Have you ever thought about how you would respond if a person with a disability came into your business and wanted to access your services?

If you are a school, have you ever considered how you would provide service to parents with disabilities who wanted to be involved in their child’s education?

If you work in a hospital, do you know how to provide effective service and interact well with a client who is disabled? Do you know how to help them find accessible medical equipment?

If you work for a church, is your church actively seeking ways to welcome people with disabilities and to learn how to build positive relationships with them? Do you know how disability and spirituality interact and how to provide pastoral care in light of the difficulties that people with disabilities often experience?

If you feel you could use assistance with these things or related matters, let’s talk. I am available to provide:

• Awareness presentations for educators, medical professionals, social workers, students
• Inclusion training for churches
• Presentations for IT classes
• And more.

To book me for your church or community center, please send email.

What You Can Gain

Special Information for Medical Providers

If you are a medical provider, Why not gather with your colleagues for a presentation? Here are some things you can learn:

• how to communicate effectively with clients who have disabilities, including how to de-escalate emotionally tense situations
• how to protect the privacy of your clients with disabilities
• the impact of chronic illness and disability on your clients’ daily life and why it may hinder compliance with instructions
• interactions between disabilities and medical conditions
• how to teach a client with a disability to use medical devices
• how to conduct a search for accessible medical equipment
• strategies for referral to appropriate support resources

Presentations for Religious Groups

Do people with disabilities attend your place of worship? If the answer is no, then I hope you will get in touch. I often hear from congregations that they will make changes when there is a need for them. People with disabilities are part of the community who need your hospitality. When they meet you, they want to know that your church is ready to welcome them as people who can participate fully.

Are you ready for them to participate fully in your choir, in outreach activities, in any areas of leadership? If you have read this and begun to shake your head, you have a great opportunity for growth and an untapped source for enthusiastic disciples.

How many people with disabilities attend your seminary? How many are studying biblical languages? If they are exempt because it is “too hard,” then let’s talk and see how it can be made possible.

If any of the above situations describe you, I would like to speak to you and help you overcome the gap. Here are some things you will learn:

• how to initiate conversations with people who have clearly identifiable disabilities
• an overview of theological issues concerning disability and faith
• how to accommodate a person with disabilities in various scenarios in places of worship
• when a specialized disability ministry can help and when it can hinder
• for seminaries, how to accommodate a person with disabilities in biblical languages or other kinds of courses
• Presentations can be provided virtually or in-person.

Full-length Presentations

• D.Min. defense: Course Development and Student Success in an Online Biblical Language Program
• Hebrew and Advocacy
• Audio Materials in the Teaching of Biblical Hebrew to Students Who Are Blind
• Weeding My Garden: Growing Up with Blindness and Achieving as a Scholar of Biblical Languages
• Using Technology to Meet the Needs of Biblical Language Scholars Who Are Blind

Presentations for Student Groups

I am available to speak to groups of students as young as kindergarten regarding disability awareness. In the following sample, responses from children have been edited out in order to preserve privacy. My presentations for children are designed to be interactive so that young children are engaged and learn actively.

Please note: The following presentation was given to children about my work with a dog guide. I am happy to tailor presentations to groups of children according to age level or to groups of adults.

I talk with third graders about dog guides’ work and why dog guides are not guard dogs.

Bio

I am an active advocate for accessible health care, ADA compliance, integration/inclusion in faith-based agencies and universities, and improved community awareness about disabilities. I am a person with a disability who is employed in higher education as a professor of Biblical studies. With two other scholars, I received the Jacob Bolotin award from the National Federation of the Blind in 2016 in recognition for innovatioon in access to Biblical language texts and tools. I currently serve on the board of the National Organization of Blind Educators. I have served in the past as a member of the Indiana Inclusion Council, the health care access committee of the American Council of the Blind, the education advisory board of Bookshare, and as chair of the ADA advisory committee for Stephen F. Austin State University.