02 February 2012

Ann Memmott, an autism accessibility consultant, said that the guidelines she wrote for the diocese in 2008 have now been downloaded almost 4000 times. "That's a heck of a number, given the specialised nature of the document and the relative lack of advertising that we've given it."

And according to research she led last year, disability access leads to faster church growth. "From the recent C of E figures, those dioceses who had the most churches offering a welcome to autistic people like me also had the fastest growth in Electoral Roll (ER) numbers," she said.

"Today I calculated the ER numbers for the churches in Oxford Diocese who have accepted autistic individuals. The ER numbers are up! Hurrah - and thank you to Oxford Diocese for enabling us to demonstrate unequivocally that better access and inclusion is a good thing for church numbers and making disciples."

You can download the Guidelines here. You may also be interested to read about Ann's work on sensory pilgrimages here.