Faith community preparedness ยท Accessibility
Accessibility and Functional-Needs Planning
A service is not open if people cannot get the message, reach it, use it and leave safely.
The neighbors most likely to need a cool room, a meal or a check-in call are often the ones a building or an announcement leaves out. This guide covers accessibility and functional needs in a congregation's emergency services, starting with how to test a service with members who have disabilities, from the first message to the ride home. It also covers what the federal standard says about service animals and communication, and how to be honest about what you cannot yet offer.
General U.S. guidance. Legal duties vary by institution and operating arrangement. This guide uses federal emergency-access guidance as a practical floor and directs you to local legal review.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
The five-minute answer
Check the whole chain, not only the ramp.
A cooling room is not open to a person who never heard it was open, could not get a ride, could not get through the door, or could not use the toilet once inside. Access is a chain of four links, and one broken link closes the service for that person.
The Department of Justice's emergency planning guidance covers the same chain for public agencies: accessible alerts, transportation, shelter spaces, communication, service animals, medication and backup power.[1]
Most of the fixes are small and cheap when found early: a second sign, a moved table, a printed copy in large type. They are found by asking the people who will use the service to try it.
Our estimate of realistic effort: a two-hour walk-through with three or four members who use the building differently, then one follow-up visit to confirm the fixes.
01
Receive the message
Can every member learn that the service is open, in a form they can take in: heard, seen, read, in their language?
02
Reach the service
Is there a ride, a drop-off point, a route without steps, a door that opens and a sign that says which entrance?
03
Use the service
Once inside, can a person move around, sit, communicate with staff, use the toilet and keep their equipment and service animal with them?
04
Leave safely
Is there an accessible way out in an emergency, a ride home, and a handoff if the person needs something you cannot give?
Who decides what works
Plan with people, not around assumptions.
The Department of Justice's shelter guidance says the most effective way to plan for disability-related needs is to involve community members with a wide variety of disabilities in the planning itself. They can name the needs that will come up and the local resources that can meet them.[6]
The federal planning guide for houses of worship makes a similar point about your own planning team. Where possible, it suggests including people with disabilities and older members.[8] It also says to ask of every planned action how it will affect children, older people and people with disabilities.[8]
One person cannot speak for every disability. A wheelchair user, a member who is deaf, a member with low vision and a parent of an autistic child will each find different problems in the same hallway.
The sequence, start to finish
Invite the people who will use the service
Ask members with different disabilities, and their caregivers, to plan and test with you from the start.
Walk the four links
Follow one service from the announcement to the ride home: receive the message, reach the site, use the service, leave safely.
Record each barrier
Write down the step it blocks, the workaround for now, the lasting fix, an owner and a date.
Fix, move or change the offer
Correct the barrier, move the service to a room without it, or stop advertising what people cannot use.
Retest with the same people
A finding is closed when the person who found it says it works.
What the law does and does not say
ADA.gov states that Title III of the ADA does not apply to religious organizations.[4] The Department of Justice guidance quoted on this page was written for state and local governments and for businesses that serve the public.
A government program or a public-serving operating partner using your building is generally covered by the ADA in its own right.[1][4] State or local law may reach further. Ask local counsel what binds your institution. Plan to the standard either way, because the people who need it are your neighbors whether or not a statute names you.
Four kinds of barrier
FEMA's guide for emergency managers lists communication barriers, administrative barriers, physical barriers, and personal and social barriers.[9]
It is easy to look only at the physical ones. A sign-up form that exists only online, or a rule that help must be requested in person at the office, shuts people out as surely as a flight of steps.
Ask, and pay attention to the answer
Invite members by name and tell them what you are asking for: an hour of their time to try the service and tell you where it fails. If you would pay any other specialist for that hour, pay them.
Asking can feel awkward, as if you were pointing at someone's disability. Keep the request about the building. One way to say it: "We are setting up a cooling room and want it to work for you. Would you spend an hour trying it with us and telling us where it falls short?"
Ask a local disability organization or center for independent living to join one walk-through. They have seen the same problems in other buildings.
Keep a record
Write down who took part, each barrier found, what was fixed and what is still open with a name beside it. The record is what lets next year's team start where you stopped.
Link one: the message
Send every decision more than one way.
FEMA's continuity guidance, in its section on planning for an organization's own personnel with disabilities, says organizations should provide multiple and redundant methods of communication, as one method may not be accessible to everyone.[10] We apply the same reasoning to the people you serve. For alerts, the Department of Justice asks public agencies to pair audible and visual methods and to use telephone calls, text messages and email together.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: Link one: the message
Announcements
Say it and show it. Every spoken announcement also goes on a screen, a whiteboard or a printed sheet. Every printed notice is also read aloud and sent as plain text that a screen reader can speak.
Put the access details in the announcement itself: which entrance has no steps, where to be dropped off, whether pets are accommodated, how to ask for something different.
Documents
The Department of Justice lists the formats that make written information usable for people who are blind or have low vision. They are large print, Braille, an electronic copy that works with a screen reader, an audio recording, or a person who reads it aloud.[2]
In practice: keep the source file, print a few copies in large type, and train volunteers to read any form aloud on request.[1]
Conversation
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the same guidance lists interpreters, real-time captioning and written materials.[2] For a short, simple exchange, writing notes back and forth can be enough. A longer or more serious conversation needs an interpreter.
Keep paper and pens at every service point. Know before the event how you would get a sign language interpreter, in person or by video.
Phone calls
The free telecommunications relay service, reached by dialing 7-1-1, connects people who use text telephones or text messaging with people who use voice phones.[2]
Tell whoever answers your phone that a relay call is an ordinary call, and to stay on the line while the assistant explains.
Family members as interpreters
The federal rule for covered organizations is that they may not require a person to bring their own interpreter.[2] They also may not rely on a child to interpret, except in an emergency with an immediate threat when no interpreter is available.[2]
Adopt it as your practice. A child should not be the one to relay a medical question or bad news to a parent.
Speech and understanding
The guidance for staff is plain: listen attentively, allow more time, and do not be embarrassed to ask the person to repeat a word you did not understand.[2]
Speak to the person, not to their companion. Use short sentences and one question at a time. A picture card for water, toilet, medicine, phone and exit helps across disabilities and languages.
The Department of Justice's key test is to consider how complex the communication is and what the person's usual method is.[2] When you are not sure which method someone prefers, ask them.
Link two: getting there and in
Five questions that rule a room in or out.
The Department of Justice wrote a quick-check survey to screen older buildings before anyone spends time on a detailed inspection. If most answers are no, it advises looking at those problems first, before a detailed survey, or considering another location.[5] The questions on the right are taken from it.
Open this sectionClose this section: Link two: getting there and in
The survey is archived guidance, written for shelters and based on an earlier edition of the design standards. Use it as a first screen. A person qualified in accessibility should confirm measurements before you spend money on changes. If you rent or share the building, bring the owner or manager on the walk-through, because they decide what can change.
Then think about the trip. Ready.gov tells people with disabilities to plan accessible transportation ahead and to check with local transit providers and the emergency management agency.[7] Find out what accessible transport exists in your area and put that phone number in your announcement.
The quick check
Arrival
Is there a sidewalk connecting the parking area and the drop-off point to the walkway that leads to the building?
Entrance
Is there a route without steps from that sidewalk to the main entrance? If not, is there another entrance without steps, connected by a sidewalk?
Each service area
Is there a route without steps from the accessible entrance to each place the service happens: seating, food, supplies, toilets?
Lifts and elevators
If an elevator or lift is the only accessible route, is there backup power to run it for an extended period?
Toilet room
Is there room for a person using a wheelchair to turn around, either a 60-inch circle or a T-shaped space? Is at least one stall at least 60 inches wide and 56 inches deep (for a wall-mounted toilet)?
The same checklist describes an accessible drop-off area. It has a level aisle beside the vehicle, at least 5 feet deep and 20 feet long, with a curb ramp where a curb separates it from the route to the door.[5]
Walk the route again in the conditions you expect: after dark, in rain or snow, with the power out and the automatic door dead. A route that works on a dry Sunday morning is half tested. The facility assessment guide covers the rest of the building.
Link three: using the service
Keep the route clear after the room fills.
Rooms pass inspection empty and fail when in use. Chairs drift into the aisle, a supply pallet lands in front of the accessible toilet, charging cords cross the path to the door. Set the room up the way it will really run, with the furniture, the boxes and the cables, and then walk it.
Open this sectionClose this section: Link three: using the service
Seating
Mix chairs with arms and chairs without. Leave open spaces among the seats, not at the back, so a person using a wheelchair sits with the people they came with.
A quieter place
The Department of Justice lists a lower-stress area among the steps for shelters.[1] Ready.gov's advice for people with dementia is a quiet corner away from the exits, and for people with developmental disabilities, headphones and a way to cut down visual clutter.[7]
A side room with soft light and a few chairs does it.
Toilets
An accessible toilet that is locked, used for storage or reached only by stairs is not an accessible toilet. Check it at the start of every shift.
Signs and light
Large, high-contrast signs at eye level for the entrance, toilets, quiet room and exit. Enough light to read lips and signs, including when the power is out. Ready.gov suggests a battery lantern for exactly that.[7]
Offering help
Ask before you help, and wait for the answer. Say what you are about to do. A wheelchair, a walker, a cane or a communication device is part of the person: do not move it, lean on it or take it away. If someone declines help, believe them. These four habits are ours, not an agency rule.
Service animals
Know the standard before opening day.
The moment a volunteer at the door has to decide about a dog is the wrong moment to look up the rule. Brief every greeter on the federal standard. A government program or a public-serving operating partner using your building is generally covered by the ADA in its own right.[1][4]
Open this sectionClose this section: Service animals
As noted above, ADA.gov says Title III does not apply to religious organizations, and state or local law may define service animals more broadly than the ADA does.[4][3] Ask counsel what binds you. Plan to the standard either way.
Household pets are a separate decision. Make it in advance and say it in the announcement, with the nearest place that does take pets.
What a service animal is
A dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. A dog whose only function is comfort or emotional support does not qualify under the ADA.[3]
The two questions
When it is not obvious what service the dog provides, staff may ask only two questions. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? What work or task has it been trained to perform?[3]
Staff may not ask about the person's disability, ask for medical papers, an ID card or training documents, or ask the dog to demonstrate.[3]
Allergies and fear
Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons to refuse access. When both a handler and a person with an allergy are present, seat them, if possible, in different parts of the room or in different rooms.[3]
When a dog can be asked to leave
Only if it is out of control and the handler does not take effective action, or if it is not housebroken. The person must then be offered the service without the animal.[3]
Staff are not required to care for or supervise the dog.[3] In a shelter, the Department of Justice asks operators to have food, water and waste supplies for service animals.[1]
Power, medication and equipment
Promise only the power you have tested.
For some people a power outage is an inconvenience. For others it means a breathing device without power, medicine in a refrigerator that has stopped, or a power wheelchair that cannot be charged.
Open this sectionClose this section: Power, medication and equipment
The Department of Justice's shelter checklist explains why shelters need backup power: to refrigerate medicines, to run supplemental oxygen and breathing devices, and to charge power wheelchairs and scooters.[5] It asks two questions of any site. Is there a backup source of electrical power? Is there a refrigerator, or coolers with a good supply of ice?[5]
If your answers are no, that does not stop you offering a daytime room. It does mean your announcement must not suggest otherwise.
What you can offer
Say exactly what exists: "outlets for charging phones and mobility device batteries while building power is on," or "a generator-backed outlet for medical devices, tested monthly." Never the second unless it is true and a qualified person runs it.
Medication that needs cold
Ready.gov advises people to keep their own cooler and chemical ice packs available to chill medicines that need to be refrigerated.[7] Our rule: volunteers do not store, sort or hand out anyone's medicine.
What to tell people ahead of time
Share Ready.gov's advice with your members before the season. It tells people to talk to their doctor about keeping equipment running in an outage and to ask their power company about its priority restoration list.[7] It also tells them to know more than one place that can provide dialysis or other life-sustaining treatment.[7]
When the need is beyond you
Know where a person goes if your room cannot keep their equipment running, and who arranges the ride. Agree that with emergency management or public health before the event, and write the phone number on the shift card.
Information and privacy
Ask what support is needed, not what the diagnosis is.
To arrange a ride you need to know that a person needs a vehicle with a lift. You do not need to know why. Record the instruction and leave the explanation with the person it belongs to.
Open this sectionClose this section: Information and privacy
Give people a way to ask for a change without explaining themselves in public: a phone number, a card at the welcome table, a named person to speak to quietly.
Write this
- "Needs an accessible vehicle"
- "Text, do not call"
- "Large-print copy"
- "Seat near the exit"
- "Arrives with a service dog"
Not this
- a diagnosis or a medication
- how the disability came about
- a volunteer's view of how the person is coping
- anything about money, immigration or family
- a label such as "vulnerable" or "at risk"
Registries belong to public agencies
The Department of Justice describes voluntary, confidential registries of people with disabilities as a planning tool for state and local governments.[1] Ready.gov tells individuals that many city and county emergency management agencies keep one, and to contact the local office.[7] Point your members to the official registry and let them decide. Do not build your own list of who has which condition. If you run a check-in service, the wellness checks guide shows how to keep it to a name, a number and an instruction.
Preparing volunteers
Twenty minutes of briefing before the doors open.
The Department of Justice's list for shelters includes training staff and volunteers in practical skills, with moving a person to and from a wheelchair as its example, and in reading printed information aloud on request.[1] Twenty minutes is our estimate. A support site needs less than a shelter, but every volunteer who meets the public should know the six things below.
Open this sectionClose this section: Preparing volunteers
The route
Every volunteer can point to the step-free entrance, the accessible toilet, the quiet room and the accessible exit without looking at a map.
The dog rule
When it is not obvious what service the dog provides, staff may ask only two questions. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? What work or task has it been trained to perform?[3] Nothing more. Greeters practice saying them, and do not ask when the dog's work is obvious.
The paper and pen
Where the note pads, large-print copies and picture cards are kept, and that reading aloud is part of the job.
Hands off unless trained
Our rule: volunteers do not lift, transfer or physically guide anyone unless they have been trained for it and assigned to it. If a person asks for that kind of help, find the trained person or call for assistance.
A person who seems lost or distressed
Ready.gov's advice for dementia is to respond to the feeling being expressed, with a calm sentence such as "You're frightened and want to go home. It's ok. I'm right here with you." Ready.gov also says not to leave the person alone.[7] Find their companion or the shift lead.
Emergency exit
Who helps whom if the room must be cleared, which exit has no steps, and what your fire department advises for people who cannot use stairs. The federal planning guide asks that evacuation plans account for people with disabilities along with their service animals and assistive devices.[8]
Proof and stop conditions
Test it with real users before you call it accessible.
Link four, leaving safely, is the one most often skipped. Before opening, have your testers travel the full path and then leave by the emergency exit. The stop conditions listed here are our rules, not an agency's.
The proof test
- send a sample alert in every format you plan to use
- travel from the drop-off point through the service and out again
- use the toilet and the quiet room
- ask a question in writing and get an answer
- set out furniture, supplies and cables as they will really be
- cut the lights and practice the step-free exit
When a barrier cannot be fixed, there are three honest options: move the service, arrange an alternative through a partner, or choose a different role for your institution.
Next step: run the accessible-service review
The review sheet tracks each barrier from discovery to retest. Then return to the faith community preparedness guide.
Questions leaders ask
Settle these before the first guest arrives.
Does the ADA apply to our house of worship?
ADA.gov states that Title III does not apply to religious organizations. A government program or a public-serving operating partner using your building is generally covered by the ADA in its own right, and state or local law may go further. Ask local counsel, and plan to the standard either way.
What is the fastest way to find our access problems?
Ask three or four members who use the building differently to try the service from announcement to exit, and write down where it fails. The Department of Justice's quick check of entrance, routes and toilet rooms is a good first screen.
What questions can a volunteer ask about a service dog?
When it is not obvious what service the dog provides, staff may ask only two questions. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? What work or task has it been trained to perform? Nothing about the disability, and no request for papers.
How do we communicate with someone who is deaf?
Ask how they prefer to communicate. Writing notes works for short, simple exchanges. Longer or more serious conversations call for a sign language interpreter or real-time captioning. Keep paper and pens at every service point.
Can a child interpret for a parent?
The federal rule for covered organizations allows it only in an emergency with an immediate threat when no interpreter is available. Adopt that as your practice and arrange an interpreter another way.
Should we keep a list of members with disabilities?
No. Point members to the voluntary registry many local emergency management agencies keep. For your own services, record only the instruction a volunteer needs, such as "needs an accessible vehicle," never a diagnosis.
Can people plug in medical equipment at our site?
Only promise what you have tested. Say exactly which outlets are available and whether they have backup power. Share Ready.gov's advice to plan with a doctor and the power company, and know where to send someone whose need is beyond you.
What if our building cannot be made accessible?
Move the service to a room or a partner site that works, arrange an alternative through a partner, or choose a role that does not bring the public into that space. Do not advertise a service people cannot use.
Primary sources
Planning references
Each source below was opened and read on October 12, 2026. The Department of Justice documents were written for state and local governments and for businesses that serve the public, and two are archived technical assistance based on an earlier edition of the design standards. The text above says so where it matters.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA.gov, Emergency Planning. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA Requirements: Effective Communication (last updated February 28, 2020). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA Requirements: Service Animals (last updated February 28, 2020). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA.gov, Businesses That Are Open to the Public. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA Checklist for Emergency Shelters (July 26, 2007, archived technical assistance). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, The ADA and Emergency Shelters: Access for All in Emergencies and Disasters (archived technical assistance). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- Ready.gov, People with Disabilities. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA and federal partners, Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship (June 2013). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA, Engaging Faith-Based and Community Organizations: Planning Considerations for Emergency Managers (April 2025). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA, Continuity Guidance Circular, February 2018 (2024 update). Accessed October 12, 2026.
This guide is educational. It is not a legal opinion or an accessibility survey. Have a person qualified in accessibility and your local counsel review the actual building, service and partner arrangement.
Continue reading
What’s next
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Disability and Access Needs
Planning guidance for people with disabilities and access and functional needs: support networks, equipment, communication, service animals, and accessible shelters.
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Should a Church Be a Disaster Shelter?
A decision guide for houses of worship asked to shelter people overnight: the four honest roles, FEMA's space figures, the gates to pass and when to say no.
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Wellness Checks That Protect Privacy
Set up a voluntary check-in call program for your faith community: what to promise, what to record, the caller script and when a volunteer calls 911 first.