Pastor, St. Alexander Catholic Church, Cornelius, Oregon
Fr. David Schiferl has been pastor at St. Alexander Catholic Church in Cornelius, Oregon since July 2003. Fr. David is the last of nine children, born and raised in central Wisconsin. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and his M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, with an emphasis on user interface design. He moved to Oregon in 1984. In 2001 he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon.
In 2017, the 10,000 sq. foot new church building at St. Alexander’s was dedicated. In the design and construction of the new church, universal accessibility was a driving theme for all decisions. Universal accessibility may be described as follows: Anywhere anyone can go, everyone can go, in the same way. Universal accessibility goes beyond ADA requirements.
In my presentation, I will look at the practical side of making this theme a reality for our community. I will cover a number of decision points which we addressed along the way:
I also wish to discuss the relationship between user interface design and universal accessibility in church design. Who are the users? How do you get the input you need for making good decisions? How do you convince the team: parishioners, architects, builders, donors?
In our two breakout sessions, I will invite participants to consider the following two questions: