Accessibility for Sacred Ground Curriculum

Version 1.0 (April 2025) – This will be continually revised; feedback is welcome!

GENERAL:

Improving the accessibility of our Sacred Ground programs is an opportunity to care for one another – it is what Sacred Ground is all about. As a facilitator, it is important to work alongside participants to make sure that your group is fully inclusive of all members and that no one is left out or marginalized during the conversation or breaks/down-time/etc.
Before/during the first session, consider asking the group members to let you know if they have any accessibility needs and would benefit from accommodations. You can then have a one-on-one conversation with anyone who discloses this – both about how they would like to approach this issue with the group and about what accommodations they would like to use and how they should be implemented. Follow-up conversations will likely be needed to make sure that the circle is “working” for everyone.
Just like with any group, folks will have a range of experience and comfort with assistive technologies; do not assume pre-existing proficiency.

MATERIALS:

Facilitators should share all course materials for a session well in advance. This provides blind participants the time to fully engage with materials in preparation for the session (whether using a screen-reader and/or Braile). It is important that you do not add materials at the last minute or make curricular changes in real-time.
The visual materials in the course (videos, images, and maps) are particularly challenging for blind participants, since they aren’t fully “captured” by screen-readers. We do have, however, a wonderful set of written descriptions of these visual materials, made by facilitator Laurie Williams, which can be downloaded here. Additionally, we have obtained and/or commissioned audio descriptions for the main films in the curriculum. These descriptions are being rolled out on an ongoing basis as we work out the best way to do so for each film depending on the format in which it is hosted, etc. You can access the descriptions by turning on “AD” on the video player or clicking on the designated link above the embedded film.
If you share any documents with your participants, ask blind folks what file format work best. Word documents (.doc file extension) may be the best for screen readers, though it is ideal to approach this on a case-by-case basis depending on which screen reader a particular participant is using. There may be other formatting issues that you should also be aware of for a particular participant (ex: columns can be challenging for certain screen readers).

CIRCLE EXPERIENCE:

At the beginning of each session, have each person introduce/re-introduce themselves to connect names to voices (and seat locations, if in-person)
Do all sharing by mutual invitation when in the whole group. This ensures that a person’s name is said before they begin speaking and that all group members are actively included. Paired break-outs may be helpful to allow for more free-flowing conversation.
If participants are asked to read aloud (a prayer, reading parts of a passage, etc.) blind people should have the chance to be included in the process (if they want to do so). Make sure to provide advance notice on what section they will read and where it falls in the presentation so they can be prepared.
Zoom can make it much easier to access Sacred Ground for blind folks with transportation challenges. Your church may even have a meeting OWL that you could use to better include a remote participant in an otherwise in-person group.
During a Zoom meeting:
- If you project any materials, stop and read all text aloud, as well as describing any visual materials (maps, images, etc.)
- If you use a powerpoint to organize your session, send out a text outline in advance and/or read the powerpoint during the session.
There are many ways that folks can communicate that they have something to contribute – raising of a hand, clicking the “hand” icon, using the chat. Learning the ins and outs of Zoom and encouraging others to as well can create a more inclusive space.

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES:

Screen-Reading:
- JAWS (Job Access With Speech) – subscription-based screen-reading software. The Picture Smart AI feature of JAWS can also describe images on the screen.
- Phone/iPad/Computer Screen Readers
- Apple Devices – VoiceOver
- Android – TalkBack
- Many third-party applications can also be downloaded

Accessible Books:
- BARD – National Library of Congress’ braille and audio library is freely available for eligible users (folks need to apply and be granted access)
- Audible – subscription-based audio books service. Typically have promotional offers for a certain number of months for free or $0.99 per month.
- Bookshare-reader – subscription-based service with access to many audiobooks and eBooks that are readable by screen-readers

*Many thanks to Laurie Williams, Ann Foxworth, and Glenda Born for their input during the creation of this guide.

Recommendations for Maximizing Accessibility of Sacred Ground for those with Hearing Loss or who are Deaf

Version 2.0 (March 2025) – This will be continually revised; feedback is welcome!

GENERAL:

Improving the accessibility of our Sacred Ground programs is an opportunity to care for one another – it is what Sacred Ground is all about. As a facilitator, it is important to work alongside participants to make sure that your group is fully inclusive of all members and that no one is left out or marginalized during the conversation or breaks/down-time/etc.
Before/during the first session, consider asking the group members to let you know if they have any accessibility issues and would benefit from accommodations. You can then have a one-on-one conversation with anyone who discloses this – both about how they would like to approach this issue with the group and about what accommodations they would like to use and how they should be implemented. Follow-up conversations will likely be needed to make sure that the circle is working for everyone.
Just like with any group, folks will have a range of experience and comfort with assistive technologies; do not assume pre-existing proficiency.

NOTE: The recommendations below are primarily targeted for participants who communicate comfortably in English – written and/or spoken. If you are interested in participating in a Sacred Ground circle using American Sign Language, please email sacredground@episcopalchurch.org.

VIDEO CLOSED CAPTIONING:

Most of the videos have built-in English closed captioning, which can be turned on by clicking on the “cc” button on the menu bar at the bottom of the video.
For those videos that do not have built in closed captioning, most browsers now have a function that produces real-time captioning for any video. Here are instructions for several common browsers (for browsers not listed, google “live captions” and the name of the browser):

ZOOM CLOSED CAPTIONING:

Before the meeting begins, the host of the Zoom meeting should turn on automatic captions: Instructions for Enabling Automatic Captions.
Once the host has enabled captions, any group members who wish to use the captions must set their device to view the captions. It is not safe to assume that folks know how to do this; you may want to dedicate 5 minutes before each session to helping get folks set up. Instructions for viewing captions.

OTHER ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY:

Many current hearing aids can connect directly to computer audio via bluetooth, and this can make a big difference for sound quality (both of videos and Zoom meetings). However, folks may not be aware of this capacity or may need help setting it up.
A small remote microphone can be passed from speaker to speaker. This can be either connected directly to a participant’s hearing aids, or to a participant’s phone where it can feed into a speech-to-text app so that the participant can read the comments in written form.

MAXIMIZING COMPREHENSIBILITY OF SPEECH – As you are setting up and reinforcing group norms and procedures, there are several important points to stress (which will likely need to be reinforced!):

Only one person talking at a time.
Ensure the speaker’s mouth is fully visible and well-lit.
Speak loudly enough to be heard
Speak slowly and articulate your words clearly (but not in an exaggerated way).
Limit background noise.

ZOOM GROUPS – As you are setting up and reinforcing group norms and procedures, there are several important points to stress (which will likely need to be reinforced!):

All group members must position themselves close to the camera, directly in front of the camera, and without shadows or other objects blocking their face (including their own hands).
Screen-sharing drastically reduces the size of a speaker’s face – making it hard to read lips and facial expressions. If it must be done, use the setting that splits the screen in half to show both the speaker and the shared screen.
There is often a lag in Zoom captions, so it is important to allow an extra “beat” of time after each speaker throughout the conversation so that folks using captions can stay with the conversation.

IN-PERSON GROUPS – As you are setting up and reinforcing group norms and procedures, there are several important points to stress (which will likely need to be reinforced!):

Sit closely together
Passing around a “talking stick” helps avoid interruptions, reminds people to pause between speakers, and helps folks to slow down their speech – perhaps because they aren’t worried about being interrupted!
Train the group to face the person/people in the group who are hard-of-hearing. If you do not train for this, folks will generally speak towards the facilitator(s) or towards whomever most recently spoke. You will probably need to reinforce this several times over several sessions.
If there are a few people that are hard-of-hearing, they might consider sitting next to one another to facilitate group members talking in their direction

*Many thanks to David Miller, Tricia DeBeer, and Rev. Gene Bourquin for their input during the creation of this guide.