Is Your Church Wheelchair Accessible?

   This is an entry I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. As a disabled person myself I used to be wheelchair-bound. I have a condition known as Ehlers Danlos syndrome which I was born with. That means my joints dislocate easily and regularly. I am no longer wheelchair-bound but I do constantly find myself feeling a deep pain for people in wheelchairs who seem to be completely ignored by my church. And by ignored I mean they can’t even get in. This isn’t an old church. It doesn’t even have steps. But it’s got about a dozen doors to get to the chapel each one of them is a double door and there is no button for a wheelchair user to push so they can open the door. The threshold is also not designed for someone with a wheelchair to be able to smoothly glide in. Plus there are support beams in places that could’ve been used as wheelchair spots in the pews-what a waste. 

   Now I am starting to slowly learn and realize that there’s a right way and a wrong way to criticize the Catholic Church. This however is a topic very deeply personal to me. I find it completely inexcusable that any kind of church Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline, Nondenominational, or Orthodox should think it is appropriate to not consider disabled people when they build their churches. Even old churches can be modified very simply without damaging the old structure an yet it’s rarely done. By refusing to make the churches accessible we are basically saying to everyone in a wheelchair, “You’re not welcome here.” 

   “But they can just get communion at home right?” This is the constant argument I hear in response. And it shows me how many Catholics who attend church every Sunday have no idea what mass is about. It’s not only about the Body and Blood of Christ. It is about being unified with your people and praying together. People who are handicapped and especially those in wheelchairs are already often isolated and alone. They don’t want communion at home. They don’t want the priest to come to them. They want to worship with the rest of us. To be one of us.

   I was homeschooled from age 13 on. I know firsthand what isolation is like. And the fact of the matter is if you’ve never been completely isolated then you have no idea how much the slightest human interaction can make a difference. You will never be able to understand. I remember my mother would come home from work complaining about every little thing that involved another human being. She was tired and for her it was just something she experienced all the time and was a chore. But when I went to a grocery store for example and had one conversation with the checkout clerk it made my day. I felt so happy because it was like the first time I got to talk to another human being in a while. What’s a chore for others is a gift to the disabled. Do not underestimate the importance of human contact or the amount of healing it can do.

   I’ve tried multiple times talking to my parish about its accessibility and no one seems to want to listen. Even when I have ideas that include no cost to them. I’ve considered that money is an issue that’s why I came up with ideas where they wouldn’t have to pay. Still no one wants to listen. Of course I haven’t actually tried talking to the priest yet and our office staff is… Let’s just say I’ve never been to any church with office staff that were so… unwilling to help. And that’s assuming you can actually get them to pick up the phone or call you back. Which is extremely rare. People in wheelchairs should not be kept out of churches of all places. The one place where God is physically present and where we are expected to love one another no matter what is the one place people who are handicapped apparently still can’t get into in 2025. That’s pretty baffling.

   Have you ever asked yourself why churches do not have to be accessible when every other business in this country is required to be? Apparently our government and our churches seemed to believe that giving the government any kind of power over the church even over issues that are perfectly in line with the Christian mission was unacceptable. It was ruled as unconstitutional to demand churches be accessible to people in wheelchairs. And churches took great advantage of this little loophole for themselves and never even bothered to consider making themselves handicapped accessible. Sad that we actually need the government to tell people to be handicapped accessible for them to do that. It shouldn’t be that way. All businesses AND churches should be willing to do that work without being told. 

   People often make excuses and defend the church on this issue. There is no defense. There’s just not. I remember when I first learned churches were exempt from the Americans With Disabilities Act. It was ruled unconstitutional to tell a church to put in a ramp… honestly that had me wanting to vomit. I’m sorry… they are against the government having them be accessible to people who are differently abled? We’re talking about Christian churches right? Not the church of Satan? Truly? That seriously boggles the mind. Talk about not practicing what they preach.

   It’s time to stop making excuses for the churches that are not accessible. It’s time that every one of us goes to our parishes and requests that people in wheelchairs have the ability to get in. The more people speak up the more we won’t be able to be ignored. Disabled people are part of our community and we should let them know they are welcome at any time. We should let them know that we think of them and that we consider them whenever we reconstruct our churches. Isolation leads to depression which lead leads to a higher risk of suicide, drug addiction, sex addiction, alcoholism, morbid obesity, anxiety disorders, I could go all day. As Christians it is our job to prevent those risks where we can. Make churches accessible.