Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are encouraged to follow the Savior’s example of offering hope, understanding and love to those with disabilities.
Hosted by Church News reporter Mary Richards, this episode features the Church’s disability specialist manager, Katie Edna Steed, who discusses how the Church encourages Christlike inclusion.
This is done through individuals ministering to their neighbors, designing and retrofitting Church buildings to be accessible, specialized programs, new resources and more.
Listen to this episode of the Church News podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, bookshelf PLUS, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.
Transcript:
Katie Edna Steed: Disabilities is a part of the human, mortal experience, and we can embrace and support. One of my most favorite scriptures is 3 Nephi 22:13. It says, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” That easily could have said, “Thy children shall be taught of the Lord,” and a beautiful message would have been conveyed. But as a special educator and as someone who works in the field of disabilities, one of my most favorite words is “all.” And God chose to say that. He said, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” It begins with ministering. It begins with understanding. There is a call from Christ to do this. So, being mindful of and having this heart of, “I will seek after the one, and I want to do what I can to help you come unto Christ.”
1:02
Jon Ryan Jensen: This is Jon Ryan Jensen, editor of the Church News. Welcome to the Church News podcast. Today, we are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1:18
Mary Richards: In the “General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” in regards to including individuals with disabilities, it states, “Church members are encouraged to follow the Savior’s example of offering hope, understanding and love to those who have disabilities.”
I’m Mary Richards, and on this episode of the Church News podcast, we discuss how the Church encourages Christlike inclusion, from individuals ministering to their neighbors to designing and retrofitting Church buildings and even specialized programs.
Joining me is the Church’s disability specialist manager, Katie Edna Steed. Welcome to the Church News podcast.
Katie Edna Steed: Thank you. It’s nice to be here.
1:56
Mary Richards: Tell me a little bit about your role and your responsibilities. What does that entail?
Katie Edna Steed: As you said, I’m the disability specialist manager. That’s my official title. And I always like to say it’s never the same day twice. We work with individuals ranging in different abilities and needs. Some can be food allergies and the sacrament, to service animals, to wheelchairs, more obvious things like Braille and ASL and making sure accessible formats are there. But it’s a wonderful job. I love it. I get to work with a lot of people. I say that the biggest part of my job is to not be someone’s voice but to elevate their voice. And so I do a lot of audience listening and meeting with members with different needs so that I can better understand how to elevate those needs with our Church leadership and with the members of our Church.
2:48
Mary Richards: When we say “disability,” and you’re the disability specialist manager, can you define for us a bit of what a disability is, first off? There’s the spectrum really, right? Both visible and unseen.
Katie Edna Steed: Absolutely. From a Church perspective, I think I would define it as how Christ would leave the ninety and nine and seek after the one (see Matthew 18:12-14). And whatever that “one” is. There’s a lot of labels of what that one might be, but it’s also just that one that might be in need, and some of those disabilities are quite obvious. It’s really obvious if you see somebody maybe in a wheelchair, you might grab the door for them, but you may not notice the issues that someone in your ward is having with maybe extreme anxiety or OCD or other things like that. So, being mindful of and having this heart of, “I will seek after the one.” And I think another piece of that is, “I believe you. I believe that what you’re sharing with me has value and high meaning to you, and I want to do what I can to help you come unto Christ.”
3:57
Mary Richards: How did you get involved in this work and come to work for the Church?
Katie Edna Steed: That is such a great question. From the time I was even little, my mom would say that I was just kind of drawn to people. She would find me at different group settings, and I was kind of drawn to people of different abilities. And from there, I became a peer tutor in high school, in a special education classroom, and at a camp for kids with disabilities. And I remember when I was a freshman at BYU, freshman orientation even, I went, and I was like, “I’m going to be a nurse. And I saw this sign in front of the McKay School — McKay School of Education at BYU in Provo — and it said, “Be a special educator.” And I was like, “I could do what I love for a living. What a weird idea.”
And I said, “That’s what I’m going to do.” And so I did. At BYU, my undergrad and graduate work was special education, and I taught in the public schools for four years. I absolutely loved it. I got an opportunity to be a clinical professor at BYU for 15 years, and I thought there could be no greater job on this planet. I loved the idea of impacting the world by empowering future teachers, especially students that are more on the margins, that may be forgotten, and to impact them and to empower them in a way that was Christ-centered and focused on the gospel and families.
And then my research ever since grad school has been faith in disabilities and how those interplay to hopefully help to increase quality of life for families and individuals. So I’d worked with the Church on a few different projects, and they had approached me and said, “We have this opening. Are you interested in applying?” And I loved where I was at BYU. I really didn’t see myself doing anything different. But after a little bit of conversation and the Spirit kind of pushing me quite a bit, I realized this was a major jump I was going to take. And I started just over six years ago with the Church, and as much as my heart bleeds blue and I love BYU, I’ve never looked back. What an incredible work of life to help all of God’s children know Him, and to have an influence in that arena has just been incredible.
6:21
Mary Richards: How common are disabilities? What should Latter-day Saints know about their fellow Church members and their neighbors?
Katie Edna Steed: This is such an important question because the most recent U.S. census shows that 19.6% of the population has a disability. So we’re looking at about 1 in 5 people. Children, adults, it runs the whole spectrum. Erik Carter, he did some research at Vanderbilt, and he found that 1 in 3 households has someone with a disability there. So when we’re looking at our ward families and stakes, it’s mathematically impossible to not have people in our ward families that have a disability, and it touches everything. It touches Young Men, Young Women, Primary, missionaries and certainly our senior population.
So, I think that’s something I would want them to understand, is this is everywhere, and it’s something that — disabilities is a part of the human experience, and it’s not something we have to hide. It’s not something that is taboo. It’s just a matter of the human, mortal experience, and we can embrace and support.
7:33
Mary Richards: How can a ward or branch embrace or support? What are some of the steps and things that they can take to be more inclusive?
Katie Edna Steed: I think the first thing we do is it begins with ministering. It begins with, again, that leaving the ninety and nine and seeking after the one. One of my most favorite scriptures is 3 Nephi 22:13, and it says, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” That easily could have said, “Thy children shall be taught of the Lord,” and a beautiful message would have been conveyed. But as a special educator and as someone who works in the field of disabilities, one of my most favorite words is “all.” And God chose to say that. He said, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.”
So I think we understand it begins with ministering. It begins with understanding. There is a call from Christ to do this. And so, what can we do? Ever since 2011 in the handbook, there is a calling that I wish was better known to others, but as a ward or stake disability specialist. And that’s 38.8.27.9 — our handbook is ever so user friendly. And so that’s something too that I wish people were aware of and that they would consider if their ward or stake may benefit and has the capacity to have somebody with that calling that can support, better support and recognize the needs there.
9:02
Mary Richards: Talk about that role. For somebody listening, they think, “Maybe we need one of those,” what does a ward or stake disability specialist do?
Katie Edna Steed: A ward or stake disability specialist, they begin by ministering. They meet with families, they meet with individuals, and they ask questions — very inviting, open-ended questions — like, “Tell me more about you. What would you like our ward family to better understand?” I have a son who has autism, and I remember one time somebody said to me, “Now, what is exactly wrong with him?” And that was not a very inviting or welcoming way to begin that conversation. But we can do things. We don’t need to ask about labels or identifications, but we can say things like, “What could we do to make church a better experience?”
So we start by understanding and getting to know the families, and then we begin to help other organizations in the Church know, “Does the Young Women’s presidency maybe need some better understanding for some of the young women that may be in there? What about the Primary? And what are things that could be done in our ward?” It says on the Church’s website, under this calling, it says, “You may ask to be invited to attend ward councils or stake councils to help discuss specific needs of the people in your ward.”
And then just like any calling, I think you, as you pray, more and more ideas can come to mind. Some disability specialists help the youth to understand about service missionary opportunities and different things, FSY and how to register and request accommodations. So, there’s a whole spectrum of ways that they can support. But I think it’s — again, like any calling — by being prayerful and knowing where to start in reaching the individual, you’ll better understand where to go next.
10:47
Mary Richards: And many times, that individual is part of a family, and so they are not only ministering to an individual, they’re ministering to a whole family; this may affect their Sabbath worship experience, depending on the accommodations or the needs that may or may not be being met?
11:05
Katie Edna Steed: Oh, absolutely. And in the research, that shows. In any faith, if there is a family member with a disability, activity levels decrease, because it gets difficult. Maybe I’ll stay at home while my husband goes to church this Sunday. I’ll stay at home with our child with needs. And sometimes those needs may be very medically fragile, and even if the ward wants to be as accommodating as possible, that individual may be homebound, whether they want to or not.
And sometimes those needs are — I met so many families that I interview, and they say, “Well, I just think it’s easier if he’s not there. I know he’s kind of a disturbance.” And I just think all these people are going to church to learn about charity and the love of God, and we could probably tolerate a few disruptions in our meetings from somebody who’s trying to come closer to their Savior, and when our Savior said, “All should know me.” So those are some things to think about there.
12:08
Mary Richards: That makes me wonder about any misunderstandings maybe we can help address right now, along those lines.
Katie Edna Steed: I think sometimes we, as a Church culture, maybe sometimes we have a hard time sitting in spaces that are difficult. And we want to imagine that “Well, because this is happening, there has to be this beautiful silver lining.” We are in a state of mortality, and sometimes things happen that are hard.
And I remember when my son was first diagnosed with autism, it was really great for me to have the support of friends that could just allow me to be sad for a little bit. I knew we were going to get to a better place eventually. I knew this field, I knew individuals. And I also knew that something had disappointed me, and it was OK to sit there. And so I think we can remember that things can be hard, and we can acknowledge that, and we can still be faithful followers of Jesus Christ in that process.
I think another thing is, remember, “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” And so when He says “all,” again, there’s some folklore out there like, “Oh, well they have an automatic ticket to the celestial kingdom” kind of thing. I don’t know that we have that completely figured out yet. What I do know is that God wants all of His children to be taught of Him. And so there’s not a space to say, “Well, do they even really need to come to this?” or “Do they need to do that?” Yes, of course they do. And we’re not completely aware of what all they’re processing.
So, teach them the gospel. Help them to know Jesus Christ, and especially help them to know Jesus Christ by the way we act towards them.
13:59
Mary Richards: Well, and I’m going back to what you mentioned before, about how we are also all learning to be more charitable, more Christlike, and we do that by having everyone together with us.
Katie Edna Steed: Yes.
Mary Richards: This brings to my mind also that phrase “the body of Christ,” how we are all a part of the body of Christ.
14:21
Katie Edna Steed: Absolutely; 1 Corinthians 12 is one of my most favorite chapters. And if you want to do a deeper dive into understanding inclusion, belonging, 1 Corinthians 12 is a great place to look. He says, “Nay, much ... those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: ... those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, ... we bestow more abundant honour” (verses 22-23).
And he says, “You can’t say we have no need of the ear or the mouth, or if you’re the mouth, you can’t think that you’re not needed.” Christ needs all of us. “There should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (verse 25). And I love this part: “Whether one ... suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (verse 26).
My son, I remember when he did Young Men’s basketball, I thought, “Oh wow, here we go.” And the young men from both wards would just wait and give him like 10 tries to make a basket, and every time he made that basket, we all rejoiced together from both sides of the ward, both groups of young men. We all rejoice together, and we also sorrow together. We mourn with those that mourn, and we allow that space for that, because we want to be the body of Christ, and we can’t be a ward of all ears. We need the baby toe, and we need all of those parts, because I want to know that my ward is becoming the body of Christ. And 1 Corinthians 12 is just such a powerful message on that.
16:02
Mary Richards: I think as people are listening, they might be feeling some new feelings or thoughts about looking around to those around them. I know I am. And so, I hope we can give some people some resources.
Where would we point those listening to be able to find some more support or resources from the Church that they can apply in their own lives, in their wards and branches and stakes?
16:23
Katie Edna Steed: We do have a website on the Church’s site, disability.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, so you can go there. There’s a tile there for “I’m an individual with a disability, and I’d like more direction and support from my Church and my faith. “I’m a parent or caregiver.” “I’m a leader.” That’s also where you can find a tile with where different accessible formats can be found, like where things are in Braille, in ASL, audio, different Talking Book cartridges for people that are blind.
And then you can also find resources just for magazine articles that have been written on different topics that deal with disabilities. There’s a whole thing. There’s some training videos there that are done to help people with research-based strategies on how to teach somebody, particularly children, with disabilities. And they’re just little 60-to-90-second videos on 10 different effective teaching strategies you can use. So, there’s a wide variety there. The handbook speaks to it. We talked about the disability specialist calling. But as you read, disability support is woven throughout the handbook. If you read under “Young Women,” there will be a section on “Young Women With Disabilities” and how you can support.
And that’s very intentional, because it wasn’t meant to look like disabilities was over here on an island, but disabilities is integrated throughout this experience of being a Church member, and so every group should be looking to how they can support and be inclusive of not only the individuals but, as you said, the family, that if there is a child with a disability, there is a family that is working with a disability. If there is a sibling who has a disability, then there are brothers and sisters who are managing a disability. And so, all of that needs increased sensitivity and prayer and charity towards it.
18:13
Mary Richards: We have all this available. What would you tell people in terms of asking for help, but then also those asking how they can help?
Katie Edna Steed: It can be tricky to navigate. “What do I feel comfortable sharing? What is appropriate to share as a parent of my own child’s story and perspective?” Often it’s best to go to the individual themselves. If it’s a minor, you might consider, “Is the parent or guardian a better person to speak to?” But we can ask very loving, genuine questions. First, I’m going to make sure the ministering is there. And when I say ministering, I don’t mean that official calling of ministering. I mean that ministering of, “I have built a relationship of trust and love there.”
So, when I ask a question like, “Tell me more about you,” that person feels safe to share things that matter. That explanation might include a label, and it might not. That’s not really what I need to know. What I need to know is, “What would you like me to know about you? Tell me more about your son. What could I do to make church more enjoyable for them?” And just be open to letting that individual, and be respectful of what that individual shares is what is needed to be shared at that moment and what they feel safe and comfortable sharing. And to say, “Help me understand what I can do. How can I help them?”
In my research that I would do, it was so interesting. I do a lot of interviewing, and I would have so many people say to me, “Oh, so many people ignore my child. The worst thing you can do is ignore him.” And this theme came up; there was not one family I interviewed that this theme didn’t come up. “He gets ignored. He gets ignored.” I’m like, “Really?” And then I would interview leaders — Young Women leaders, Young Men leaders, bishops — and they would say, “Oh, I just want to do — whatever I could do to help, I want to do it. I just need to understand how I can help.”
And so I felt this strong desire and then this confusion of “My child’s being ignored.” And then I met with this one mom, and she said — she had her young baby in her arms. She was in the foyer at her church, and her toddler, who had autism, was throwing this massive fit, the snot and the tears and the intensity there. And she said, “All of my brothers and sisters walked by as if nothing was happening.” And she said, “Why didn’t they help me?” And I thought about that, and I reflected on that. And I think you’re in the store with a young child, and a young child sees somebody that has a different ability, and their natural tendency is to stare. Their natural tendency is to say things like, “Mom, what’s wrong with him? Mom, why is his leg gone?” That is very genuine of a child to ask that kind of question. And the average, well-intended mother will say, “Don’t stare. Don’t look.”
And so I’ve learned from a young age, “I know what to do when I see something different. I don’t stare, I ignore, and I act like nothing’s happening.” And as adults and as ward members, we can change that. First of all, we can teach our children, like, “I’m not sure. We can go and talk to him.” “Hi, my son noticed you. Do you mind sharing with us what you feel comfortable sharing?” But not making it so taboo for our children.
But the other part is, as adults, we can say, “Is there anything I can do to help?” or “Would it be helpful if I held your baby for you?” We can offer some assistance. We can make sure we’re ministering and building those relationships of trust so in those moments that mother feels safe and comfortable to share that. And we can do it in a way that’s respectful, that’s just in a way of, “This looks a little tricky. Is there something I could do to help?” Or volunteer; “Would it be helpful if I grabbed the door? Would it be helpful if I did this?” And helping people to know, because the most painful thing I keep hearing from these families is to not ignore, to not act as if it doesn’t exist.
22:24
Mary Richards: What other stories can you share of things you’ve heard or witnessed or seen of this welcoming, this meeting needs, asking about needs, seeing needs met and accommodations met?
Katie Edna Steed: Well, there’s so many beautiful stories, like there’s a story where one of my students told me that her mom had a condition where her muscle tone was just completely shutting down. And she said often when the sacrament would come, one of the family members would just put the bread in their mom’s mouth because the mom wasn’t in a position to reach and grab it.
And at one point, everyone was distracted in their family when the sacrament came along, and there was this sweet young deacon, like 12 years old, and he came up to this woman — she sat on the end in her wheelchair — and he just took the piece of bread, and he just put it in her mouth for her. And I just think these are the moments that make the difference.
It’s not the massive callings and those things. What makes the difference is that deacon said, “I have a stewardship, and I can help this woman. I’m supposed to help administer the sacrament, and I’m going to do that.” And he did. And he’s probably not trained on that, but he probably was trained on things like charity and love.
23:44
Mary Richards: He saw a need, and he met that need just automatically. That’s a beautiful story.
Katie Edna Steed: My son this summer, he went to FSY [For the Strength of Youth conference], and we were scared. We didn’t know how that would go. And on his last day there, we came to pick him up, and he had multiple members of his FSY company come to bring him, like to walk him to us; not that he needed that help, but just because they loved him. And one of the young men said — who has shared his phone number with my son, and they still text, and they still keep in touch; it was very genuine and real — and he said, “I was so grateful to have your son in my group, because I have two brothers that are like your son, and it just made me realize how much they need to know Jesus more in their life.” And so that was powerful. That was incredible.
There are stories that are grand, and there are stories that are small. One time I was doing — we were actually making a video for the Church, and I had recruited some very kind young men in my ward to help with it. And one of the individuals in the video has Down syndrome, and he was about 16 years old, and he just walked away. He just walked away. I was like — and here I am with all of this training, book training and knowledge. And I’m like, “You need to come back. Hey, you need —” I’m kind of working with him.
And two of the priests just walked over. They gave him a little pound fist bump, whatever we call it, and they put their arm around him, and they said, “Hey, we’ve got to go back over here.” And he came right back. And that’s because they had built that relationship of love, of understanding, of support with each other.
I hope that every family — every family in the Church that has someone with a disability probably has a very disappointing story, and I would like to believe that they also have a story of when people reached out and noticed and did something to help. I think sometimes we have to remember, too, that often a disability is a chronic issue. I’ve heard families say, “Well, we had our child born with this disability, and people brought meals, and they came, and they helped. And then as the child grew older, even though we were still in that same ward, the support just kind of went away.”
And we have to keep in mind these individuals, this is a lifelong issue. Is that child getting invited to a social activity, to a birthday party, to whatever those events might be that are typical for their age? Are we still looking at that through a lens of inclusion and belonging and support, like we did when we originally learned about the need?
26:50
Mary Richards: We have talked a lot about children and youth and meeting those needs and, like you just said, continuing to support and reach out. What happens when there might be a sudden change in circumstance as well in our ward families? I think about these incredible older members of my ward who have been so resilient their whole lives, and they’ve not needed any help in their own way, thinking of living their lives and being so tough, and they’re dealing now with loss of mobility or vision loss, or it’s harder to hear.
When we see these things happening, how can we help in our Church settings as well?
27:31
Katie Edna Steed: I think we begin by making sure that that person still feels very much valued and seen as an individual. That means I make eye contact with them. I still direct questions to them and not their spouse or maybe their adult child. I help them to know that they matter, even if somebody in their family has to answer for them — we have some sisters and brothers that have had a stroke, maybe — even if somebody else has to answer for them, if I’m asking the question about them and to them, I direct it to them, and I can show that through eye contact.
I can show that by getting at their level and helping them know, “You matter to me.” I can show that by increasing my patience when they answer a question, and I don’t answer it for them or fill in the words for them, but I let them get it out, even if it might be taking a little bit longer to do that. I can do things like, if I’m showing a video, I can make sure that I turn on the captions. Over half of people that are 65 and older have significant hearing loss. So, if you look at your ward family, how many people does that involve? The temple video has captions on now. Look at the age of people that go to the temple.
That is a beneficial thing, but it’s beneficial to me, too. In the field of disabilities, we talk about universal design. If a curb has a cutout for someone in a wheelchair, it also helped me when I was a young mom with strollers, or if I’m rollerblading. And so, if we can think in terms of what’s beneficial, if I turn on the captions, if I make sure that the font that I’m using in the presentation is large enough that people in the very back can see it, or sisters in the very front who their vision is not as good as it used to be. So, I think there’s that perspective of being mindful of those types of issues and “What are some simple things I could do?” Talk into a microphone.
29:38
Mary Richards: That’s changed our whole Relief Society and Sunday School experience, to have a microphone.
Katie Edna Steed: It’s huge. And I bet, if you looked at your numbers, I bet more people are staying for the second hour, because they can actually hear it. Because there are so many people who say, I just don’t even stay for the second hour. There’s nothing — what am I getting out of it? I can’t hear anything.” And people will say, “Oh, I’ve got a loud enough voice. They can hear me.” Or they’ll say, in my ward, they’ll say, “Oh, I don’t need a microphone.” And I always say, “It’s not for you.” My voice is not enough. People don’t always understand that, especially people with some type of a hearing aid, a microphone is on a different frequency, and that speaks into the devices and mechanisms in a hearing aid in a different format that no matter how loud you might be able to project your voice, it makes a big difference.
And so, again, that charity, that love. I can wait three or four seconds, literally, for that microphone to get to me. As a class, we can pause. Silence can be a powerful teaching time for us. Then I get the microphone, and then I can say something. I can make sure that there are microphones available. We can order more. We can talk with our bishop and our FM [facilities manager] person to get more microphones and things there to make sure things are staffed appropriately. And if I’m that individual, it’s so hard because, like you said, they’re so resilient.
And I think I saw as a BYU professor, this next generation, I envy how comfortably they talk about things that are difficult. They would just say things like, “Well, with my eating disorder” or “my depression,” and I, as the professor, would kind of stand at the front of the room like, “Oh no, they said that thing that we don’t talk about,” and everyone else was fine. I was the only one with the problem in the room. And so, I think we could learn a lot from this up-and-coming generation that it’s OK to talk. Things don’t have to be taboo. And I think we also need to be mindful that this generation, this aging generation, they were taught that these things were not supposed to be just shared openly, and so we can be sensitive to that.
But I can also learn, as I get older, I can say, “Hey, I actually can’t hear you,” or “I can’t see that. Is there a way to make it larger?” We can say things to help people understand. I remember I said to my ministering sister, I was just kind of done asking, and I said, “Can you ask for this particular need that our family had?” And she did. And so sometimes that can be helpful too. When people say, “What can I do for you?” Can you ask people to use the microphone?
32:25
Mary Richards: I was just thinking of that. I always am like, “Well, tell me if you need anything.” Am I willing to then follow up with that and be an advocate if somebody asks me for help?
What other things would you tell wards and branches and individuals about ministering, about accommodations? Or more success stories that you have that will help us learn from?
32:48
Katie Edna Steed: This one came to mind, this success story came to mind, when you said that, so I’ll share it. When my son was old enough to pass the sacrament, I was anxious as a mother. And as a female, I thought, “Well, I don’t go up there with him.” I guess I could have stood by him if he needed me to, but this is more of a priesthood thing. And his dad, my husband, was very involved with it. But, I don’t know, maybe I micromanage more than I should, as probably lots of moms would admit. I was really worried on how it was going to go. I think that’s the best way to say it: I was worried if it was going to be OK and how he would do. And he sat up there, ready to pass the sacrament.
And right before the sacrament meeting started, one of the priests in our ward just came and sat next to him. And he started whispering in his ear, and I noticed he was pointing out different things, and he stayed by him for that whole first time that my son passed the sacrament. And my son was fine, and he had that mentor. So I think it reminds me of when Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf [of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] said, “Lift where you stand.” And we all stand in a sacred space, especially when it comes to ministering to others and to families and to mothers.
And one mother said to me, “Everyone always asks me what they can do for my daughter that has these disabilities.” And she said, “Honestly, the best thing you can do for me right now is to take a little off of my plate.” But she said, “But I don’t want to ask people that. And I feel selfish doing that.” So, recognize these moms and these dads might be exhausted, but they think, “Oh, just help my son. Yeah, help my daughter. Thank you.” But maybe I could take something off of Mom’s plate.
This one mother, I said, “Can I come over and help?” And she said, “Could you just give me 10 minutes,” hold her baby for 10 minutes. And she still talks about this. She wanted 10 minutes of someone to hold her baby so she could then have a little bit of time to work with her child that had a disability, one on one, uninterrupted. So these are not often grandiose things we have to be stressing about, but we do need to be in tune with that Spirit and those promptings that say, “Could you just ask her? Could you reach out? Could you help?”
35:23
Mary Richards: Tell me about our buildings around the world and how the Church is becoming more, hopefully, more accessible with our building compliance and things like that?
Katie Edna Steed: Yes. So, with new builds, we meet the standards of those countries, which can vary. But for example, in the U.S., all of our new builds are ADA compliant. That includes temples and chapels and ward meetinghouses and so forth. And, as we have old buildings, there’s actually a system in place to retrofit the old buildings. But as you can imagine, that’s not going to happen overnight. That’s going to take time. So we are, as major remodels are happening, then they come up to ADA compliance as well.
But a member who’s in a building that has a need — so, for example, if I was in a building and it didn’t have Braille and I was blind, I can ask my bishop to work with the FM, facilities manager, for that building to get Braille signage in that building, and they can work to get that. We have a priest, and he was getting ready to be priest aged and to bless the sacrament, and he was in a wheelchair. And so, the bishop worked with the FM and the family, and so they were able to get a ramp up to the rostrum of the chapel so that he could go up there and bless the sacrament. We have also done something similar for a Primary child that could go up there and be part of the Primary program, but also to speak when she becomes a young woman, to be able to get up there and to speak.
So, this can be done. The way that it is, is you talk to your bishop. Your bishop works with the facilities manager. You can also work with your stake president to help them understand that this is an elevated need, and if it goes in as that, it should be done. Now, there’s zoning and there’s permits and there’s different things. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it should happen within about a year, maybe two years max, of the request, depending on how critical the need is.
We had a family that they have an adult son with a disability, and they needed a family restroom where they could change him at church in, so they were able to put something there. So, there’s different needs and different things that people are in need of, but that’s the path that you can take to do that.
37:46
Mary Richards: Another resource I thought people might like to know about is the Gospel Language Symbols. Those can be useful for people of all abilities as well.
Katie Edna Steed: Yeah, they are designed for people that use images to communicate. That’s the primary audience. And we’ve learned of a man in a ward who, he’s a nonspeaker, but he gave the prayer for the first time in his ward, an adult man using those symbols to communicate with. This is also happening in seminary and in Primary. So they can be a powerful tool to provide a level of communication, especially to individuals that maybe that communication didn’t really exist.
The image for baptism we used to have that was out there was an infant with water being sprinkled on their head. So that didn’t work for us. So now we can make images that are more appropriate to our doctrine, and also images for things like “Liahona” and “Nephi” and things like that that may not have existed before, particularly for this audience, that needs it to communicate.
Another story that comes to mind is we are doing better at adding audio description to our videos. A lot of our older videos, if you watch them with your eyes closed, you’re not going to get a whole lot out of them. And so, audio description is a narrative that tells what’s happening visually on the screen for people that are blind. And we had this video that was made, “The Christ Child” video, it was about 17 minutes long, with Aramaic language in it. And our brothers and sisters that were deaf, they quite enjoyed the video, because you didn’t really need to hear the dialogue to follow the story. And it was a story we’re familiar with. It’s when Christ was born.
But our brothers and sisters that were blind, 17 minutes of this language they didn’t understand, and people around them are crying, and they didn’t understand. Audio description was added to that video. And this sister, she wrote and she said how touched she was that that video included audio description. And she said, “My whole life, I have known that Jesus loves me, and today, I personally know that His leaders of His Church love me and are aware of me as well.”
And so, this is the impact we can have when we choose to pause and help the things that we bring out be accommodating to our members. And we talked about audience listening. I had this member, he was showing me how he was using the Member Tools app, and he said, “Well, this is not working right.” And I said, “No, we did an audit on that, and those are labeled. Those are all labeled correctly.” And he said, “Katie, this should say, ‘John Smith.’” And he clicked on it, and where it should say, “John Smith,” it said, “Button.” So it was labeled, and my little audit thing said, “Yep, you did great,” but it wasn’t labeled in a way that was user friendly.
Another image that he scrolled over, it should have said, “Mother hugging a child,” and it said, “Horizontal image with a vertical border.” So, not helpful. And that’s one example of, with our products, why we need to do that audience listening. But I hope that also pierces for us: What kind of audience listening do we need to do with our neighbor and with our ward family members to understand, “No, no, no, that works. It’s fine. Why are you complaining?” But, “Listen, just sit with me, and let’s just talk.”
I love the scripture when Christ says, “Could [you] not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). And how different would our wards and families be if we watched with one another for one hour? It doesn’t even have to be a full hour, I don’t think. But if we could sit and just listen to each other’s stories, we would understand each other better, and it would make a difference.
41:36
Mary Richards: Yeah. I’ve been hesitant to share this as well, my own story of my younger brother, who had cerebral palsy and was wheelchair-bound and learned to walk a little with some aid. But when you talk about ministering, I thought about how I saw members of my branch and ward also minister to my younger siblings. We talk about ministering to parents, and I saw that too, of course, as they would ask my parents how they could be helpful.
But also, I’m the second of 12 children, and this is No. 11, who I’m speaking of. And the siblings around him, as I was older and already just about off to college and then in college, when all this was going on, but they were the ones who often were his caretakers or beside him in Primary or moving on and upwards through their teenage years.
And so, that’s also something to be mindful of, is the siblings of somebody who has a disability and looking for their needs. And I was grateful for our ward and branch and all that they saw and did.
But what message might you have, then, also for — we talked about parents — but also for siblings of someone with a disability?
42:53
Katie Edna Steed: For families, when you say that, I just think, “I would love to have these siblings share their stories more abundantly.” They understand the pain that can come when people are not as sensitive as they could have been, but they also understand the joy that comes when people care and when people reach out. And I bet they could name those leaders that they felt cared about their brother and that they probably felt more inspired by them and were maybe more willing to listen to what the things they testified of, because of that true charity that they saw in them.
I would invite siblings to share their stories in their wards and families, share their stories with the Church magazines and things where the rest of us can benefit and learn. They have been in a lifetime laboratory of learning this, and they have much to offer the world, and it’s really an untapped resource in a lot of ways, and there are so many incredible things that we learn. People will often say about my daughters, they’ll say, the teachers will say, “Oh, she’s really good with a kid who was having a hard day.” And I thought, “That’s because they’ve spent their whole life noticing, ‘Oh, what could I do to make this a little bit easier? Oh, this was hard. How could I help with this?’”
And the flip side of that is my son’s the same way. My son is more aware of things. We can’t even begin to start to discipline one of his sisters without him coming in and saying, “Mom, what are you doing?” He’s very sensitive and very aware of them, and there’s this beautiful and strong dynamic there.
44:46
Mary Richards: Forgive me while I wipe away some tears. Thank you for that.
I wanted to also ask you, then: What would you tell individuals and families who might be struggling?
Katie Edna Steed: It’s a very real thing. I think we need to recognize that this is Christ’s Church, but it’s being run by mortals, and we are far from perfect, and we are trying. There was a recent statement from the First Presidency on a commitment to accessibility that you can find on the Church’s website. If you scroll down to the bottom, it says “Accessibility,” and you click on it, and it takes you to that site. So we are trying, and we are working towards doing better.
And I tell my husband frequently the poem by Robert Frost, and where he says, “And [I have] miles to go before I sleep.” I would want people to know that we know this. We have miles to go, you have miles to go before you sleep. And I have miles to go as the disability specialist manager. And as a Church, we have miles to go. But that doesn’t mean we’re not continuing to move and to try.
There’s a scripture in Hebrews 12:1, and it says that we may “run with patience.” And that is what I do. What do I do for my job? I run with patience. I am running, and people may not realize it. It may look like I’m on a treadmill, probably, to a lot of people, but I am running with patience. And I know, and I can testify that I see the leaders in our Church, they are also running with patience in this effort. Things need to be done in the Lord’s Way, and we need to make sure that there’s safety in things that are happening, but we are trying.
46:35
Mary Richards: This is reminding me of our Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, who issued the invitation that for his 100th birthday, he asked us all to reach out to the one, to minister to the one. And the whole idea was the “99 plus one.” And sometimes in our life, we’re the one, and other times, we’re reaching out.
And this all fits together with what you’ve been saying, doesn’t it?
Katie Edna Steed: Absolutely. Absolutely.
47:01
Mary Richards: And I think this leads perfectly into our last question, which our last question on the Church News podcast is always, “What do you know now?” And so I want to ask you, Katie, what do you know now about creating a welcoming environment for all Church members who are all a part of the body of Christ?
47:22
Katie Edna Steed: I know now that Christ is aware, and He knows every single one of His children. He knows them by name, He knows them by needs, and He has a desire for them to know Him better every day. I know that He fulfills that in their ability to teach them through us and through His other children. I don’t think He is a God and I don’t think our Savior is a Savior who says, “Oh, shoot, I made that mistake.”
I think He says — [a scripture] says, “Who did sin, this man [this blind man], or his parents?” “Neither ... but that the works of God [may] be made manifest [through] him” (John 9:2-3). We are invited to be a part of this great work, and it is a mighty and great work, so that the works of God may be manifest through all of us, through all of us, in our desires to serve Him.
I also know without a doubt that the leaders of our Church love and desire all of God’s children to know Him and to be a part of this body of Christ. There are parameters we have to work with, and we are not perfect, but there is not one time I’ve sat in a meeting that I haven’t felt an increase of love and a desire to do what is best.
There are sometimes, again, run with patience. It may take a while, but I know that they care, and I know that God inspires them, and He also inspires all of us to do His work.
49:33
Jon Ryan Jensen: Thank you for listening to the Church News podcast. I’m your host, Church News editor Jon Ryan Jensen. I hope you learned something today about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had your faith in the Savior increase by looking through the Church News window as a living record of the Restoration. Please subscribe, rate and review this podcast so it can be accessible to more people. And if you enjoyed the messages we shared today, please share the podcast with others. Thanks to our guests; to my producer, KellieAnn Halvorsen; and to others who make this podcast possible. Join us every week for a new episode. Find us on your favorite podcasting channels or with other news and updates about the Church on TheChurchNews.com or on the Church News app.
