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Building a Faith Community Without Barriers

An inclusive faith community is not just a moral responsibility, it’s a powerful opportunity to expand, enrich, and deepen engagement among your members. With 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. living with a disability, many gatherings unintentionally create obstacles that limit full participation in services, community events, and outreach. By prioritizing accessibility in your organizational operations, gatherings, and digital communication, leaders can create a truly welcoming space, strengthen connections, and ensure that every individual, regardless of ability, feels seen, valued, and empowered to participate fully.

Building a Faith Community Without Barriers

An inclusive faith community is not just a moral responsibility, it’s a powerful opportunity to expand, enrich, and deepen engagement among your members. With 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. living with a disability, many gatherings unintentionally create obstacles that limit full participation in services, community events, and outreach. 

All The Tools You Need To Build An Inclusive Community

This course equips faith leaders with practical frameworks, real-world examples, and actionable tools to remove barriers to participation across physical, digital, and community spaces. You’ll learn how to move from good intentions to intentional design—so belonging is built into how your community functions, not left to chance.

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1 in 3 Families Simply Stay Home

According to national survey data cited in multiple studies, roughly one-third of people with disabilities and their families avoid attending worship services because of physical, communication, or attitudinal barriers within their faith communities

 

+14% Attendance Gap Closed by Accessibility

Accessibility improvements directly correlate with attendance: individuals with severe disabilities attend faith services up to 14 percentage points less often than non-disabled peers—yet communities that invested in physical and attitudinal accessibility significantly narrowed that gap

+47% More Vital Faith Communities

Inclusive practices, welcoming, accommodations, and leadership commitment, accounted for 47% of the variance in whether a faith community was rated vibrant, participatory, and accessible

 

 

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Accessibility Strengthens Belonging, and Your Community’s Future.

Assess How Your Community is Doing.

 

Creating inclusive worship isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a wise investment in engagement, sustainability, and growth.


Bridge the gap between good intentions and real accessibility with evidence-based strategies from 50+ years of combined expertise. Faith-agnostic approach that works across all worship communities.

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Accessibility is about dignity. It’s about respecting people enough to design for them.

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Judy Heumann

Pioneer of Disability Rights

MEET CHERYL

Cheryl Mitchell is a seasoned accessibility leader with over 25 years of experience in disability policy, inclusive research, and program development. As co-founder of AccessForge, she has dedicated her career to advancing accessibility and empowering organizations to design for inclusion from the start. Her work bridges empathy, evidence, and impact, turning accessibility into measurable progress.

 

Read My Story

FIND THE PROGRAM THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU

TRAINING

Learn how to make your faith-based community welcoming to everyone that walks through your doors.

 

1:1 CONSULTING

You don't need to take the journey on alone, get access to expert guidance to design for true belonging.

 

PEER SUPPORT

Join a community of fellow faith leaders as they too choose to grow through accessibility.

 

Learn Why Belonging is By Design ™

Faith communities face real challenges around growth, aging membership, and engagement. This explores how accessibility addresses those challenges, positioning inclusive design as a smart, strategic investment that strengthens community and ensures sustainability.

Belonging Starts with Accessibility: A Call to Faith Communities

Faith Communities Are Leaving People Behind. Accessibility Can Chan...

Accessibility Is the Smartest Sustainability Strategy for Faith Com...