While there were some mentions in interviews Schalk conducted of faith and prayer healing for mental health disabilities, which Schalk tied back to a mistrust of psychiatry because of medical and psychiatric racism, Schalk's interview subjects also discussed how those who reject faith healing or who openly prioritize treatments and medication often are blamed and shamed for not being healed.

How Spirituality is viewed by Contemporary Black Disabled Cultural Workers

Disability Studies scholars often don't deal with disability and religion. When religion is mentioned in Disability Studies it is often through the auspices of ableism in Christian churches, critiques of faith or prayer healing, and discussions of religious views of disability as either a gift or curse from the divine. Often this work focuses on only Christian churches and white disabled experiences.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The NBWHP included spiritual health as an axis of health but did this in a way that serves as a model of how spirituality can be included within Black Disability Politics. Most importantly, the NBWHP did not promote any specific religious or spiritual beliefs. Instead the NBWHP centered spirituality, regardless of the faith practice, as a way for Black women to feel connected to a larger sense of purpose and for some as a way to feel some empowerment while dealing with disease or illness. Also notably the NBWHP did not prevent a critique of how religion and the church have oppressed Black women.

Inclusion of spiritual health as an axis of health

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

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