Access Advice

A pink sign on a green lawn reads 'Step-free access' with an arrow pointing to the right
Photo CC Yomex Owo.

While I’m in training to be an access auditor, I’m able to give free access advice to churches and not-for-profit organisations. I can offer:

  • Auditing: a ‘mini audit’ of your building will show you how to make the most of your access and where it could be improved
  • Advice about making access easier for your customers/community
  • Training on how to make equal access a reality in your organisation.

Limited availability for free advice in 2024. Contact me here.

Disability Equality Training

One person using a walking stick and another using a mobility scooter walk side-by-side.
Photo CC Annie Sprat

Every organisation and service provider needs Disability Equality Training. My training can show you how barriers may be keeping your disabled customers and community from accessing your services. And I’ll show how you can give disabled people a better experience of your organisation.

DET is about more than ‘disability awareness’ – it’s about equality, access and justice for all, and it is delivered by disabled people ourselves. Or, as we say in the disabled people’s movement, Nothing about us without us.

I can offer:

  • Disability Equality Training
  • Neurodiversity Training
  • Customer Service Training: Improving Disabled Customers’ Experience
  • Disability Training with Access Advice
  • Online and on-site training courses

Get in touch for a free discussion. Together we’ll design a training course that meets your needs.

Disability Training for Churches

Churches often want to be inclusive, but unexamined biases, stereotypes and theologies can close the gates to disabled people.

On a bespoke Fling Wide the Gates training course, church leaders and congregants will learn how to:

  • Identify barriers in your church building and culture
  • Make access easier for disabled congregants and visitors
  • Create an accessible church culture
  • Show your commitment to becoming a community of inclusion and justice for disabled people, just as they are.
Naomi speaking at an event on autism and churches run by A2ndVoice

The courses draw on a decade of research with disabled people, sharing stories from my book At the Gates.

Day or half day courses. Contact Naomi here for a free initial discussion.

Speaking and Events

I’m a regular speaker at events and conferences on disability, church and society. Book me for your event here.

Past speaking engagements have included:

Disability and Justice: Prophets on the Edge. Greenbelt, 2023.

At the Gates: Sharing the Stories of Disabled Christians. St Paul’s Cathedral webinar, June 2023. In a series on Christianity and social justice.

Disability and Church: Intersectionality. Church Times webinar, 2022.

Disability and Power in the Church of England. Michael Ramsey Centre for Anglican Studies, 2021.

Shut In, Shut Out, Shut Up: Ableism, Faith and Church. HeartEdge, 2021.

Training Rates

I charge for training on a sliding scale, with lower rates for not-for-profit groups and churches, and an expenses-only rate for disabled people’s user-led/activist groups.

Economic justice is important, in a world where disabled people are rarely paid for our expertise. I speak at disabled-led events/groups for free, and I have a number of pro bono slots each year for churches. Please contact me for more information.

My Training Experience

I’m an experienced, certified trainer, with a ’train the trainer’ DET qualification from Essex Coalition of Disabled People, a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education, an MA in Disability Studies and a PhD in Study of Religions. My research with disabled people informs my training. Past training clients have included universities, NHS trusts, not-for-profit organisations and churches.