Worship for All

What Worship Planners Can Learn from Universal Design for Learning

Lindsay Wieland Capel

Main Points

Worship planners can borrow from universal design for learning (UDL) to make worship more accessible.

Learning increases when you use repetition, use multiple strategies to relay information, and engage bodies.

When you plan worship, ask yourself: How could I communicate this in more ways?

When asked to summarize this article using icons or symbols, ChatGPT provided this helpful summary:
✋ + 👂 + 👁️ = 🧠 💡
Engaging hands, ears, and eyes helps everyone learn.

Recently I attended a worship service that felt like a model for what accessible worship could look like. Maybe you’re picturing a church sanctuary with stained glass windows and pews. But I was in a school gym, attending chapel at my children’s Christian school.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Churches can learn a lot from schools. The Christian schools in my area are some of the best schools in our region for inclusive classrooms where kids with and without disabilities learn side by side. Adapting and accommodating, creativity and flexibility are simply part of who they are. So when teachers craft a worship service, they weave in the same techniques they know help learners in the classroom.

In my work as a disability consultant, I often talk about how providing options is an easy way to increase accessibility. This “multiple ways” idea is at the heart and soul of universal design for learning (UDL). In UDL, educators present content in multiple ways, provide options for ways to engage, and encourage different ways for students to express what they are learning.

Teachers get degrees in how to communicate information so people can understand, absorb, and remember it. But there are elements of teaching that all of us can incorporate: Not everyone in the room learns the same way. Repetition helps us remember things. When we engage our bodies, words can sink in a little deeper. Some people are visual learners and benefit from visual cues.

So what might a worship service look like when it includes the principles of universal design for learning?

Universal Design for Worship

Using different strategies to teach something, such as having both visual and audible elements, is an old teacher trick used in chapel services at my children’s school. Once teachers projected images from a children’s book while they read a related Scripture passage. During a message given by a teacher, key points were stated at the beginning and the end and were projected as each one came up. When introducing a new song, a teacher read through all the words before singing, remembering that not everyone in the room can read. During a Grandfriends Day service, students’ artwork was projected onto a screen while students read aloud the accompanying words about how God was with them. A brief video of a worship song helped liven things up. All of these things put together have a significant impact on inclusion.

Another teacher trick is engaging bodies to keep the attention of students and help them absorb information. For some people, an approved form of physical movement makes it easier to make it through a long time in one place without distracting others. At our school’s chapel services, it’s common for a teacher to lead motions for everyone to do while singing. These are not generic motions like those of my classrooms in the 1980s; they are American Sign Language (ASL). Two teachers at the school have a passion for ASL that they share with students and colleagues. During chapel, it’s not unusual for students to act out the story like a play. One teacher is a dancer and often leads worship with a liturgical dance. Throughout the year the children learn one song she’s choreographed.

So how can churches plan worship services that incorporate this concept of “multiple ways” from universal design for learning? We already use these concepts when we do things such as opening our hands to receive the benediction, waving palm branches on Palm Sunday, or eating and drinking during communion. Simply choosing songs that fit with the sermon uses this principle.

When you plan worship, ask yourself: How can I communicate this in more ways? I recently heard of a church that has a moment in the service before the children leave in which the congregation offers a blessing. They use sign language as they say “The Lord be with you,” and the children sign and speak back, “And also with you.” Perhaps the leader could pour out water during the assurance of pardon to signify God cleansing us from our sins. Perhaps photos of the people mentioned in the congregational prayer could be projected. Maybe crayons and copies of coloring pages with the day’s Bible verse could be available. Or maybe a video with the Scripture passage being read aloud and in sign language could be shown. How about using a word search generator with keywords from the sermon? Perhaps you could include pictures in your sermon outline or add icons to the worship elements listed in the bulletin.

Somewhere along the line we’ve come to associate things like using motions with songs or holding a physical item while talking to be only for children. But, as with all types of universal design, what is helpful for some learners is usually helpful for everyone. Learning by engaging our senses does not suddenly stop being useful when we graduate middle school. What can you do with your congregation to present content in multiple ways, to offer options for engaging and new ways for people to express what they are learning?

Resources to Consider

For Incorporating Icons

The Noun Project (thenounproject.com) offers free icons.
Widgit Online (widgitonline.com) has a huge library of icons.
Some free images can be found on Google by searching for a topic word along with the word “icon.”
Barbara J. Newman’s book Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship includes icons for different parts of a service that could be used in a bulletin or projected.
Ask ChatGPT to summarize your points in icons or symbols.

For Sharing Scripture

Center for Excellence in Christian Education. “Storypath.” storypath.upsem.edu. StoryPath is a resource from Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Center for Excellence in Christian Education that connects children’s literature with Scripture. It is searchable by theme or by passage.
DeBoer, Karen. “For All God’s Children: Nine Practices for Engaging God’s Word and Forming Faith.” Reformed Worship, no. 140 (June 2021): 26–30. tinyurl.com/DeBoerChildren.
Faith Church. “Psalm 139.” Video. Dyer, Indiana. vimeo.com/86925527
Ladwig, Tim. The Lord’s Prayer. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2002.
Ladwig, Tim. Psalm Twenty-Three. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 1997.
Larson, Linda Jean H. “The Treasure in Clay Jars: Preaching Ideas on Disabilities.” Reformed Worship, no. 74 (December, 2004): 38–39. tinyurl.com/LarsonPreachingDisabilities.
Lloyd-Jones, Sally. The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, Zonderkidz, 2007.
Newman, Barbara. “Universal Design in Worship.” Reformed Worship, no. 121 (September 2016): 38–40. tinyurl.com/NewmanUDW.
Shine On: A Story Bible. Menno Media, 2015. Also available in Spanish from the same publisher.
There are many videos of Scripture being read simultaneously in English and in American Sign Language. Search YouTube with the Scripture passage for your service and “ASL.”

Lindsay Wieland Capel, a licensed master social worker, helps churches become more accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities through her role with Thrive, a collaboration of agencies of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Together with the Reformed Church in America, Thrive helps churches become places where everybody belongs and everybody serves. Capel previously worked for Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, where she educated others within health care about mental health and maternal mental health. She has worked with people with disabilities in a variety of settings and is passionate about enabling systemic changes that improve the lives of individuals. She earned her bachelor’s in social work from Calvin University and her master’s from Loyola University Chicago.