What's New and Updated at The Shining Lamp?

Can every member of your community read the email you are about to forward? A message that looks fine on your screen can reach a Blind reader as silence. Discover a quick way to see what a screen reader meets, seven questions that tell you whether a message passes, and a short note that asks the sender to fix what fails. Find out how to tell before you press Forward, so the message reaches the whole community.

Shawn Reynolds of the Puyallup Tribe asked the South Sound Powwow, held in Graham, Washington, to open its floor to dancers with disabilities, and the special his family sponsored on September 26, 2026, did exactly that. Dancers could skip regalia, wear headphones, and bring a parent or caregiver, and his twin sons, Nakotah and Dakotah, who have autism, joined kids, elders, and young adults in the circle. Shawn wants powwows across the United States and Canada to add specials and a full dance category for people with disabilities, a plan shaped by lived experience in his own family.

Emily Ladau's Demystifying Disability returns in a revised edition from Penguin Random House in October, with a new preface, fuller history and etiquette chapters, updated figures, and a discussion guide, because the stakes for People with Disabilities have grown sharper. Federal rules under the Rehabilitation Act's Section 504 have lost their community integration provisions in Texas, and Ladau reads that as the federal government backing away from the right of People with Disabilities to live in their communities instead of in institutions. In 2023, People with Disabilities in America earned a median under 70 percent of what People without Disabilities earned, a gap tied to hiring bias, inaccessible workplaces, and punishing benefit rules. She tells nervous employers that People with Disabilities already work with them, and she invites us to become better allies by acting, stumbling, and trying again.

A stranger demanded an older woman's wheelchair for a tired child, doubted her disability on sight, and accused her of faking until she showed her missing leg. Her story is a reminder that a wheelchair is a personal mobility aid, that appearance never settles what someone can do, and that in the programs, services, and communications we plan, a wheelchair stays with its owner.

A new Disability Lived Experience Group at Mid and East Antrim's council gives twelve residents a direct role in shaping services that People with Disabilities can use. Members will review how the borough develops its property and facilities, along with council policies and projects, and bring personal experience into decisions. The group was proposed because People with Disabilities have too often gone unheard, and its members include parents of children with disabilities and people who face barriers when they use council services.

Every Oct. 6, a Delta school marks World Cerebral Palsy Day because one family has spent eight years teaching about 4,000 students and parents what physical diversity means. Royce Sloane, 11, plays sledge hockey with SportAbility, stands a single belt short of black at Tsawwassen Martial Arts, and shows how far a child with a physical disability can go when programs plan for him. Inclusion takes more than a seat in a classroom. It takes resources, equipment, partnership, and understanding.

Inclusive Books for Children reviewed 2,189 titles for ages 1 to 9 published in the United Kingdom in 2025 and found Black, South Asian, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) main characters nearly missing, at 47, 30, and three titles. Disabled main characters in picture books fell to two titles, and neither came from an Own Voice creator, a creator who shares the character's identity. An author and the report both ask for everyday stories where identity is present but is not the whole plot, so children can meet heroes like themselves in children's books and creators can tell their own stories.

Online meetings can shut out Blind participants who use screen readers when hosts rely on shared screens and ask participants to read slides aloud in turn. This article shows hosts how to send accessible materials ahead of time, take turns speaking in ways every participant can use, and design one meeting that does not make anyone other, with questions for Community Builders to examine their own practice.

Audio Description gives Blind and Low Vision viewers the visual information in a video, as captions give Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers the spoken content. This article explains what Audio Description is, where to find described films and series, how to check and ask for it when you show video, and how to plan it when you make your own, with questions for Community Builders to examine their own practice.

Learn how to plan welcoming, inclusive, accessible gatherings by addressing accessibility at every stage, from invitations and registration to venues, presentations, and activities. This guide outlines practical steps for removing barriers, providing accessible materials and communication, keeping participants’ requests confidential, and confirming that requested arrangements are in place. Planning ahead and following through creates a culture of respect, belonging, and equatable participation for People with Disabilities.

Print and PDF lock in the layout when the publisher saves the file, which leaves Blind People, People with Low Vision, older readers, and readers on phones unable to adjust it. This article sets out what the Nielsen Norman Group, the W3C accessibility standards, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and large studies of PDFs show, answers the common defenses of print and PDF, and calls Community Builders to publish an adjustable web page first, consult People with Disabilities, and share the responsibility for access. It closes with eight questions for a reflection gathering.

Every community email either builds belonging or creates otherness. This article invites senders to write messages that welcome readers and that Blind and DeafBlind People can read: inclusive greetings, plain language, access features stated up front, explicit location and public transit details, a description for every image, readable fonts, size, and color, and links and subject lines that explain themselves, all grounded in the international accessibility standards, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, and in Section508.gov guidance. It also invites everyone who writes for a community to own what they create, and it closes with seven questions for reflection.

A community that proclaims “All are Welcome” while leaving stairs without a ramp, print only invitations, and inaccessible files and media in place is practicing hypocrisy, and the gap can be measured. This article defines hypocrisy and gathers teachings from several traditions that condemn the distance between words and conduct. It shows where barriers hide in buildings, materials, and decisions made without People with Disabilities, and it sets out the evidence: more than 1 in 4 adults in the United States has a disability, the Americans with Disabilities Act exempts places of worship from Title III, its rules for places open to the public, and a 2024 survey of 127 churches found that accessibility offerings varied widely. It explains five habits that keep the gap open, describes what belonging looks like for the particular members each measure serves, points to practical resources for faith communities, and ends with eight questions for Community Builders to take to a reflection gathering.

Blind participants can read, study, and consult with a community only when printed materials reach them in the format they choose. This guide explains why Braille is literacy, how to ask each person privately and early which format works best, what electronic, Braille, large print, audio, and described video formats offer, how to plan, find a qualified transcriber, and deliver the materials, and where Bahá’í titles already exist in accessible form. It ends with questions for a community reflection gathering.

Side conversations in the chat during an online presentation talk over the speaker, and for Blind People who use screen readers the messages are spoken aloud over the presenter, which blocks access to the presentation. Research on task switching shows that following a speaker while reading a chat carries a real cost. Hosts can remove the barrier before the event by turning chat off, limiting who participants can chat with, and turning off private chat, then sending essential information ahead of time and repeating it aloud.

Are you sure you know the difference? You’ve heard both since childhood—“acts of charity,” “service projects,” “helping the less fortunate.” But if someone asked you to define the difference, right now, without clichés—could you?

Can you show what makes service more than a polite synonym for charity? Or are they the same in your mind—just new packaging for doing something for someone else?

Try it without the words help, kindness, generosity, or giving. What’s left? What actually separates one from the other?

Is charity about the giver’s conscience, while service begins where conscience stops being enough?

Or is that just a comforting story we tell to keep our hands clean?

If the difference were obvious, communities wouldn’t keep mistaking pity for partnership—or convenience for commitment.

So before you nod along, test your understanding. Define them. Contrast them. Defend your definitions. Then—when your answers start to wobble—read the full article.

Advocacy is speaking up and acting, for yourself or with others, so that a barrier is removed and stays removed. This article explains self-advocacy, individual advocacy, and systems advocacy; the principle Nothing About Us Without Us; and real examples, from Haben Girma’s fight for an accessible cafeteria menu to the 1977 Section 504 sit-ins. It shows why goodwill alone does not keep access in place, draws on Bahá’í guidance to safeguard every minority and defend those who are oppressed, and gives Community Builders in every role practical steps and questions for reflection.