Travelling around the country these last few months, I have been noticing more and more dioceses and archdioceses cutting back on services to people who are disabled and/or deaf. More than half of the dioceses in the United States do not have one full-time person whose sole responsibility is ministry to this expanding community. Some of these dioceses might respond, "we have made our church buildings more accessible." Truthfully, many more church buildings are accessible than twenty years ago. However, making a building physically accessible is the easiest kind of accessibility. Most dioceses of the Catholic Church pay little or no attention to people with disabilities or their families. Some examples:
a) there are few dioceses that have any staff person responsible for the religious education of children with disabilites. Many of the families of these children have long ago left the Church;
b) there are very few people with disabilities whom the Church hires as employees. There is no aggressive campaign by dioceses to do this;
c) the population of persons with disabilities is expanding; more "boomers" are becoming disabled; we have a mushrooming population of "wounded warriors" returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have a multiplicity of disabling conditions. Outside of a few dioceses like Washington, DC, little is being done in response to this phenomenon.
Those who lead the Church love to talk about how all are welcome into the Body of Christ. In terms of putting your money where your mouth is, this is simply false. The number of people with disabilities in our church communities compared with the number of people with disabilities in our society is incredibly disproportionate. Most people who are deaf and/or disabled simply do not feel welcome, do not feel they belong, are not hired for any jobs, given any responsibilities, and generally believe that the Church is only interested in you if you are able-bodied.