My new friend Eve* is legally blind. I had picked her up so she could attend a meeting with me on the other side of the region. We talked about many things over the forty minute drive, but one statement has stuck like crazy glue in my mind.

“I never felt disabled until I moved here.”

She moved to the area to be with ailing family. Our public transportation system is inadequate. The handi-ride system is worse. To hear her talk, no one here has really considered the needs of those with limited vision trying to be productive members of society.

Many who are by definition, disabled, do not consider themselves so. They stand in the margins between the “medical” model of disability and the “social” model.

The medical model says that people are disabled by their impairments or differences. It focuses on what is wrong with a person and emphasizes the need for a cure. The social model says that disability is caused by the way society is organized and the attitudes of others. (Thank you Disability Nottinghamshire for an excellent explanation of the two models!)

An individual in a wheelchair only becomes disabled when we choose to install steps instead of sloped entries. Someone who is legally blind becomes disabled when she cannot get across town on her own because we don’t have a sufficient transportation network. 

When my baby couldn’t handle the decibels of the Sunday morning music due to sensory sensitivities, we became disabled. I was in the nursery by myself with my child on most Sunday mornings. There wasn’t an alternative space where I could experience the worship hour at a lesser volume. Why was I getting myself out the door to go sit in a musty nursery by myself? Eventually we stopped attending.

The baby’s sensitivities were not disabling until we tried to attend church. Would you stop to ponder and pray about that statement a moment? Did any scripture come to mind? Maybe something about the weak being indispensable? Maybe something about stumbling blocks?

I believe with all my heart that our churches are incomplete without the presence and participation of people with disabilities. (Thank you Erik Carter for this statement.) Do people with disabilities attend your church? Are they using their gifts to strengthen the Body of Christ?

If not…  we can fix that!

*Eve is not her real name.