Second in a series celebrating Disability Pride Month

How do you center the well-being of people with disabilities in your congregation, workplace, or classroom? Why does it matter to consider this question now? Not only is it a question that surfaced in a course I taught last spring on Disability Theologies, but recent changes in domestic policies based on ableist assumptions deny the systemic oppression of people with disabilities. 

My approach to teaching has evolved and changed as a result of my research in disability theology and ethics and a special project that I conducted interviewing siblings growing up in families affected by serious mental illness. You are probably aware that professors spend most of their time acquiring knowledge to become experts in their field. Professors assume a particular sort of social capital within academic institutions and their classrooms. Disability theologies and disability justice movements challenge ableist assumptions and norms in the academy, religious organizations, and our society by calling us to analyze the use of power and explore connections between ableism and other systems of oppression. 

Practically speaking, this means if you are committed to teaching disability justice you chip away at ableism as much as possible within the institutional structures. Centering the embodied knowledge and expertise of disabled persons in dialogue is essential. My work in this area helped me to reframe my role as a professor in terms of accompaniment as opposed to expert knower. For example, when you walk into my office for a meeting, my desk is positioned against a wall, allowing me to turn my chair and be fully present for the conversation, while also providing space for the sufficient movement of wheelchairs or other assistive devices. Universal Design for Learning provides the framework for all of my classes. I start each class with a moment of meditation to calm overactive nervous systems and provide moments of silence for each of us to center ourselves, both in online and in-person spaces. PowerPoint and other presentations are reviewed for accessibility, font choice, and representation in imagery. I also work as much as possible within the constraints set for me by an institution to disrupt the policing of time in the classroom. I could go on, and I am sure you have and use many other strategies to center the well-being of people with disabilities in the classroom. 

Ultimately, teaching disability theology and for disability justice is about forming a new disposition and stance toward life.

However, what I have learned is that teaching disability justice means more than reorienting my approach to classroom learning and developing new strategies to convey ideas; it means deepening my understanding of the purpose of teaching and mentoring. Ultimately, teaching disability theology and for disability justice is about forming a new disposition and stance toward life. Disability is a norm, not an anomaly. Disability theologies challenge the concept of disability itself and imagines liberation and justice embodied in communities of belonging.

At the end of our study, students taking Disability Theologies do a research and advocacy project as their final assignment. I don’t set too many parameters, which some students find frustrating. But I hope that they explore the formation of new stances toward life. Many do. Here are some questions that emerged:

• What if we shift our mindset from seeing people with disabilities as burdens on society in need of care and support to inexhaustible reservoirs of possibility?
• What if churches begin by viewing people with disabilities as mentors instead of only as those “you are called to serve”? How would rituals and liturgies be transformed?
• How would our domestic policies change if we centered the well-being of people with disabilities?

Here are some books written by mentors who can help us imagine new forms of community! 

Monica Coleman, Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith.

Amy Kenny, My Body is Not Your Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church.

Julia Watts Belser, Loving Our Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole. 

What books or resources have transformed your understanding of disability justice?