Did you know that July is Disability Pride Month? Not “awareness” month. PRIDE month. 

I love this shift in language. I have developed a number of chronic illnesses in the past couple years. Admitting to myself that I now have disabilities has been a challenge, let alone informing those around me. But something I’ve been learning is that there is power in claiming one’s disabilities. Advocating for myself takes courage, and I am proud of how I’ve begun speaking up for the accommodations I need to thrive!

So in honor of Disability Pride Month, I am excited to claim and introduce you to my favorite accessibility tool that you will be seeing more and more of at church!

Meet Tilly! Many of you may know that Tilly is Diana and my dog that we adopted last summer. But what you may not have heard is that I have been owner-training Tilly for the past year to become my Service Animal. Tilly is in the process of becoming a task trained service animal, which is different from emotional support animals and therapy dogs according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Did you know that a Service Animal is different from an Emotional Support Animal (ESA)? People often think they are the same thing but they are actually quite different!

While both types of animal can provide emotional support, the main difference between an ESA and a Service Dog is that Service Dogs are trained to perform specific tasks that help make navigating life with disabilities easier on their handler.

For example, an ESA may notice their owner having an anxiety attack and can provide comfort and cuddles. A Service Dog, on the other hand, may be trained to alert that an anxiety attack is coming, interrupt anxious behaviors, or retrieve medicine, water bottles, and more.

There is a chart at the bottom of this blog breaking down some FAQ to differentiate between the two. You can also read more about the differences between SD, ESA, and Therapy Dogs here.

Tilly is thriving and passing each level of her training with confidence and excitement. But to become a full-fledged service animal, it can take close to 2 years to train! A Service Dog in Training can benefit greatly from passersby knowing basic etiquette for interacting with a Service Dog and their handler.

That’s where you come in!

How You Can Help Tilly Succeed When You See Her At Church

Tilly is at the point in her training where she is granted access to places like Roulette to practice her Public Access skills. As such, she will be joining me more at church on Sundays, working on her extended down stay, remaining calm and quiet, and being attentive to me no matter how many distractions are going on around her. 

You can help Tilly (and any service animal) succeed by ignoring her when she's in her service dog gear, unless I give her the command to greet you. She is working after all!

I know she's cute, but her friendliness is her biggest challenge to overcome in this stage of her training! If you want to acknowledge or pet her, simply ask me first so I can decide if she is behaving well enough to handle the added distraction. 

Her service dog gear (sometimes a vest, pictured up above, sometimes a harness, pictured to the left) will always say “service dog” on it, and she sometimes wears a collar that says “Ignore Me”.

There isn’t one golden standard vest that Service Dogs are required to wear, so I continue to experiment with different patches, vests, and harnesses. The main goal of service dog gear is to alert the general public that this dog is working and is not to be distracted. The secondary goal is to signal to Tilly the difference between work mode and pet mode.

If you see us when she isn't vested, then that means she's in pet mode and you can interact with her all you want!

Other Ways to Be an Ally to Folx with Disabilities

Acknowledge that we live in a world built for able-bodied people, and do your best to adjust accordingly so your friends with disabilities aren’t left behind. When in doubt, just ask directly how they’d like to be accommodated! 

Disabled. Disability. These are not dirty words, but important descriptors to help people like me advocate for the accommodations we need. When people use euphemisms like “differently abled” it dulls the severity of the disability which in turn affects the likelihood of us getting the accommodations needed. 

Never assume. There is so much gray area when it comes to chronic illnesses and disabilities. Many people spend years and years going undiagnosed, but the symptoms are still there and are still very much disabling. People like myself (when I don’t have my cane or my Service Dog with me) are often assumed to be able-bodied because our disabilities are technically invisible. If you notice someone struggling to keep up, ask if and how you can accommodate them. Sometimes it’s as simple as slowing down your walking pace, other times it may be something bigger like choosing a different location to go all together. 

It’s a common misconception that wheelchair users are always unable to walk. Yes, there are people who are paralyzed who use wheelchairs. However, there are many other physical disabilities that don’t involve paralysis, and the symptoms of a physical disability are not always constant. In my case, I have a chronic pain disorder and chronic fatigue disorder. On days that I’m having a flare up, you will definitely see me using a cane, or sometimes even a chair in situations where wheelchairs are available. Recently I used a wheelchair at both the Dyke March and the Queer Liberation March because they were provided for free! Yay accessibility! I physically could have walked the entire way, but I would have risked ending up in excruciating pain or getting separated from my group, or both. Mobility aids are extremely helpful in these scenarios! However, you may also see that I love going rock climbing, or walking Tilly all throughout Prospect Park. I don’t use my cane in these situations because I choose to do these activities when I am not having a high pain or high fatigue day. That doesn’t make me any less valid in claiming my disabilities!

Don’t pity us. Chronic illness does not mean terminal illness. Disabled people really can live fulfilling and long lives! Does it suck to need a cane at 29 years old? Yeah, for sure. But it’s also really empowering to know that accessibility tools and aids exist so that my disabilities don’t hold me back. And at this point, I am beyond proud to share my service dog with the world! I am proud of our progress up to this point in her training program. I am proud that I can now take her places to help me keep up with my friends. Disability Pride Month, to me, means looking at the cards I’ve been dealt and choosing to find ways to thrive, not just survive. 

More resources:

Instagram to follow: @disabilityreframed

https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/serviceanimals-english.pdf

The AKC linked above: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/service-working-therapy-emotional-support-dogs

Makenzie (Mak) Gomez

Operations Pastor (she/her)

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Makenzie (Mak) Gomez is Forefront's Operations Pastor. Her spiritual upbringing includes a mix of Presbytarian (PCUSA), Non-Denominational Evangelical, and Inter-Denominational Christianity. She received her BFA in Musical Theatre from Boston Conservatory and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association. Outside of Forefront, she is a professional performing artist and teacher.

Mak is Mexican-American and identifies as queer/lesbian. Forefront helped her discover that embracing the intersection of sexuality and spirituality can truly be a holy and healing experience, and she hopes to continue to foster a similar environment of wonder for others.

At Forefront, Mak produces Sunday services, oversees our Sunday Volunteer Teams, and manages the Church Calendar. She preaches semi-regularly, provides pastoral care and opportunities for growth (particularly when it comes to volunteer and leadership development), and aims to bring as much creativity as possible to all she does. Mak works closely with our deacons in the areas of Events, Data, and Podcast.