Emma Albanese, Justin Carriere, Deanna Fraser, James Huh, Honey Starr

Hermeneutic Empowerment: Centering Disabled Testimony in Faith-Based Accessibility Research and Practice

Introduction

Hermeneutic empowerment: centering disabled testimony in faith-based accessibility research and practice. Explore disabled individuals' faith experiences, structural barriers, and hermeneutic injustice in religious spaces. Centering testimony to improve accessibility.

Abstract

This study investigates how disabled individuals navigate faith, particularly concerning structural and theological barriers to faith practice and belonging, as well as how the intersection of faith and disability shapes their identity, based on their narrative accounts. Participants (N = 111) filled out a five-question open-ended survey with various questions about their experiences with disability and faith-based identity (Figure 4). We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of responses from disabled individuals regarding their experiences in religious and faith-based spaces through a lens of hermeneutic injustice, a type of epistemic injustice in which members of marginalized groups are disadvantaged in making sense of or communicating their experiences due to gaps in the shared interpretive resources caused by structural identity-based exclusion. Responses that fit inclusion criteria (n = 59) revealed that many disabled participants had predominantly negative experiences within religious, faith-based, or spirituality-focused communities. Only when these communities were accessible and actively considerate of disabled individuals were these spaces positive experiences for participants. Our results complicate research that predominantly suggests religion improves the well-being of disabled individuals. Based on these findings, future research on the intersection of disability and religious participation should focus on centering lived experiences and incorporating mixed-methods approaches to record structural barriers and personal narratives that cannot be captured by quantitative research alone. 

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