Introduction

IDNO provides resources to faith communities to help them engage with and support people with mobility, vision, hearing, dietary or respiratory impairments.   We also provide assistance to people living with these disabilities as well as their families, caregivers, and others who support them.

Services

IDNO provides a wide variety of resources to our members.  They include:

• Workshops and training programs
• Checklists for evaluating architectural, programmatic, attitudinal and communication barriers.
• Inclusion ideas and strategies
• Interpretation of the architectural accommodations included in ADA legislation.
• Worship resources
• Usher/Greeter training manuals
• Technical advisory services
• Referrals to local support agencies
• Web-based information referrals.

Getting Started

There are a number of steps that your faith community can take in improving your welcome and inclusion of people with disabilities.  It's important to realize that each new step represents a level of greater commitment.

• Create an awareness of barriers that prevent children and adults from becoming fully integrated into the full life of your faith community.
• Identify existing barriers to inclusion. 
• Develop a prioritized plan of removing those barriers.
• Recruit people with disabilities into leadership roles.
• Accept and accommodate ordained leaders with disabilities.
• Establish a new consciousness within your community about people with disabilities.
• Promote the on-going transformation as an inclusive community.                                                                                                                            

Resources

The Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines - www.access-board.gov/adaag/htm/adaag.htm

The American Foundation for the Blind - www.afb.org

Hearing Loss Association - www.shhh.org

National Spinal Cord Injury Association - www.spinalcord.org