Disability and Barriers to Accessing Faith in the US

Abstract

In America there are many barriers a person with disabilities may face in the effort to practice their religion. Chief among these is the fact that places of worship and other religious institutions like private schools are almost entirely exempt from disability law in the US. They are generally not beholden to the accessibility standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This exemption is largely due to lobbying by Christian churches during the debate accompanying the passage of the ADA, and its ratification in 1990. The Christian community at the time was concerned with the cost of implementing the ADA, as well as the separation of church and state. However, the primary focus was on the fact that people with HIV were protected by the law, and conservative churches worried these protections would make it impossible to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Hence, the Christian community lobbied for, and won, a blanket exemption from the law. Other impediments to accessing faith include social and theological barriers perpetuated by historical legal and religious discrimination against people with disabilities. Work by progressive disabled authors like Alice Wong, and revolutionary theologians like Nancy Eiesland and Lisa D. Powell, strive to erase the stigma against people with disabilities in American society while promoting a liberatory theology of disability within the Christian faith.