[Access] Agenda for Wednesday evening's meeting

[Cindy Pitcairn]

  UUCE ACCESSIBILITY COMMITTEE MEETING
June 11, 2008, 7 pm
Agenda

Chalice-lighting and Reading (5 min)
Brief check-ins (5 min)
Agenda and Time/Item Adjustments

OLD BUSINESS
Report on Game Night (5 min)

NEW BUSINESS
Plans for June 29th worship service (5 min)

Future Plans - Open Discussion* (40 min)
---- Break (5 min) ----
Future Plans, cont'd. (35 min)

Future Meetings: months, times, and space reservation (15 min)
Likes and Wishes (5 minutes)
________________________________
*Future Plans (Points for discussion)

Seven of our members and friends use wheelchairs, three are blind, 
several use
walkers--that's at least 3% of our congregation with obvious 
accessibility issues. Add in
those who have less obvious, but more common, disabling conditions, such 
as hearing
loss, diabetes, severe arthritis, obesity, and various stages of major 
diseases (cancer,
heart disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's) and you have a far greater 
percentage.

Although we have made some progress: architectural modifications, 
childcare provision,
an excellent sound system, and the establishment of this Accessibility 
Committee, there
has been no major thrust against ableism. In fact, many in the 
congregation are only
vaguely, if at all, aware of the concept.

We have several ideas :
• a full- or half-day workshop,
• official affiliation of our church with other churches pursuing 
accessibility (such as
the National Organization on Disability's Accessible Congregations Program),
• outreach to other churches in the area, perhaps a panel discussion on 
the issue of
access,
• clarification that our committee's role in the church structure, and, 
by extension,
that of accessibility, does not fit neatly into one category, such as 
Social Justice,
Facilities Council, Events, or Membership, but is an over-riding concern