Accessibility: Trick or Treat?

Front End Loader is excellent for receiving and handing out candy!

We had a great time Trick or Treating this year. 

I saw that The Boy really had fun meeting with our neighbors -- and our neighbors loved meeting with The Boy. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbors enjoyed it more than Nick.

But here’s the thing. Some of our neighbors missed out on The Boy visiting him, because they have too many steps. I can run up the steps to the front door, but if there were steps in the sidewalk or up from the street, it was just too much to navigate, so we went where we could go.

In other words, the houses that didn’t have accommodations in place didn’t get the fun of interacting with The Boy.  

Another way would be to say that the neighbors and The Boy were equally blessed by their interactions, because the neighbors had appropriate accommodations in place. And the ones that didn’t, missed the mutual blessings.

So as I look at my church, I see that we’ve done a lot to accommodate folks with differing needs. And we’ve still got a long way to go. On the one hand, I feel bad about the expense and trouble involved in making all these accommodations.

On the other hand, I have to believe that each increased accommodation will bring increased blessing to the entire congregation.

Accommodations are not simply ways to make experiences easier for someone who can’t do it all. Accommodations are ways to open up experiences so that all participants will benefit from the gifts, skills, and experience of each participant. 

Accommodations not only make experiences accessible to The Boy, (even more importantly) they make The Boy accessible to the experiences.

Blessed to be a blessing.

Through the Roof

A Blog Supported by the Mosaic ministry of Third Church, ECO

"Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on." (Mark 2:3-4)

About: This is a blog about accessibility, intimacy, and community. About being welcome.  It’s also about bringing up The Boy. He's 11 years old and has cerebral palsy. Also popping up are The TeenGirl, who just turned 13, and The Mom, who is awesome. It's written by The Dad. It's my words, my view. Other people will think differently and have different opinions. Good.