For people with disability
We pray that people living with disabilities may be at the centre of attention in society, and that institutions may offer inclusive programs which value their active participation.
Some people are born with an impairment and others gain an impairment because of an illness or as they get older. A disability is something that may affect how we do things and may mean we need different things to allow us to make our contribution to our church community.
Each month we will share the Pope's intentions. As we are only sharing this at the end of the month we'll link this theme to the one in January when we will be focusing on diversity.
Think of the ways we already help to make our community inclusive:
- We have slopes and a lift to help those with mobility impairments to get into church - this helps people with mobility restrictions as well as those who bring children in a pram
- We have newsletters in paper format and online on our Parish website where people with visual impairments can increase the font size to help them read.
- We have spaces at the front of the Cathedral and space at St Thomas More for people who use a wheelchair to move around.
- We have a priest who knows British Sign Language - why not ask him to teach you how to do the sign of peace😊
- We use simple signs (Makaton) to help us with some of our songs in Children's Liturgy - this helps us remember some people use sign to communicate and lets our little ones join in even though they may not know all the words.
- We have non-wheat hosts for those with chronic health conditions which means they can't receive the usual hosts.
Have you seen this notice in the porch, can you work out what it means? This is sign language for people who are Deaf and use British Sign Language.
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| British Sign Language |