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Monday, September 26, 2011

Coping with Crossflow by Roger Christan Schriner

Many years ago a wise old fellow told me why he was no longer frazzled by Los Angeles traffic. "I stopped obsessing about how I needed to get from Point A to Point B. Instead, I just focused on coping with the crossflow."

By crossflow, he meant anything that slowed him down as he moved toward his destination. Dealing with crossflow no longer felt like an irritating distraction from the task of "getting there." Coping with crossflow WAS his task.

After this shift in attitude, he was less likely to be livid while following a pokey driver or getting stuck behind someone who had double-parked. Why did he feel better? Because defining his task as navigating crossflow helped him expect and accept these obstacles. It was similar to the mind-shift that occurs when a sales clerk realizes, "This customer who wants my attention right now is not a distraction from doing my job. The customer IS my job."

So what does this have to do with Equual Access? Realistically, every time one of us attempts to improve access, we will confront crossflow. In some cases it’s just a simple matter of jumping through procedural hoops to achieve a favorable outcome. But at times the barriers to change can be daunting, discouraging, and depressing.

I am a temporarily-abled equal access ally involved with E.A.’s Right Relations Committee. My professional background includes work in ministry, psychotherapy, and organizational dynamics. Like every minister (and every lay leader), I have lots of experience with crossflow. I know that in local congregations improvements come slowly, sometimes frustratingly so. We need to remember that it’s normal to encounter snags, complications, and sometimes overt resistance.

Obviously the attitudinal shift I’m talking about does not eliminate all stress for change agents, or for drivers in L.A. At times my friend who talked about crossflow would still become irritated by gridlock on Sunset Boulevard. But he was far less frus.trated when he defined crossflow-navigation as his primary task.

I’m planning to write an occasional entry on the E.A. blogsite about coping with crossflow. What glitches, setbacks and pushbacks do UU’s encounter when they work for equal access to congregational activities?

As one example, you may have read the blog entry called "Make your congregations loopy!" What problems might people confront in trying to encourage a local UU group to "loop" its sound system so those with hearing devices can tune in by just flipping a switch?

If you have any ideas about crossflow issues, or if you’d like to share a relevant case study, just post a comment. In October I’ll write more on this topic. Thanks for reading this entry, and good luck with every bit of crossflow that comes your way today.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Universalism & Disability Meditation by Naomi King

One Meditation on Why Accessibility, Disability Rights,  
and Celebration Matter for Unitarian Universalists

I have a heart for Edwin Markham’s epigram Outwitted (1915):

He drew a circle that shut me out –

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

Markham captures the heart of Unitarian Universalism as I understand this faith: whenever we come across a barrier to a bigger Love, a Love that abides, holds, and engages every one, then our labor is to take down that barrier and make the circle bigger. We are always changing and being changed in this radical and transforming Love that already knows us, holds us, and cherishes us. No one is beyond Love’s reach or acceptance.

Yet so very few of us have that continuous experience, inside religious communities and outside of it. That belief in transforming Love is both dream and challenge shaping our daily lives.

I work hard to hold onto that belief at times, like when I've read another missive from faith authorities that tells me faithful ministry means never falling ill. The text translates: if you're living rightly, then you won't be ill; if you're ill, that's evidence of failing to live rightly. As someone with a degenerative genetic disease and several chronic illnesses, it doesn't matter how well I take care of myself or how rightly I live, I will still have long periods of flaring illness and the progressive degeneration of a critical piece of my gene. I reject the misery offered me in the name of faith, a diminishment that diminishes the Holy, and turn back to the faith that sustains me, challenges me, and changes me.

Universalism teaches that each and every one of us is gifted. One of the tasks of religious community is to name, accept, and celebrate those gifts. When we meet a person, our faith asks us not to record how this person is more or less than, but to stop and rejoice in this blessing we have the honor of meeting. Transforming Love is a dream and a challenge.

Accessibility in congregations and congregational life, celebrating the gifts and honoring the experiences of people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and working for disability rights are ways of faithing – faith held not like property, but living, moment by moment.

Love wins when the barriers to full participation in life come down. Love wins when a child once set aside as unteachable leads the congregation in giving thanks. Love wins when people who live every day with the experience of exclusion are part of claiming their place in the Heart of Life, and people who experience inclusion every day are dancing in solidarity alongside.

Love wins. That’s what this faith is about, and love winning is exactly why accessibility, disability rights, and changing in and through Love are fruits of living faithfully.
Rev. Naomi King






Monday, September 12, 2011

Make your congregations loopy! by Carol Agate

There is a big push this year in the hearing loss community to get more places looped, and churches are the places they are emphasizing.
 

So what's looping? First, here's how it works without looping. You go into an auditorium - or sanctuary - and sit through a lecture - or worship service - struggling to understand the words that often come through the loudspeakers as a garble. Or it might be like swiss cheese; you understand most of it but there are a lot of holes. Or maybe your church has assistive listening devices. The chances are that you can't find anyone who knows where they are. Or you get one and find the battery is dead. And if everything does work fine you first have to remove your hearing aids to put on headphones or an ear bud - hoping you don't lose the hearing aids and the ear pieces are clean.

Here's how it works if your church is looped. You enter, take you seat, flip the telecoil switch on your hearing aid, and enjoy all the sounds coming right into your ear. There's none of the distortion you get with a loudspeaker. There are no devices to maintain.

Looping can be expensive, depending on the size of your sanctuary. But once it's done it's practically maintenance-free. Almost everywhere you go in Western Europe you find auditoriums that are looped. In Michigan, too. Wisconsin's on its way. Contact me (carolagate at mac.com) if you want more information on installing a loop around the perimeter of your sanctuary.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Shared knowledge makes the Accessibility Guidelines document strong

On September 7, 2011, the Board of Equual Access approved a document entitled “Accessibility Guidelines for Unitarian Universalist Congregations: Creating Welcoming Congregations for People of all Abilities.” After the vote, the document was uploaded to the Equual Access website. This was a project of the Equual Access Policy Committee, of which I am the chair.

The writing of this document has been in process for many months. One of the things that make this an especially strong statement of accessibility is that a number of people contributed significantly to its production. The first pass at a document used a very different spreadsheet format, which was hard for blind people to read and for others to understand. This simply wouldn’t do - an accessibility document that was not accessible was unacceptable! Using input and suggestions from reviewers, the document was recast into its present form and the members of the Policy Committee each took on responsibility for writing parts of the document using their own knowledge and research.

Policy Committee member Rachel Klein wrote an excellent section on history and legislation. Policy Committee member Cynthia Parkhill wrote the section on Advocacy, and also pointed out that the needs of people using a printed copy of the document were different from those using an on-line copy. This resulted in having two different versions, one for print and one for online use. Policy Committee member Michael Sallwasser was instrumental in creating the structure for the document writing the section on creating a Welcoming Environment.

The document benefited from the reviews and comments we arranged for. When we had made our first pass at the document, we made the document available to people on the access-l list-serve and members of Equual Access for review and comment. I was very pleased when a number of people made significant efforts to review the document. This resulted in covering things that needed to be added to or improved upon the first draft; examples are sections on service animals, on developmental disabilities, on deaf culture and on hidden disabilities. We had the blessing of having an excellent copy editor for whom this was a labor of love.

When we had questions about how to cover a particular issue, I looked through the membership of Equual Access and contacted someone who had an interest in that issue. An example: I requested that several blind Equual Access members take a look at one of our drafts to see if they saw a problem with its accessibility from their point of view.

We expect that as the document is used, we will get questions about clarifying something, adding something, or some other aspect of its usefulness. We welcome these comments, as we have learned that making its production a shared process makes the document stronger and more useful. We want to thank everyone who participated in its production now and in the future.

Rev. Barbara F. Meyers
Community Minister
Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation
38132 Kimbro Street, Fremont, CA 94536
510-796-5722
com_minister@mpuuc.org
www.mpuuc.org/mentalhealth