Central America. And so I did my teacher thing, and oh, yeah, I have an idea. You know, they make these little door handle things you could put on the knobs and, you know, all about these doors. And she finally smiled, and the interpreter interrupted me and said, Ma'am, they don't have any doors in their church. I'm like, oh, okay. I’ve got to think of a different way of thinking about this. 

So forgive my limited picture, which is often very much based in the United States and Canada. But my mind is expanding and you are going to help me with that. So again, we had to brainstorm how we could maybe use some signage that's familiar; place it at the threshold, do some practicing of playing a game of always stopping at this line, So we had to interpret that and put it in that setting. But it was a good reminder for me that, yeah, not every church has handles on doors or even doors. So it was one of those reminders. 

Anyway, I hope you're excited for this sort of rapid run through of tools that we believe will be helpful in communities in the children and youth areas. So that's coming up.