December 5, 2025 • 12 mins
We walk through practical ways to make the gospel accessible for people with disabilities by addressing sensory barriers, emotional regulation, learning styles, and the “simple, concrete, repeat” method. We assume competence, build trust, and highlight God’s work beyond our limits.
• disability prevalence and the church attendance gap
• difference between physical, social, and spiritual access
• sensory sensitivities and simple environmental fixes
• emotional regulation tools and check-ins
• learning styles and five-sense teaching
• assume competence in discipleship
• simple, concrete, repeat as a core method
• relationships and communication modes as keys to learning
• God’s role in understanding and transformation
If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the Indispensable-People blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hey, hey, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to
Indispensable People.
I'm a pastor, a teacher, amissionary, a mom, a wife, and I
believe that every person shouldhave access to the gospel so
that they can know Christ, growin him, and serve him with the
gifts that he has given.
Over 65 million Americans have adisability.
(00:24):
That's 15 to 20% of everycommunity.
And over 85% of thoseindividuals do not attend
church.
90% of pastors believe that theyare a disability-friendly
church, but only 20% of parentsand families agree.
Let's dive deep into hardtopics, big questions,
(00:47):
perceptions, stereotypes, and somuch more.
Welcome to today's episode.
Thank you for joining me.
We are talking about frequentlyasked questions, and we are
trying to answer questions thathave been submitted by
supporters, listeners, readers,and we figure that if if they
(01:09):
asked it, then you might bethinking about it.
So we're going to jump rightinto the question today.
And today's question is how doyou help individuals understand
the word of God?
Now, first I want to prefacethis question by helping us
understand that, first of all,the realm of disability is vast,
(01:30):
right?
So no one person with adisability is the same as
someone else.
And so this won't be just ablanket answer.
There is so much more to it thana simple here you go.
And so we are going to befocused more on those with
intellectual disabilities.
(01:52):
So we have people with physicaldisabilities that have no
intellectual barriers.
And so the approach to sharingthe gospel with them is more of
a physical.
Can they see it?
Can they hear it?
Can they participate in it?
So that includes those withphysical disabilities, those who
might be deaf or experiencinghearing impairment, or someone
(02:14):
who may be blind or have avisual impairment of some sort.
So that is not more of anunderstanding.
That is more of do I have anaccess to the information?
Then when you consider thosewith intellectual disabilities,
you can also add to that thosewho might have barriers to the
(02:36):
intellectual understandingbecause of sensory
sensitivities.
So that's an easier tackle thanthe intellectual.
So here's where you're gonna gowith that.
A sensory sensitivity.
So for example, a child who isstruggling because the lights
are buzzing in the room thatthey're in that they're
(02:58):
learning, whether it's thesanctuary, a Sunday school
classroom.
So it could be an adult in thesanctuary or child in a Sunday
school room, you are going to,they're gonna be distracted by
their sensory sensitivities,which in this case we'll say is
the lights buzzing.
So how do you eliminate orlessen that sensory sensitivity
(03:19):
so that they can focus on whatyou're teaching?
That's gonna be your concern,whether it's noise canceling
headphones, whether it'steaching with the lights out,
which maybe in a sanctuarysetting sounds a little
ridiculous, but in a Sundayschool class, you might have
windows in the room with the suncoming in, and that may not be
an issue at all.
Another, so coming up withopportunities and ways to
(03:43):
eliminate those sensorysensitivities or alleviate those
sensory sensitivities so thatthey can focus.
Another example might be noiseis easy, visual noise is easy
because you can either offersome noise-cancelling
headphones, headphones, oreliminate the noise or lessen
(04:03):
the noise.
But there are other things likethe way maybe their clothes are
feeling on them that particularday, or if the lights are
bothering their eyes,fluorescent lights a lot of
times will do that.
Those kinds of things.
And so you just have to do whatworks for your environment to
try to, again, either remove oralleviate the sensory
(04:27):
sensitivity that they might beexperiencing at that point.
And then that removes thebarrier for learning.
The other that I would say thatimpacts all of that would be
some emotional regulation.
And if they are struggling withtheir emotions in the moment,
then that is going to be adistraction from the learning.
(04:49):
And this goes through kids,teens, adults.
Sometimes they can becomeoverwhelmed with a situation or
hyper focused on a situation.
And so we have to work to helpthem overcome those moments.
That might be as simple asredirection.
That might be let's take asecond and talk about it and see
(05:12):
where you're at and help let melisten.
It might be some strategies todeal with it, such as, you know,
where are you at today?
Are you feeling a one, uh, two,a three, a four, a five, five
being, you know, the mostextensive.
So let me talk about it.
Maybe it's a color code emotionchart.
(05:33):
Maybe it is that they just needto talk about it and they need
to let it out.
And they need you to understandwhere they're at before they can
move on.
Sometimes you will need to justyou need to validate the
feelings that they'reexperiencing so you can move on.
And those kinds of things.
(05:53):
So just understanding theindividual, the struggle that
they're at, we're notdiminishing that struggle.
And we are trying to findstrategies to help them through
it.
Again, it depends on the personand their needs.
And the best way to do that isby getting to know them.
Now, we're gonna go into theintellectual portion, speaking
(06:16):
about um, how do you help peoplewith intellectual disabilities
learn?
Now, I will tell you thatregardless of the disability,
all people learn in differentways.
I am a visual learner and I'm ahands-on learner.
I have my husband who couldbenefit from never picking up a
(06:38):
book, and I need to touch thebook.
Like I need to touch it, I needto highlight it, I want to, I
want to write in it, all of Iwant to take notes, all of that
kind of stuff.
He is a doer.
I have three kids, and my threekids are visual learners.
Some individuals are auditorylearners, and so one of your
(07:01):
safe strategies across theboard, doesn't matter who you're
teaching, what their needs are,are using the five senses.
The five senses are going tohelp benefit and they're going
to help you utilize thosedifferent learning styles.
The other thing we want to do,especially with those with an
intellectual disability, is wewant to assume competence.
(07:24):
We don't want to approach withthe idea that they don't
understand, they won'tunderstand.
So why even try?
That's not where we're at.
First of all, we need to knowthat we're no matter our
abilities to teach and theirabilities to receive, we serve a
God who is not stopped by anyboundaries or barriers, and he
(07:44):
can get through any of them andhe can help people to understand
above and beyond anything thatthey could think of or dream.
I saw it was a posting on socialmedia about a week or two ago
that I saw, and it was a littleguy whose dad was in a car
accident.
The little guy was diagnosedwith autism and he couldn't
(08:08):
understand why daddy couldn'tcome home.
But he had gone to like abirthday party or something
during the day, and then he gotto come and visit dad.
And when he crawled up into thehospital bed with dad, he may
not understand why he couldn'tgo home.
He didn't understand all themedical problems, but he did
tell him that Jesus was thereason that he was still alive.
(08:30):
So an understanding beyond whatwe understand can come to an
individual with a disability, nomatter their intellectual
capacity.
And so we always want to assumecompetence.
We want to assume that they canlearn.
And that's why we talk aboutmaking the gospel not only
physically accessible, butsocially and spiritually
accessible.
(08:50):
Because oftentimes people willjust assume that they can't
learn.
And so then they don't disciple,which means we're not making the
gospel spiritually accessible.
This is a simple, I have livedon this, I have utilized this, I
have spoken on it in otherpodcasts.
(09:12):
Simple, concrete, repeat.
The there is so much study ofthe brain and how it learns and
building blocks of simplifyingthings and then building upon
them has been proven.
Repeating, hearing the samething multiple times in
different ways.
That's where the five sensescome into play with this as
(09:36):
well, because you're learningthe same thing with different
senses or learning the samething in different learning
styles that repeat is really,really important.
And the last one is the samething that I just went over is
presenting in many ways,different learning styles, five
senses, all that kind of thing.
The other thing is there will benothing more valuable than
(10:00):
building a relationship withthat person and helping and
understanding.
Because when I feel safe withyou, I can receive from you.
And so building thatrelationship, knowing that
you're loved, that you're cared,that you're valued, that opens
up doors as well.
Knowing their language, the waythat they communicate, whether
they're using a communicationboard, sign language, gestures,
(10:23):
being verbal, any of those kindsof things.
So knowing how to their primarycommunication and the way that
they like to interact is goingto be helpful in that way too.
And again, I will just saybecause it is so incredibly
important, understanding theperson leads to connection.
Connection leads to learning.
(10:45):
So I would say understandinglearning styles, utilizing five
senses, being open to repetitivelearning and building, again,
building those relationships.
Those are going to be your keycomponents in helping people to
understand the word of God.
(11:05):
However, the most important isthe God component because he can
speak to and through his people,and that is going to be the most
beneficial.
Making the gospel accessiblecomes from understanding the
people that you're serving,using strategies that help them
to learn in the way that theylearn best, and allowing God to
(11:28):
work in them and through us.
That's how we make the gospelaccessible.
(12:04):
We're going to make theaccessible gospel available to
individuals with disabilities inour churches and in our
communities so that every personhas the opportunity to know
Christ, to grow in him, and toserve him with the gifts that he
is given.
If you want to dive deeper onyour own, you can check out the
Indispensable People blog or mybooks on Amazon called The
(12:25):
Indispensable Kid or GospelAccessibility and the
Indispensable People.
Hey, hey, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to
Indispensable People.
I'm a pastor, a teacher, amissionary, a mom, a wife, and I
believe that every person shouldhave access to the gospel so
that they can know Christ, growin him, and serve him with the
gifts that he has given.
Over 65 million Americans have adisability.
(00:24):
That's 15 to 20% of everycommunity.
And over 85% of thoseindividuals do not attend
church.
90% of pastors believe that theyare a disability-friendly
church, but only 20% of parentsand families agree.
Let's dive deep into hardtopics, big questions,
(00:47):
perceptions, stereotypes, and somuch more.
Welcome to today's episode.
Thank you for joining me.
We are talking about frequentlyasked questions, and we are
trying to answer questions thathave been submitted by
supporters, listeners, readers,and we figure that if if they
(01:09):
asked it, then you might bethinking about it.
So we're going to jump rightinto the question today.
And today's question is how doyou help individuals understand
the word of God?
Now, first I want to prefacethis question by helping us
understand that, first of all,the realm of disability is vast,
(01:30):
right?
So no one person with adisability is the same as
someone else.
And so this won't be just ablanket answer.
There is so much more to it thana simple here you go.
And so we are going to befocused more on those with
intellectual disabilities.
(01:52):
So we have people with physicaldisabilities that have no
intellectual barriers.
And so the approach to sharingthe gospel with them is more of
a physical.
Can they see it?
Can they hear it?
Can they participate in it?
So that includes those withphysical disabilities, those who
might be deaf or experiencinghearing impairment, or someone
(02:14):
who may be blind or have avisual impairment of some sort.
So that is not more of anunderstanding.
That is more of do I have anaccess to the information?
Then when you consider thosewith intellectual disabilities,
you can also add to that thosewho might have barriers to the
(02:36):
intellectual understandingbecause of sensory
sensitivities.
So that's an easier tackle thanthe intellectual.
So here's where you're gonna gowith that.
A sensory sensitivity.
So for example, a child who isstruggling because the lights
are buzzing in the room thatthey're in that they're
(02:58):
learning, whether it's thesanctuary, a Sunday school
classroom.
So it could be an adult in thesanctuary or child in a Sunday
school room, you are going to,they're gonna be distracted by
their sensory sensitivities,which in this case we'll say is
the lights buzzing.
So how do you eliminate orlessen that sensory sensitivity
(03:19):
so that they can focus on whatyou're teaching?
That's gonna be your concern,whether it's noise canceling
headphones, whether it'steaching with the lights out,
which maybe in a sanctuarysetting sounds a little
ridiculous, but in a Sundayschool class, you might have
windows in the room with the suncoming in, and that may not be
an issue at all.
Another, so coming up withopportunities and ways to
(03:43):
eliminate those sensorysensitivities or alleviate those
sensory sensitivities so thatthey can focus.
Another example might be noiseis easy, visual noise is easy
because you can either offersome noise-cancelling
headphones, headphones, oreliminate the noise or lessen
(04:03):
the noise.
But there are other things likethe way maybe their clothes are
feeling on them that particularday, or if the lights are
bothering their eyes,fluorescent lights a lot of
times will do that.
Those kinds of things.
And so you just have to do whatworks for your environment to
try to, again, either remove oralleviate the sensory
(04:27):
sensitivity that they might beexperiencing at that point.
And then that removes thebarrier for learning.
The other that I would say thatimpacts all of that would be
some emotional regulation.
And if they are struggling withtheir emotions in the moment,
then that is going to be adistraction from the learning.
(04:49):
And this goes through kids,teens, adults.
Sometimes they can becomeoverwhelmed with a situation or
hyper focused on a situation.
And so we have to work to helpthem overcome those moments.
That might be as simple asredirection.
That might be let's take asecond and talk about it and see
(05:12):
where you're at and help let melisten.
It might be some strategies todeal with it, such as, you know,
where are you at today?
Are you feeling a one, uh, two,a three, a four, a five, five
being, you know, the mostextensive.
So let me talk about it.
Maybe it's a color code emotionchart.
(05:33):
Maybe it is that they just needto talk about it and they need
to let it out.
And they need you to understandwhere they're at before they can
move on.
Sometimes you will need to justyou need to validate the
feelings that they'reexperiencing so you can move on.
And those kinds of things.
(05:53):
So just understanding theindividual, the struggle that
they're at, we're notdiminishing that struggle.
And we are trying to findstrategies to help them through
it.
Again, it depends on the personand their needs.
And the best way to do that isby getting to know them.
Now, we're gonna go into theintellectual portion, speaking
(06:16):
about um, how do you help peoplewith intellectual disabilities
learn?
Now, I will tell you thatregardless of the disability,
all people learn in differentways.
I am a visual learner and I'm ahands-on learner.
I have my husband who couldbenefit from never picking up a
(06:38):
book, and I need to touch thebook.
Like I need to touch it, I needto highlight it, I want to, I
want to write in it, all of Iwant to take notes, all of that
kind of stuff.
He is a doer.
I have three kids, and my threekids are visual learners.
Some individuals are auditorylearners, and so one of your
(07:01):
safe strategies across theboard, doesn't matter who you're
teaching, what their needs are,are using the five senses.
The five senses are going tohelp benefit and they're going
to help you utilize thosedifferent learning styles.
The other thing we want to do,especially with those with an
intellectual disability, is wewant to assume competence.
(07:24):
We don't want to approach withthe idea that they don't
understand, they won'tunderstand.
So why even try?
That's not where we're at.
First of all, we need to knowthat we're no matter our
abilities to teach and theirabilities to receive, we serve a
God who is not stopped by anyboundaries or barriers, and he
(07:44):
can get through any of them andhe can help people to understand
above and beyond anything thatthey could think of or dream.
I saw it was a posting on socialmedia about a week or two ago
that I saw, and it was a littleguy whose dad was in a car
accident.
The little guy was diagnosedwith autism and he couldn't
(08:08):
understand why daddy couldn'tcome home.
But he had gone to like abirthday party or something
during the day, and then he gotto come and visit dad.
And when he crawled up into thehospital bed with dad, he may
not understand why he couldn'tgo home.
He didn't understand all themedical problems, but he did
tell him that Jesus was thereason that he was still alive.
(08:30):
So an understanding beyond whatwe understand can come to an
individual with a disability, nomatter their intellectual
capacity.
And so we always want to assumecompetence.
We want to assume that they canlearn.
And that's why we talk aboutmaking the gospel not only
physically accessible, butsocially and spiritually
accessible.
(08:50):
Because oftentimes people willjust assume that they can't
learn.
And so then they don't disciple,which means we're not making the
gospel spiritually accessible.
This is a simple, I have livedon this, I have utilized this, I
have spoken on it in otherpodcasts.
(09:12):
Simple, concrete, repeat.
The there is so much study ofthe brain and how it learns and
building blocks of simplifyingthings and then building upon
them has been proven.
Repeating, hearing the samething multiple times in
different ways.
That's where the five sensescome into play with this as
(09:36):
well, because you're learningthe same thing with different
senses or learning the samething in different learning
styles that repeat is really,really important.
And the last one is the samething that I just went over is
presenting in many ways,different learning styles, five
senses, all that kind of thing.
The other thing is there will benothing more valuable than
(10:00):
building a relationship withthat person and helping and
understanding.
Because when I feel safe withyou, I can receive from you.
And so building thatrelationship, knowing that
you're loved, that you're cared,that you're valued, that opens
up doors as well.
Knowing their language, the waythat they communicate, whether
they're using a communicationboard, sign language, gestures,
(10:23):
being verbal, any of those kindsof things.
So knowing how to their primarycommunication and the way that
they like to interact is goingto be helpful in that way too.
And again, I will just saybecause it is so incredibly
important, understanding theperson leads to connection.
Connection leads to learning.
(10:45):
So I would say understandinglearning styles, utilizing five
senses, being open to repetitivelearning and building, again,
building those relationships.
Those are going to be your keycomponents in helping people to
understand the word of God.
(11:05):
However, the most important isthe God component because he can
speak to and through his people,and that is going to be the most
beneficial.
Making the gospel accessiblecomes from understanding the
people that you're serving,using strategies that help them
to learn in the way that theylearn best, and allowing God to
(11:28):
work in them and through us.
That's how we make the gospelaccessible.
(12:04):
We're going to make theaccessible gospel available to
individuals with disabilities inour churches and in our
communities so that every personhas the opportunity to know
Christ, to grow in him, and toserve him with the gifts that he
is given.
If you want to dive deeper onyour own, you can check out the
Indispensable People blog or mybooks on Amazon called The
(12:25):
Indispensable Kid or GospelAccessibility and the
Indispensable People.
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