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What's Happening in UU Congregations and Denomination-Wide
To encourage and inspire you, we will share some of the accessibility activities that UU congregations and organizations have been involved in.
- October 2011 - UUA
Kay Montgomery, the executive VP of the UUA, has just sent a note to the President of Equual Access agreeing to the following:
- The UUA administrative staff will recommend the Equual Access Accessibility Policy document to congregations, will put it on our web site, and will send it specifically to field staff.
- They will look closely at their own accessibility practices.
- They suggested that EA might like to begin some sort of step "credentialing" practice for accessibility.
When this was discussed at this month's Equual Access Board Meeting, it was agreed that the Policy Committee,
which coordinated writing the Accessibilities Policy document, would take the lead in helping to suggest a credentialing
practice. Suggestions that you might have on how congregations might rate themselves in terms of accessibility.
You may Click here to email Equual Access. info@equualaccess.org.
- September 2011 - Accessibility Guidelines Document Now Available -
Equual Access has prepared an Accessibility Guidelines document for the use of the UUA and its member congregations.
To get a copy of this document, click here for our Resources & Links web page.
- August 2011 - @EquualAccess now on Twitter
@EquualAccess is now on Twitter.com ! We share resources and information about Unitarian Universalism and accessibility and disability rights. We're a reference point and also a connecting point - like a welcome table -- on Twitter (over 200 million users and growing). Follow us on Twitter! You can also recommend resources and information, blog posts and podcasts that relate to Unitarian Universalism, disability rights, and accessibility for our sharing.
- June 2011 - Suggestions for Positive Communication and
Constructive Negotiation
Suggestions for Positive Communication and Constructive Negotiation from the Right Relations Committee of Equual Access is now available. The purpose of this document is to give you some communication tools to use when you are attempting to increase access and inclusion for persons with disabilities, and you seem to be encountering resistance.
Click here to get a document with these suggestions
The Right Relations Committee of Equual Access serves as a resource for Unitarian Universalists who wish to improve accessibility in the UUA, its member congregations, and other UU-related organizations. The Committee's purpose is to advocate for the elimination of barriers, physical, attitudinal and programmatic that impedes equal participation by individuals with disabilities.
- June 2011 - UUA General Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina
Equual Access was present at General Assembly 2011:
- We had a well visited booth in the Exhibit Hall
- We held two widely-attended workshops
- Hospitality Holds the Keys to Accessibility - positive ways to enhance a welcoming environment for people with all abilities in your congregation, featuring Suzanne Fast, Reverend Barbara Meyers, and Mark Bernstein
Click here to see the Hospitality presentation.
- What Else is in my 'Invisible Knapsack'? Paula Cole Jones, Director for Racial and Social Justice for the Joseph Priestley District, will present along with Equual Access Board member Suzanne Fast in what promises to be a fascinating comparison of anti-racism models and issues with those of anti-ableism.
Click here to see the Invisible Knapsack presentation.
- June 2011 - Central East Regional Group support of Disabilities Rights
Please check out www.cerguua.org for new wording on support of disabilities rights and links to Equual Access website and UUA Accessibilities website.
This wording was approved by the District Executives and consultants that make up the Central East Regional Group.
- May 2011 - Share Your Story!
Equual Access is searching for stories of inclusion, hospitality, and creative thinking by our congregations. If you have a personal story of how a Unitarian Universalist congregation overcame barriers (physical or attitudinal) to welcome a person with disabilities, please share it.
These stories will be used to raise awareness and encourage creative 'problem' solving in workshops and educational materials. This includes a workshop at this year's General Assembly in Charlotte - 'Hospitality Holds the Keys to Accessibility' on Thursday, June 23rd. Stories must be received by May 31st for inclusion in this year's GA.
Click here to send us a video, audio, or written file and put Share Your Story in the subject line.
- January 2011 - Interfaith Mental Health Coalition
Bob Skrocki is
chair of the leadership committee of the Suburban Chicago Interfaith
Mental Health Coalition doing follow up planning to the highly
successful November 9 conference, which had 200 registrants representing
78 different local faith communities from 14 different faith traditions
or denomination, including 59 clergy. The Coalition will focus this year
on mental health related support, consultation, and ministry development
to/with faith communities in the 6 county suburban Chicago area. For
more information see www.scimc.org.
- January 2011 - Award for Mental Health Achievement to Equual Access Board Member
Rev. Barbara F. Meyers, a member of the Equual Access Board and a community minister
with a mental health ministry, has been selected to receive a Mental Health
Achievement Award from the Mental Health Association of Alameda County, California.
The award is to recognize her successful efforts to educate church goers and the
community at large about mental illness and the challenges it presents to
people directly affected and their families and friends and to eradicate
the stigmas surrounding mental illness.
Website for UU Mental Health Ministry
- October 2010 - GA Planning Update
The Board of Equual Access has committed to raising the organization's profile at the UUA General Assembly,
in furtherance of the organization's goal to ensuring that our faith community warmly welcomes all people including
those of us with disabilities.
Currently, we are developing proposals for programs and hope to have a sequence of related programs accepted.
(The process for program selection has changed. For insights on the process see this blog post:
Proposing a Program for the 2011 General Assembly )
There are strong parallels between the missions for GA programming and the missions of Equual Access!
There are other aspects to our commitment to increase our profile at GA in 2011. For example, having a booth gives us a venue for still more outreach.
We are also following up on advocacy issues stemming from prior GAs, seeking to be proactive on ableism and accessibility.
Many hands make light work, they say. Well, there is a great deal of work to do, both at home and during GA. Please be a part of it. We need you. To volunteer, please contact Suzanne Fast at sfeaal @ yahoo.com. And keep those ideas coming!
Watch this space for future updates!
Regards,
Suzanne Fast,Project Coordinator
- July 2010 - Results of First Equual Access Election The results of the first Equual Access Election are in. Here are the elected officers:
President: Arthur Tackman
Secretary: Caron Wells
Chair of Right Relations Committee: Linda Wright
They join the remaining Equual Access Board members who were not up for reelection this year:
Vice President: Carolyn Cartland
Treasurer: Carol Agate
Chair of Policy Committee: Barbara Meyers
- March 2010 - Interfaith Mental Health Coalition Conference Bob Skrocki is helping develop the newly formed Suburban Chicago Interfaith Mental Health Coalition to put on its first annual conference on Tuesday November 9, 2010 in Elgin, IL.
See http://scimc.wikispaces.com/ for more information on the coalition's work.
- Spring 2010 - UU Fellowship for Full Inclusion of Individuals with Developmental Challenges
The Full Inclusion Living and Learning Unitarian Universalist Society is a lay-led
congregation that seeks to nurture the spiritual needs of all individuals, without regard
to developmental abilities and challenges. Many, although not all, members of FILL UUS
are individuals or family members of individuals diagnosed with social, language-based, or cognitive
challenges. We seek to provide services where families will feel comfortable, and to gear religious exploration to
the strengths and abilities of the youth who attend. The first organizational service will be on the evening of May 7.
It will meet at the South Nassau, New York UU church.
Learn more at http://www.filluus.org/
- July 2009 - The UUA is joining the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition by The Rev. Devorah Greenstein
The UUA is joining the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition (IDAC), a new initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities, a coalition of religious and religiously-affiliated organizations 'whose core spiritual values affirm the rights and dignity of people with disabilities.' IDAC will use its collective strength 'to speak out and take action on disability policy issues with Congress, the President and Administration, and society at large.' (Ginny Thornburgh, writing on the AAPD blog on July 30, 2009.)
On July 27, 2009 Kat Liu, Assistant Director of the UUA's Washington Office for Advocacy, represented the UUA at the first IDAC Membership Information Meeting, where AAPD President Andy Imparato explained that the Community Choice Act and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, will be the two policy issues at the forefront of IDAC's agenda.
Our faith community is ALWAYS on the Side of Love, and working with IDAC will be our way of showing that we understand that disability IS a social justice issue that deserves our fullest attention.
- The Rev. Mary Harrington Gives Sermon at the Service of the Living Tradition at GA
The Rev. Mary Harrington gave a powerful sermon at the Service of the Living Tradition at General Assembly.
Mary is living with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease and uses a wheel chair. For the sermon, she was sitting in
a beautiful chair and had a special microphone.
The title of her sermon - A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough - is from the poem
Flare by Mary Oliver: "Even a lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of
this world."
Here is one of the main messages from the sermon: You are a part of the
beauty of this world which no one will ever enjoy, not even you if your
treasures stay locked inside. So, sharing your treasures with others is
holy work. She goes on to suggest how to share our treasures.
To read her sermon see:
Lifetime Not Enough Sermon.
The entire service can be viewed at:
Service of the Living Tradition 2009.
- Equual Access at General Assembly 2009 by Carol Agate
At General Assembly, the Equual Access meeting included a discussion of the situation at GA and problems in our congregations. We are interested in ideas for creating accessibility consultants to advise congregations. We discussed the issue of the campaign name: "Standing on the Side of Love," which excludes people who can't 'stand.'
As a representative of Equual Access I was invited to attend a dinner meeting with the UUA board's Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, Multiculturalism Team and members of various affinity groups. They asked what accountability of the UUA Board would look like. After that question the comments were far-ranging. People agreed that a lot more needs to be done, and asked that the UUA board let us know what they want us to do. Part of the need is district trainings, but some board members have been unable to get their district boards to agree to it. I used "Standing on the Side of Love" as an example of things that are done through lack of awareness, and suggested that the way to prevent it is to keep people informed of plans as projects are in the works instead of rolling them out when they are finished.
For more GA coverage, see Carol Agate's complete report on GA 2009 happenings.
- April 2009 - UU World Audio Recordings Available
Audiorecordings of the articles in the latest UU World are now available.
Award-winning audiobook actor Dick Hill reads articles from
the Spring 2009 issue. The recordings can be listened to in most
browsers or downloaded to your computer for playback using an .mp3
player. The audio version of UU World is produced in cooperation with
the UUA Office of Accessibility Concerns. You can hear the recordings at:
Audio Recordings Spring 2009
- March 2009 - Expanding Access: A Florida District Council
Florida District Assembly offered an opportunity for planning to begin for a District Council on Expanding Access.
For more information,
click here to email Suzanne Fast,
click here to email Linda Wright, or
click here to email District Executive Rev. Kenneth G. Hurto.
Suzanne Fast and Linda Wright at the Florida District Assembly
- Accessibility Programming at General Assembly
General Assembly often sees the gathering of people passionate about activism in the intersection between disability and religion. 
Left to Right: The Rev. Devorah Greenstein, Program Coordinator for the UUA Office of Accessibility Concerns; Simona Munson, administrator for the UUA's Identity Based Ministries; Jacqui Williams, an anti-oppression trainer who does anti-ableism and anti-racism work;
The Rev. Laurie Thomas author of a curriculum called Perspectives on Disability; Eli Clare, an anti-ableism activist and trainer. See GA 2009 for information about the next General Assembly.
- September 21, 2008 - Accessible Restroom at Monte Vista UU Congregation
Click here to open a PDF file titled 'Fairness in Flushing' A Reality at MVUUC
Monte Vista UU Congregation creates a wheelchair accessible, ADA compliant, family-friendly restroom. Contact the minister The Rev. Ann Schranz for information.
Click here to email The Rev. Ann Schranz.
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