Disability Awareness Sunday

Join the Journey with Jesus

In 2024, the official date for Disability Awareness Sunday was Sunday 22nd September 2024. But any Sunday can be Disability Awareness Sunday!
This year there was a whole Disability Awareness Week, starting on 15th September. Hundreds of churches joined in across the UK - and the world! - to share about church disability inclusion. You can still register for the 2024 church service resource, free of charge, at the end of this page.

Next year's Disability Awareness Sunday will be 28th September 2025. And Disability Awareness Week will lead up to it, from 21st-28th Sept. We are just planning exciting new resources, so watch this space!

What happens in Disability Awareness Week?

Through the Roof encourages all churches to reach out and meet with disabled people in their community in Disability Awareness Week, and whenever you can throughout the year. This could be through organised church events or through individuals inviting a disabled person they know to meet for a coffee to get to know them.

For Disability Awareness Week 2024 there was a special launch service where Revd Helen Cameron preached. Helen has a passion for church disability inclusion and is a Roofbreaker disability champion, as well as being President of the Methodist Conference, Moderator of the Free Churches Group, and President of Churches together in England. The launch service was released online on Sunday 15 September and is still available to watch at: https://valeofstour.org.uk/daw2024

Through the Roof also shared videos from Helen about the ABC Journey of Disability Inclusion: Access, Belonging and Commission. These were posted on social media @TTRChangesLives on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram from 15th-22nd Sept 2024. Follow this link to watch Helen's Disability Awareness Week videos on YouTube. 

UCB radio also helped get disabled Christians voices heard by sharing five ‘disability diaries’ from people with lived experience of disability. On UCB1’s Talking Point programme from 16th-20th Sept 2024 (9am-1pm), one disabled person a day will share a reflection on their experience of disability in church and society.

The most important thing about Disability Awareness Week is that Christians in churches reach out and include disabled people fully in the life of their community. Join the journey today! 

Why is disability inclusion important?

Churches are often not aware of the many barriers disabled people can face on their journey to join, or be fully included, in church communities. Accessibility of church buildings isn’t the only barrier – there are lots of social and attitude barriers too, which are easy to overlook.

In a UK survey, 2 out of every 3 people said they felt ‘uncomfortable’ speaking with disabled people, and 3 out of every 4 disabled people reported experiencing negative attitudes or behaviour from others (Scope). Together, we can change this!

What is the 'Journey with Jesus' towards disability inclusion?

Through the Roof is working through Roofbreaker disability champions in local churches to break down barriers and ensure disabled people can fully belong and participate in church life. Roofbreakers and their churches are on the ABC Journey of Disability Inclusion from Access to Belonging to Commission (Matthew 28:19) to equip disabled people to use their gifts for God's glory.

Revd Andrew Miles (pictured) is a Roofbreaker who journeyed with Jesus through a life-changing accident. God now uses the empathy and understanding Andrew has gained to bless others. You can hear his story in a short video in our 2024 resource pack for Disability Awareness Week. You can also follow this link to watch short clips of Andrew's lived experience. We are all on a journey of life and, as Andrew says, "Sometimes things aren't easy, but God is always with us."

Andrew's story is shared in the Disability Awareness Sunday 2024 video below. There's a whole church service resource built around the video for use on 22 Sept, or when you choose - register to get the resource at the end of this page:

What can we do?

Your church can journey with Jesus towards disability inclusion and fulfil the Great Commission by including disabled people, as Jesus said:
‘Go out quickly into the streets ... Bring in those who can’t see or walk ... compel them to come in so that my house will be full.’ (Luke 14:23, NIrV)

Join UK churches to hold a Disability Awareness Sunday service or event, journeying with Jesus and celebrating disabled people in our communities. Or include a prayer, or play Andrew's video story from the free resource below. 

There are some FREE resource materials to help you plan and celebrate Disability Awareness Sunday at your church available - order them on the form below.

• A new resource pack for 2024 is now available on the theme 'Journey with Jesus', which includes a short video on how God is with us on our journey, a suggested service outline. There are also free disability inclusion leaflets to order for churches in the UK (see foot of page).
• If this is your first Disability Awareness Sunday, you may want to use the initial resource based on the Luke chapter 5 'Through the roof' theme which contains a full range of videos, key messages, children's and youth ideas, prayers, and much more. 

To receive your Disability Awareness Sunday materials and more helpful disability inclusion resources in future, please complete this form: