“Disability Justice builds on the disability rights movement, taking a more comprehensive approach to help secure rights for disabled people by recognizing the intersectionality of disabled people who belong to additional marginalized communities. Disability justice is a framework that acknowledges the intersection of oppression, and centers the ways that disabled people experience the world through systems that are not built for us, especially the twice, thrice and more oppressed among us.” - Rev. Amanda Schuber, Side With Love Disability Justice Associate

Welcome our new staff!

We are excited to welcome two new colleagues to the UUA, both of whom are holding accessibility and disability justice in their portfolios. At Side With Love, we recognize that accessibility must be part of our prophetic vision for Beloved Community and we’re grateful to be working with Gretchen and Amanda!

Gretchen Maune (she/they)

Accessibility Resources Coordinator in Ministries and Faith Development's LGBTQ and Multicultural Ministries

As Accessibility Resources Coordinator, Gretchen will provide virtual resources for Unitarian Universalist congregational and organizational leaders to create spaces, events, programs and communities which are accessible and inclusive to disabled participants.

Gretchen is a white, queer, autistic, blind, disabled UU living in Columbia, Missouri. She serves the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia (UUCC) as a Worship Associate, and has previously served on its Board of Trustees, and as a multi-time delegate to GA.

In 2017, Gretchen co-founded UUCC’s Disability Justice and Inclusion Team (DJIT), and has chaired it for over five years. UUCC’s DJIT seeks to foster an inclusively designed environment, with a congregational commitment to combating ablism, where all individuals feel radically welcome and are able to participate in every aspect of the church and community. She has consulted on accessibility for nonprofits, companies, and government entities across the country. She is excited to apply her experience and knowledge to help the UUA and its congregations do their work with a lens to disability justice and accessibility lens.

Gretchen holds a Master’s of Public Affairs from the University of Missouri’s Truman School of Public Affairs, and a Bachelor’s in English, also from MU. She’s worked as a Community Organizer in the fields of both economic and reproductive justice for GRO—Grass Roots Organizing, and for NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. She’s also worked as a public education lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association, the largest union in Missouri. Gretchen has been appointed to the Columbia Disabilities Commission, and the city’s Public Transit Advisory Commission. In addition, she has served as a board member with multiple nonprofits, and volunteers her time with Missouri Faith Voices, bringing a disabled perspective to their work.

In her free-time, Gretchen enjoys reading, playing D&D, and hanging out with her Seeing-Eye Dog, Royal.

Rev. Amanda Schuber (she/her)

Disability Justice Associate in Side With Love’s Organizing Strategy Team

My pronouns are she/her, or anything said in love. I have lived in the deep South for most of my life and consider myself a dedicated Southern Minister.

My wife, Wanda, and I have been married for 18 years and live with two of our three children in Middle Georgia. I spend most of my free time engaged as a taxi and sports mom extraordinaire for my two youngest children, Joseph (almost 11) and Nora (13). Our oldest child, Samantha, and her husband, Cody, are stationed in South Dakota, serving in the United States Air Force. When not at the ball fields, our family loves to camp and hike all over the country. I am also an avid gardener, crafter, and theater patron.

I have served the UU world in various capacities over the last 29 years, including sitting on the Boards of EQUUAL Access, Interweave, and CUUYAN (Continental UU Young Adult Network). I spent two years living in Boston, working at the UUA in the Office of Congregational Fundraising. Additionally, I have been a Beyond Categorical Thinking facilitator since 2004 and have been privileged to work with well over 50 congregations in that time. Congregationally, I have held many positions, including social action chair, worship chair, and DRE. 

A graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry, I’m honored to serve as Minister for High Street Unitarian Universalist Church in Macon, GA and as the Disability Justice Associate for the Side with Love Organizing Strategy Team.

I am an advocate for disability rights and visibility in the wider world and within our denomination. Specifically, I strive to create a welcoming and supportive space for those living with mental health challenges and their families. 

Subscribe to UPLIFT Access, our newsletter uplifting accessibility in and beyond Unitarian Universalism which Gretchen maintains. You can read the most recent issue here.

May 16th is the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). UUA Accessibility Resources Coordinator Gretchen Maune shares this reflection on digital accessibility.

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In 2007, I was staying at a blind rehabilitation center in Kansas City. Six months prior, I had gone from having 20/15 vision to being almost completely blind over eight rough weeks. I was 24 years old and needed to complete just 15 more credits to finish my Bachelor’s in English so I could move on to grad school, but first, I had to figure out how.

While I enjoyed learning Braille, and techniques for cooking without sight, most of my motivation was reserved for learning to use a computer again. Starting with my family’s Apple II GS, I had been using computers for the vast majority of my life. Being unable to use one for the last several months had made everything from writing capstone papers, to playing Morrowind, to messaging friends impossible, and I was miserable. Cut off from so much, I didn’t know how I was supposed to live my life anymore. When my rehab counselor told me there was software that made it possible for blind people to use a computer, I felt hope and clung to it.

Through the help of a text-to-speech screen reading program called JAWS, I quickly adapted to navigating Windows with my ears instead of my eyes. My instructor, Jim, was the first blind person I can ever remember meeting, and I will be forever grateful to him for all he taught me. One day, as I was practicing surfing the web (come on, it was the 00’s) I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with a particular website. The techniques I’d been taught weren’t working, and though I creatively strove to find a solution, I eventually found myself giving up. Confused, I asked Jim what I was doing wrong, but the answer he gave me was “nothing at all.” That was the day I learned about digital accessibility.

Assistive technologies like screen readers make participating in society possible for me and countless other disabled people. However, these tools can’t make content accessible all by themselves. Application developers, page designers, instructional material creators, and anyone posting something to the internet (so, that would be just about everyone) have to do their part as well, building, editing, or sharing with accessibility in mind.

Thankfully, my UUA colleague, Kasey Kruser, knows just how important digital accessibility is, and is always keeping it in mind with her work. When asked why she thinks accessibility is important as a web developer, she says, “Making our sites as accessible as possible is a great way to help people feel welcomed and included right from the start. Whatever else might be going on in their lives, whatever brought them to our site, I want to know I've done my best to remove frustrations and roadblocks; I hope my efforts make life that much easier for everyone in or looking for our community.”

As someone who relies on accessibility for my professional, entertainment, and spiritual needs, I am reminded daily that we’re all in this together. On this 13th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day, let us design our websites, create our documents, and share our social media with love.

A few of the resources I recommend:

• The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG, are standards for making digital content accessible to disabled users. These standards are required by many countries and other entities across the globe. Learn more with this WCAG primer.

• Whether you’re using mostly text, tables, or graphics, increase your inclusive practices with this guide to creating accessible Microsoft Office documents.

• Engage with official GAAD Events and Resources and learn to make your content more accessible!

Gretchen Maune, MPA, CPACC :: she/they

Accessibility Resources Coordinator

UUA Ministries and Faith Development