You’re sitting in the pew of a church and watching the pastor preach. You’re able to discern his moving mouth but unable to hear or understand his words. All around you people nod and scratch notes on the sermon until they rise from their seats to sing. Once again, mouths stretch and wiggle, but the sound of their voices are lost.
This isn’t a bad dream; it’s the reality for deaf individuals who attend worship services. Unfortunately, the layout of a service wasn’t created with deaf people in mind and because of that, spirituality can feel inaccessible to deaf or hard of hearing individuals. In fact, less than five percent of churches in the United States offer any outreach to deaf people. Across many religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism – there is a lack of regard for deaf members of the religious community.
Thus, this inaccessibility is affecting deaf people from pursuing their spirituality in public.
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Really, there is no spiritual difference between deaf and hearing people. Both, if they have a desire to practice their spirituality. However, the lack of resources for deaf communities becomes a hindrance. As a result, deaf people miss out on the opportunities that hearing people may take for granted, which could easily lead them away from pursuing spiritual endeavors.
By ignoring the need for accessible deaf ministries, services aren’t acknowledging the importance of catering to deaf individuals within their communities. People tend to relegate them to their homes to read and reflect on spiritual texts by themselves, instead of enjoying a sermon in communion with other members of the community.
Take Alexis Kashar, for instance. As a deaf Jew, Kashar found it frustrating to attend services at her synagogue with her three hearing children when she couldn’t hear or understand what was being said. Her frustration was so great that she almost left the Jewish community entirely. She told the Jewish Telegraph Agency, “I realized if I don’t have access, my children won’t either. Why would I take them to synagogue when I have to sit there and have no idea what’s going on?”
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Although the situation needs significantly more recognition and improvement to attend to the needs of deaf people, there are online resources like Deaf Linx that locates churches offering services to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
But aside from leaving deaf individuals to do their own research, many churches can also take steps towards better accommodating these communities. Ministry Magazine suggests starting with better communication facilities. If a competent interpreter is not available, then you should have a skilled typist with a laptop who can type most of the sermon as it’s being preached.
You can also educate hearing members to help them understand the needs of deaf individuals. Advise them to read books about deafness, most of which can be found in local libraries. Some people may even want to learn sign language. In doing this, it will help churches become more “user-friendly for the sake of deaf members and visitors,” Ministry Magazine says.
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Encouraging your members to explore different ways of communicating is a good start. They don’t necessarily have to learn sign language, they could start by learning the alphabet and using that to finger spell. If that doesn’t work, they could even get comfortable with using a pad and pen.
“Making a hearing church truly accessible to deaf people requires serious commitment from staff, interpreters and congregants individually, as well as corporate commitment from the congregation as a whole,” Silent Blessings points out. However, taking small steps to changing things is always a good start.
For those of you who want to start by learning the alphabet, you can visit websites like Life Print to help you out.
