Accessibilities Committee

The Ohio Meadville District Accessibility Committee works to assist congregations in making their services more accessible to everyone.

Listen to the latest ‘UU World’ Audiorecordings of the articles in the latest UU World are now available. Award-winning audiobook actor Dick Hill reads articles from the Spring 2009 issue. The recordings can be listened to in most browsers or downloaded to your computer for playback using an .mp3 player. The audio version of UU World is produced in cooperation with the UUA Office of Accessibility Concerns.
http://www.uuworld.org/issues/audiorecordingsspring2009.shtml?n

We’re looking for a few good women and men, folks who may have one or more physical or mental challenges, or who live with such people, or who consider themselves as allies of accessibility-challenged people, or who work with others with these challenges.

We are the Accessibility Committee of the Ohio-Meadville District.  We meet about once every other month, and we try to scatter meetings around the District while centralizing them as much as possible.  We try to advocate on behalf of people with disabilities, as well as to serve as a learning or planning resource for individual congregations.

We need YOU.  We want members in every part of the District, especially away from Northeast Ohio (where our strength has been).  We really want people who have a special “drive” to work on behalf of others.

Please contact Doris Matthey, Accessibility Committee Chair, at 216-228-5270, or accessibilities at ohiomeadville.org

If your congregation is in need of resources or assistance in developing an accessibility plan or program, please contact the chair, Doris Matthey at accessibilities at ohiomeadville.org

Are you looking for ways to make your congregation more accessible? Check out the tabs from “Getting to Church” to “Beyond the Building” at the UUA website http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/accessibility/environment/index.shtml

Has your congregation taken steps to become an “Accessible” congregation?  If so, you may be eligible for the Ohio-Meadville District Accessibility Award.  This award, presented for the first time to the First Unitarian Church of Youngstown at the 2007 OMD Annual Meeting, it was not presente in 2008 due to a lack of applications. The plan is that this award will be presented annually to an O-MD congregation that has made a significant accomplishment with respect to Accessibility issues.  Accomplishments may be in areas including, but not limited to, architecture, environment, attitude and communication, and may be related to any aspect of church life.  For examples of what can be done in your church, check out the tabs from “Getting to Church” to “Beyond the Building” at the UUA website http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/accessibility/environment/index.shtml .  Maybe your congregation has taken steps in one or more of these areas.  If so, why not let us know about them by submitting a description of what you have done?  Any “project” undertaken within the past 3 yearswill be eligible for the award.

Submissions should be in the form of a written description of the project (the more descriptive the better), and should indicate when it was undertaken.  Supplemental photographs or other illustrative items are encouraged.  Details on the application process and the deadline will be posted when they are available.

If you have questions, contact the accessibilities committee at accessibilities at ohiomeadville.org