To celebrate the upcoming Minute Man March on May 5th, our combined Multiage and Middler Sunday school classes met on Sunday to celebrate our abilities, disabilities and VisitAbility!  Visitability is a term used to describe a measure of a place’s ease of access for people with disabilities.  We acted out a story about a young girl named Libby who used a wheelchair, and after her best friend moved to a new house, she wasn’t able to go visit her because there were stairs up to every entrance and the bathroom doorways were too narrow.  But instead of feeling sad and frustrated and powerless (and invisible), Libby fought for VisitAbility in her neighborbood – successfully lobbying to build a new housing development with VisitAble houses for people of all abilities!  She dreamed she had a Cape of VisitAbility that allowed her to fly all over the world, and all the other children had capes too!

To measure the visitAbility in our own church, our children split up into four teams on a scavenger hunt throughout our building?  Do you know how many visitAble entrances we have?  Do you know how many visitAble bathrooms we have?  What accommodations do we make for people with visual and hearing impairments?  What else could we be doing to make our building and community more visitAble?

After our scavenger hunt, we explored writing in Braille and the children then started creating their own Capes of VisitAbility to wear during the Minute Man March.  We will continue painting these capes this coming Sunday, along with welcoming two very special visitors from Minute Man Arc who will come talk to us about their experiences.  Come VISIT us on Sunday to learn more!