I came from a church built in 1844 with one ramp (that didn’t get de-iced after a storm, causing a congregant in a wheelchair to have his wife take him home (to our shame but not to the extent of re-training the sexton to de-ice ALL entrances) and steps to the altar, to a church expanded in the early 2000s with a beautiful stage—and rail-less steps to reach it. They’re exempt from ADA compliance, of course, but an intelligent 80+ year old woman and I (no cognitive issues but severe balance problems after surgery) repeatedly asked the pastor in charge of the facilities to add railing to at least the backstage steps so that we could get to the stage to perform in our annual Christmas Coffeehouse. It took months, but this church, that was so proud of its handicapped parking spots yet didn’t realize how impossible it was to get people who aren’t technically disabled but have what a friend of mine with chronic pain calls “invisible wheelchairs” to a location where they can be seen by the full congregation, made a simple change that (to the two of us, at least) made it possible for us to finally participate in special events like the Coffeehouse!
I came from a church built in 1844 with one ramp (that didn’t get de-iced after a storm, causing a congregant in a wheelchair to have his wife take him home (to our shame but not to the extent of re-training the sexton to de-ice ALL entrances) and steps to the altar, to a church expanded in the early 2000s with a beautiful stage—and rail-less steps to reach it. They’re exempt from ADA compliance, of course, but an intelligent 80+ year old woman and I (no cognitive issues but severe balance problems after surgery) repeatedly asked the pastor in charge of the facilities to add railing to at least the backstage steps so that we could get to the stage to perform in our annual Christmas Coffeehouse. It took months, but this church, that was so proud of its handicapped parking spots yet didn’t realize how impossible it was to get people who aren’t technically disabled but have what a friend of mine with chronic pain calls “invisible wheelchairs” to a location where they can be seen by the full congregation, made a simple change that (to the two of us, at least) made it possible for us to finally participate in special events like the Coffeehouse!