Faith Inclusion

Jessica Hetzel and Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt

At an event at the Jewish Community Center in Detroit on March 10, Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt, a writer, consultant, actress, speaker, and advocate for disability and autism representation, discussed her story and her work on the Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio.” The event, organized by The J’s Opening the Doors program, was in celebration of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM).

Ava identifies as a Chinese, transracial, Jewish, autistic adoptee. She shared her experiences of intersectional identities and how that affected her career in the entertainment industry. In Ava’s speech, she briefly touched on her experience of being diagnosed and how she managed it. Ava’s discussion of her multiple identities left the audience with a lasting impression of the importance of inclusion and belonging among various communities. [continue reading…]

Thirty years have passed since the publication of Nancy Eiesland’s book “The Disabled God,” a pivotal work in Christian Disability Theology that envisions the resurrected Jesus as divinely disabled. Eiesland makes our bodies the starting point, encouraging us to live in relationship with our incarnational God who created disabled bodies in Their image and who desires for us to do what we can while listening to our body-mind-spirit’s limitations. As we approach Easter, let us wonder together about why the resurrected Jesus is disabled and what implications this good news has for our life together in community.

As a congenitally disabled person working in the United Methodist Church, I find in John 20 the most promising verse for disability justice. Here we observe the resurrected Jesus telling his disciple Thomas to put his finger on Jesus’ wounds and to put his hand into Jesus’ side. Jesus doesn’t just have the scars of crucifixion but remains disabled in his most sacred resurrected form. The Christian God feeds bodies, washes bodies, loves and is loved by bodies. In Jesus, our God knows what it is like to have a body, which necessarily means that our God knows what it is like to have aches and pains, hunger and thirst, desires and needs. Throughout the gospels Jesus cares for bodies – not perfect bodies, all bodies. [continue reading…]

The holiday season is right around the corner, meaning we must start preparing ways to make it fun and accessible for all. The best way to make it enjoyable for everyone is to ensure everyone who attends the holiday celebration is included!

Here are some helpful tips to implement in your faith community for holiday gatherings: [continue reading…]

Many holidays are filled with expectations—rules about how to look and act that everyone seems to just know, everyone except for me. At least, this is how I have often felt as a high-masking and late-diagnosed/discovered Autistic person. Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays, but it has also been one of the most challenging. I was raised Roman Catholic; when the Advent wreath was placed on my church’s altar, I knew that the most wonderful time of the year was finally here! The weeks leading up to Christmas were much better than the holiday itself, but I have only recently begun to understand why the majority of my childhood Christmases ended with me in tears. Growing up, my neurodivergence was undetected and misunderstood. This resulted in a lack of adequate support and accommodations, which made special occasions, like Christmas, especially difficult for me. [continue reading…]

December religious holidays and celebrations are natural opportunities for houses of worship to embrace practices that welcome and support people with disabilities in all aspects of the community. One of the most common questions we get is, “Our congregation wants to include disabled people, but where do we begin?”

My answer comes in the form of a question. “Belonging is at the heart of inclusion. So, what gives you a sense of belonging in your faith community?” [continue reading…]

Written by Faith Inclusion and Belonging Fellows Hannah Roussel and Sara Sharma

What Was The 504 Sit-In All About?

Disability Rights Activist Kitty Cone

On April 5, 1977, in San Francisco, disability activists occupied a federal building for 26 days, until Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act – granting new rights to disabled people – was signed into law. This protest came with many challenges, and faith and spirituality played a significant part in sustaining the activists. The 504 sit-in was an inevitable event given that it had taken four years for President Carter and his Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Joseph Califano, to sign and enact the Rehabilitation Act. Due to the intentional negligence of Joseph Califano, Judy Heumann and the other activists (more than 100 people) felt that it was time that they initiated a change to speed up the process. [continue reading…]

Hannah Roussel

October is celebrated as National Disability Employment and Awareness Month (NDEAM). This month provides employers with the opportunity to reflect on ways to increase accommodations and foster inclusion for their employees. It also serves as a platform for job seekers to receive support in finding inclusive jobs, and for employees to advocate for necessary workplace accommodations.

I observed NDEAM by attending RespectAbility’s NDEAM summit (click the link for recordings and resources). I received training by disabled people for disabled people on professional development and career searches. This summit was motivated by a desire to make the world a better, more inclusive place, and it prompted me to think about the Jewish concept of Olam Haba.

Olam Haba, meaning the world to come, refers to a peaceful and holy afterlife and/or the new world that God will build after the coming of the Messiah. Olam Haba isn’t something we have to wait for. Jewish tradition teaches that Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, is meant to be a taste of Olam Haba, a sneak peak of a better world. This concept of tasting a better world has simultaneously intrigued and eluded me for most of my life. [continue reading…]

Shelly Christensen

“How can my faith community become better at including people with disabilities?”

This question, raised by people with disabilities, clergy, lay leaders, and community members, is why Faith Inclusion and Belonging is one of RespectAbility’s four pillars. Spirituality and faith are incredibly important to many disabled people. The Faith Inclusion and Belonging team recognizes that it takes more than a willing heart to foster a culture of belonging, where disabled people feel they are respected, valued, and included. [continue reading…]

Theresa Soares

In celebration of our newsletter edition on disability and religious education, my colleagues, Shelly Christensen and Ben Bond, invited me to share a brief reflection on my own personal experience, from being a young Catholic with a reading disability in both public and private school, and through my journey of becoming an advocate for disability inclusion in college and now into my career. This opportunity to share my story among our community is not only a privilege, but also a beautiful reflection of the strong culture of belonging that is at the core of our work at RespectAbility. I’m grateful to my colleagues for their invitation and am happy to share my story with you in this special newsletter.

My story begins as a kid growing up in the occasionally sunny, but more often foggy, beachside town of Pacific Grove, California. I had the opportunity to attend public elementary school where I first experienced difficulties learning to read. This challenge came as a surprise to my teachers and family who had otherwise observed that although I was struggling to read, I was bright and enthusiastic about learning, especially having displayed an expansive vocabulary and conversational aptitude for a young person. Through early intervention and the support of my teachers, I was tested through my district, and diagnosed with dyslexia. With the diagnosis came the opportunity to have accommodations and support services for my disability which I desperately needed in order to learn to read and write at grade level and keep up with my peers. School was challenging, and as a young student I remember long hours at the kitchen table after school, struggling to read through my homework, sometimes, I would close my eyes and imagine as a youngster, a place where reading wasn’t so challenging, where I could read like the other kids. [continue reading…]