one. The open meeting law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is recorded. Therefore, please be aware that an audio and visual recording of this meeting is being made by Boston City TV, a part of the City of Boston Office of Cable Communications, and is
being broadcast on Xfinity Channel 26, RCN channel 13, and Fios Channel 962, as well as livereamed on YouTube, uh, where a recording will exist, uh, after the fact. With that, I will turn it over to
our chair, Zaryi Amir Hoseni. >> Thank you very much, Andrea. And good evening, everyone. Uh, happy to see you all again tonight. Uh, my name is Zaryni. I'm the new chair uh about now two weeks
in, two months in um of the this great group. Um, and I uh, my physical description, I am a woman with short brown hair. I'm wearing a red sweater. Um, I am a she her pronouns and I am a
female with a disability. I made wheelchairs. I live in South Boston and my interest is in healthcare. I work at Mass General Hospital and I turn it in to Olivia.
>> Hi, my name is Olivia Richard. I am a resident of Brighton, um, the Washington Square area, and I am a wheelchair user,
and I am a middle-aged white female with glasses, short hair, and I'm wearing a blue shirt. Uh Jerry. >> Yes. Thank you, Zary. Um that pesky mute button. Uh again, uh my name is Jerry
Boyd. I am proud to represent West Roxbury. I am a white middle-aged male wearing a uh Boston Center for Independent Living uh red t-shirt and I am also a wheelchair user.
>> Thank you, Jerry. Plet. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Plet Dret. I'm an older black woman wearing glasses and I have on a a black vest and I represent the Matapan area of Boston.
I've been on the board about three years. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Sam. >> Hi everyone. I'm Sam Pastor. I'm a wheelchair user, a white male wearing a blue shirt and I live in Dorchester,
part of Boston. >> Thanks, Sam. Richard. >> Thank you, Zary. Richard Glosski. I live in Back Bay. I'm an older white man with gray hair. I'm wearing a blue shirt. I'm severely hearing impaired. And my
principal or my my most important interests are in being on this commission is helping with issues relating to children with disabilities. >> Thank you, Richard. >> Carl. >> Yes. My name is Carl Richardson. I am a
middle I'm wondering how much longer I can call myself middle-aged before I fall into the older category. But I'm a middle-aged white guy with salt and pepper hair. I'm wearing a uh I think it's a white button down and I live in Brighton and I identify as a death blind
individual and that I have a dual sensory loss of blindness and um hearing loss and I'm a guide dog user and my issues that I like to work on are transportation um and and um web access.
>> Thank you, Carl. Paul. Hi, my name is Paul Karen. I live in the West End. I'm a middle-aged Caucasian male. I represent mental health advocacy. Um, it is mental health awareness month, which I'd like to give
a shout out later about. And, um, live in the West End, work at the Boston Planning Department, and I'm currently wearing a Navy blue laborers union political action um, pullover, Lettoman's pullover, so to speak. So, thank you. proud to serve on
the board. >> Thanks, Bob. Wesley. >> Hi everybody. Good evening. This is Wes Ireland. Um my description is I'm a white man. I'm deaf and I have two sign language
interpreters who will be interpreting um and you'll hear their voices uh for my sign language throughout this meeting. And let's see, I um additionally um I'm wearing a black shirt and
I live in the north end and let's see I'm my interest areas are related to communication access needs of deaf community. Okay, thank you. >> Thanks. Uh Tara,
>> hi everyone. My name is Tara Southernard. Um, I live on the JP Roxbury line. I'm a wheelchair user. Um, in my picture you will see me wearing glasses. Um, white woman and a little Chihuahua.
>> Thank you. Um, am I missing anyone other than the commission? >> Yes, one of our newest members, uh, Denise. >> Denise. >> Hi, good evening everyone. My name is
Denise Martinez Pñena. I am a Hispanic woman. I'm wearing a brown breast and I'm representing um my son who has an IEP at then the Boston public school and I also work for Massibility um DDS disability determination services of
Massachusetts. Thank you. >> Welcome Denise. Lovely to have you and commissioner. >> Thanks Arie. Hi everybody. I'm Kristen Mos. I'm the disability commissioner and ADA title 2 coordinator for the city of
Boston. I am a woman with blonde hair and glasses who has um an image of city hall in the background and I also use a wheelchair. >> Thank you very much, Commissioner C. So, what's next on the agenda?
Um >> approval of the meeting minutes. Can someone uh approve the minutes? >> I make a motion to approve. >> I second.
>> All All in. All >> approve. I >> I >> Great. Any abstensions? Any? No. All approved. Great. Thank you everyone.
And next we have a presenter. >> Is that correct? >> That's correct. Uh from the Boston Transportation Department, Isaac, would you like to share your slides or would you like me to? >> Hey. Um yeah, why don't I go ahead that
way I can click through the slides. Great. >> When I'm ready, if that's all right. >> Absolutely. If you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself with a quick quick visual description, then take it away. >> Yeah, sure thing. Um, hey everyone. Uh, my name is Isaac Preszant. Um, I am a
senior traffic engineer with BTD. Um, just a quick background, I've been with the city for about a year and a half now. Um, prior to working with the city of Boston, I was the traffic engineer for the city of Newton for a little over 6 years.
um had a had a great experience working with uh commission on disability there and our 88 coordinator there. Um so this is a conversation I'm looking forward to having with you folks uh with all your expertise with the city of Boston. Um
and I am a relatively young um white Caucasian male. Um, I am wearing a checkered red dress shirt with a collar, um, and glasses and a headset. Um, and I will begin my
presentation unless I've missed anything. >> All good. >> Okay, very good. U, let me share my screen here. All right. Okay. Okay.
Um, if someone wouldn't mind just confirming they can see presentation and I'll I'll do my best to audibly walk through it as well. >> Yeah, this is Sam. We see it. >> Awesome. Thanks, Sam. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Um, so I I put together a
quick presentation. And I I I think I wanted to highlight on some a mixture of sort of big picture items and and some some smaller details um but leave enough time um to discuss. Um, I think this
subject is is um one that can go in a few different directions and with with a lot of different expertise and and opinions and and um I I think it'll be fun to get into all that in a sort of more open dialogue. Um so I'll try to
quick uh quickly flip through these. Um so the title is accessibility and traffic signals. um discussing accessible features of traffic signal equipment and pedestrian phasing strategies. Um folks are completely welcome to interrupt or bring up some other
subjects um that I'm happy to get into as well, but I'll I'll get through this as quickly as possible. I need time. Um so, as far as agendas go, um a few things I wanted to touch on. Um APS buttons, of course, this group's very
familiar with, but I'll get into more in detail. I'll I'll touch base on how we're doing as a BTD department um on APS installations. Um I'll talk about signal retiming. Um I'll talk about our
signal policy and you know where we're looking to ensure we're compliant. Um, and I'll just, you know, reassure both now and at the end that, you know, we are committed to this effort overall and and hope to reach um 100% accessibility
with our um APS installations at at traffic signals citywide. So, starting off with APS implementation, um we're currently amidst a three-year contract um that began in the fiscal year 25 that still
has another year to go um that has a dedicated lighten item for APS installations. Um so far um through the first two fiscal years which which the second of which we're coming to the end of um we have had
$750,000 to spend. Um so that's been that's been a great commitment um that we enjoy as a department cuz we you know of course like to get work done and and have the latest and greatest technology out
there. So it's it's always nice to have a budget for it. course. Um we'll definitely be finding out soon over what funding we have for fiscal year 27. Um but we definitely anticipate it to continue to be a a very healthy sum um
that we look forward to spending. Um that all said, um part of that includes a variety of things. Um it could be brand new signals that never existed before. It could be locations that have an old signal that needs to be
fully reconstructed. Um those are locations that will absolutely have some form of engineering design behind and will absolutely have um compliant you know accessible ramps um
APS buttons and you know relevant pedestrian signal infrastructure. Um, in addition to all of that, um, we do go through, um, retrofitting of APS at locations that are older and and historically have
not had it or or maybe have some buttons but not fully. Um, so that's that's an effort as well that's tied into this funding that that we have. Um, and just want to finish that point off to ensure folks that we are very much in tune with
the latest ProAG, um, the latest MUTCD. Um, and we'll continue to follow that. Uh, moving on to some more specific numbers. Um, the city of Boston has nearly 900
traffic signals. Um, some of which are state jurisdiction. um but most of which are of course city of Boston. Um and at this moment um we're at about 471 intersections, signalized intersections
that are completely fully equipped with APS buttons. So So we we still have some some um some some steps to go. Um but we're definitely committed on getting there. Um, I think conversations like these are great and working with you folks to help us ensure we're
prioritizing the right things. Um, but so far, um, you know, we've been prioritizing high pedestrian volume corridors and and transit stops, school zones, medical facilities, and and and areas that have already been pointed
out, especially from folks on this commission. um or maybe just um you know all of our constituents that um have various um visual impairments and other impairments that that um really need the help of these buttons and and it's um
definitely our intention to prioritize those locations and continue to do so. Um moving on to talk a little bit about signal retiming. Um so this is a big effort um that's been going on for many years where we read time
um a good number of signals each year and and we go through this process where we um aren't just totally tuned into how do we optimize the vehicle movement um but we want to ensure that we're being
mindful of pedestrian bicycle and and transit movement as well. Um so that starts with ensuring we have the latest and greatest data um vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle counts. Um we want to ensure that we have the latest crash data. Um
that's working with the police, that's working with EMS, um to ensure that we're being informed by, you know, what's happening out at these locations and um of course field observations as well. Um we have a traffic software
modeling tool that we use Synchro. Uh we work with a consultant on this. Um we take the opportunity to ensure all the clearance calculations are redone um for you know what what needs to be compliant with the latest METCD.
Um, and we also go through an effort to essentially run these numbers um through our signal policy to help guide some of the decisions and and um I'll go through some of that in some of the upcoming slides as well. Um
I'll move on to that. Yeah. Um, as an offshoot of the overall retiming effort, um, there are some components of that that are very pedestrian signal
timing focused. Um, and the intention to have the timing and phasing that we choose, you know, be better than we found it. Um, so that first includes understanding that we need to be mindful of what our overall cycle lengths are.
Um it's really easy to um bump up the cycle length to try to process the most amount of vehicles, but that causes unnecessary delay for pedestrians. Um so we we try to find the right balance. Um and and always aiming to shorten the cycle length when
possible. Um I do see a hand. I'm happy to stop here or continue farther. um open to suggestions. >> I'll defer to the chair. Zary, do you have a preference for holding questions?
>> Uh can we hold off and do other questions at the end? >> Yeah, let's do that. All right, I'll try to try to get through these last few quickly. Um um in addition to overall cycle length
um we have formalized a pet delay calculation um that we post as part of our our our standards online for consultants to use as well. Um we we want to try to quantify that that pedestrian delay experience um when we're putting together our analysis and
reports. Um and this also includes you know prioritizing the walk time. I think um fortunately the signal technology is improving. Um there are ways to leverage longer crossing opportunities um with the signal controllers that that we're
we're putting out there. Um that includes things like being able to to hold the walk hall longer, especially if um it has a corresponding phase that has a lot of green time and there's a safe crossing that can be had without any
conflicts. Um there's no reason for that walk time to not be longer. Getting into our policy, um our our policy has quite quite a lot in it. Um, I pulled out one table that we use very
often where I it's a way for us to take in the vehicle and pedestrian counts that that we have gotten um and understand, you know, what might be a reasonable fit. Um, is that concurrent
pedestrian phasing? Is that concurrent phasing with an LPI, a leading pedestrian interval? Um, or is that exclusive pedestrian phasing? Um so all this is to say that you know our our approach is intention is is to have a a
datadriven guidance for selecting pedestrian phasing strategy. Um it's a policy that is very much a living document. Um, what I'm showing you now is our active policy that was last updated in 2023 and we are in the
middle of updating the policy. Um, as we continue to learn more, um, there are other notable strategies in in that document. Um, you know, we often consider protecting left turn phasing, protecting right turn phasing,
um, flashing yellow arrow indications to to indicate, you know, some abundance of caution. Um, there are locations that we put the pedestrian phase in recall. So, it's essentially cycling all day. Um and there are locations, you know, for
example, like a preschool or or other areas with um vulnerable users where we might want to lower the walking speed when we do our clearance calculation. So that might mean uh a result of having not just necessarily a long longer walk,
but a longer flashing don't walk and don't walk um to make sure folks have cleared the crossing. um up on the screen now. We put together a quick estimate of of of the types of pedestrian phasing we have in the city.
Um just to quickly run through it, we're at about 63% exclusive, 32% concurrent, and about 5% concurrent in LPI. Um what this doesn't quite capture and we are working on is hybrid phasing. So a lot of these locations with exclusive
pedestrian phasing have that exclusive pedestrian phase. of course within the cycle that folks can use but there are other concurren there might be other concurrent crossing opportunities within the cycle. Um for instance if the main
street um has uh you know gives an opportunity for a side street to also receive a a walk time especially if there isn't any conflict or the conflicting turns are very low. Um that'll be an example where we implement
that as well. So that'll be a hybrid location. Um, so that that's something we're working on to get get a little bit more of a accurate representation. Um, but this is sort of a a quick picture highlight of of where we're at from a distribution standpoint.
Um, and from there I'll I'll kick it off to questions and and just reassure folks that um, you know, we're we're committed to improving our processes and and um, just overall at our traffic signals getting to 100% APS installations.
Um, >> thank you so much, Isaac. >> Yeah, >> I think we have a couple questions here. First one is Carl. Call, you want to ask your question? >> Yeah. So um first of all thank you for your presentation. So I as a person who
have a dual sensory loss of both hearing and vision I can't see or hear traffic coming. Okay. So when I cross so first of all the vibrating APS's are a godsend cuz I I will put my hand on them and when they vibrate I will go that brings
so that that's crucial. Keep putting in the vibrating buttons that I rely on those every day several times a day. Okay, my second this brings me to my second thing. Do we really need current
signals? Because if I feel it vibrating, I'm crossing because I can't hear or see traffic from the other side cuz I can't hear it and I can't see it. So if I feel a vibration, I'm crossing. Why do we have concurrent signals? Because I feel
that creates a danger for people who are blind, death, blind, that sort of thing. And are we faking them out? Hopefully. >> Yeah, I think so. This that's a great
question. Thank you, Carl. Um, that is an very interesting debate, not just in Boston, um, but countrywide. You know, how do we choose the pedestrian phasing? Um
in our instance the policy that we use that is very much datadriven has really come out of the fact that so much of this has to be context dependent. Um it's very difficult to select um one solution for every location. Um, you
know, in the city of Boston, we have locations that downtown, um, that operate very differently than locations more so in the neighborhood near a school. Um, and, you know, as we work through our analysis, we're we're constantly
reminded of of the need to really consider everything on a case- by case basis. um that'll say >> how would you expect the consumer to know that then that it's case by case if there's no standardization.
>> So I would say as as dense admittedly dense as our policy can be you know that is something that we put out um so that you know we can we can point to something um it's something that helps guide those case by case decisions. Of course, we have to
use our engineering judgment. We have to take in um feedback from folks like yourself. Um and that might be a reason why there are a lot of locations that from a pure numbers standpoint might operate okay concurrently, but they are actually running exclusively because we
feel like that's a a better fit for that location. Um what we've also learned from just looking at the crash data, um there's there is not a clear pattern of of where you see um crashes sort of in
relation to what pedestrian phasing there is. In looking at some of the latest Vision Zero portal data, um we actually saw just from a percentage distribution standpoint, um more pedestrian crashes at exclusive
locations. Um a and and it's tough to understand why, right? Like you would think, yeah, like if if they have their own phase, you know, how could it be that there are these crashes going on? Um and I think that's just a reminder to really look at
everything case by case. I think where we have downtown locations, um, folks just refuse to wait. Um, if if we have to drive up the cycle length and the delay is really long for pedestrians, folks just refuse to wait.
Um, and and sometimes the right answer is to make them wait. Um, so I think, you know, all that is to say, um, I'm happy to see LPIs are increasing more and more. I think that is um >> you're happy to see what again? I didn't
hear that. >> The leading pedestrian intervals are growing and growing. Okay. >> Um as as a good um >> but you're but you're you're asking the cars and the pedestrians to go at the same time. So it doesn't matter what the length of the pedestrian I'm going to
cross when the button starts to vibrate. >> Yeah, absolutely. And I think what the leading pedestrian interval does is it allows you to have that initial time where vehicles are still held on red and
you have the walk indication to go out and establish your position in the crossing. Um and it proves the visibility to you. Um and often times you know we we try to get it to the point where so MUTCD gives a guide of
about like 3 to 7 second head start. Um often times we end up somewhere in like the 4 to six range and the idea is um that is enough time to get folks roughly halfway across and and >> able body folks. Yes, that my
>> fair enough. Yeah, absolutely. Fair enough. Um so yeah, it's look I it it's a conversation that will probably go on for a long time and and your points are absolutely well taken. Um, I think, you know, this is why we want your
input. I I I think there are areas that are absolutely fitting of of an exclusive pedestrian phase. Um, and as you saw, the majority of the city is all right. Thank you very much. Um, automatic question.
>> Yeah, thanks Isaac for your presentation. Um, have you ever just wanted to test the size for for folks with wheelchairs in mind? >> Sorry, could you repeat that? >> Have you ever wanted to use the people in wheelchairs as to test to see if they
if they can get across the street within 4 seconds? I think you said 4 seconds is the max, right? >> No. So, so 7 seconds is the max and that and that's just for the LPI. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah.
Um yeah. Um I think to to try to answer your question, um the METCD talks about a 3 and 1/2T pers um walking speed, but it very clearly points out that you can and should go
down to something like 3 ft per second. Um where you know there are especially vulnerable users. um um you know that could be um you know preschool, a senior center um you know various reasons. Um there's there's really nothing stopping
us from increasing the time um >> again very context dependent um and and where the feedback goes a long way. >> Yeah because I was just thinking if someone someone's chair stops and should fall off by itself >> you're gonna get stuck. So
>> yeah, that's a great point. Thanks. >> I think uh Sam had mentioned maybe using people in wheelchairs to test it. >> Yeah. Thanks, Commissioner. That's a good point. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that's a great point. Um Yeah. Gosh, I' I'd love to get
more of that in our public engagement process. Um I you know I I I've definitely um had folks in in wheelchairs join for things like road safety audits. Um and that experience is is just so valuable. Um so
you know whether it's meeting you for a location that's maybe not on our radar or joining us for public engagement on a project that has kicked off. Um that that that sounds great to to get your input on that. >> Awesome. Thanks.
>> All right, Isaac. For that matter, I think based on what Carl was talking about earlier, it would be great to have some sort of a pilot or something where we can actually physically participate
and give you feedback because it's difficult to really give you feedback when we don't really know how it works in real life. >> So, >> yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Sometimes we just need to take a moment to sort of stand out there
together on the sidewalk for 5 minutes and just take it all in before we even try crossing the street. Um, you know, we could talk about, you know, what I'm seeing from the phasing versus how you've experienced it in the past and and then go ahead and actually try crossing together. Yeah, that all makes
sense. Um, I would ask that we try to prioritize locations um and and you know, start from the important ones. Um, but I think I I think that's a a good thing to try to do together. Absolutely. >> Nice. Um, Leslie.
>> Yeah. Hi. Uh, thank you Isaac for your presentation. Um my thoughts are actually very similar to what Carl has raised because as someone who sort of represents the sensory disability community um as well and also I'm a deaf person but I'm a
cited deaf person so I can my concern concern that I see is that because sometimes if I'm walking sometimes I'm walking sometimes I'm driving so I'm sometimes a pedestrian sometimes I'm actually a driver I have to be very vigilant with um you know my
surroundings in traffic. Uh, one thing that is an ongoing issue that really bothers me, sorry, excuse me, I've just been interrupted by something. My my daughter is just trying to get my attention. Um, so my concern uh for some time has been
if I'm driving or walking, whether I'm a a driver or pedestrian, um, with the light sometimes um, if there's an ambulance or there's some other type of alternate light, something that's interrupting the normal flow of the pattern, I I don't see it because I don't hear it coming. So, I'm just
wondering about whether the traffic light has any sort of flashing mechanism that could actually warn of some emergency situation that's happening where you have um an ambulance coming through that someone who can't hear won't hear it. If there's any other type of warning for people who are crossing
the traffic and as you're crossing in the middle, you've got this situation that you're not aware of. So I think um maybe maybe in some of the areas where you see a lot more emergency vehicles like near the hospitals or in other areas um over
on Cambridge Street I'm thinking near um near Mass General Hospital that particular area and Cambridge Street there needs to be maybe some improvements because sometimes with often you'll see emergency vehicles coming through that area that disrupt the normal flow of traffic patterning. And so I don't know if there's any other
cities, other um you know, any other uh areas that might be on your list for maybe addressing this emergency um the emergency um situation. >> Yeah, that that's a great question. Um,
I think what's tough is there may not be a lot of guidance in our industry on this. Um, what I will say is there is emergency vehicle preeemption. Um, which has always been a bit of a challenge in the
city of Boston. Um, you might see locations that have like a strobe on top of the signal mast arm and that strobe will start flashing and that's an indication that an emergency vehicle with its lights on has been picked up by
the signal and is changing the phasing um to go green for the approach that the emergency vehicle is coming from. um that is a lot easier said than done in a very congested dense area where
the just given how how many vehicles there are that are queued up. Um there doesn't end up being a great benefit to that emergency vehicle to get that preeemption. Um, I think historically the sense that I have gotten is that the
Boston Emergency Services have not been particularly keen on that emergency vehicle preeemption for those reasons. Um, but I again think that it's likely very warranted in some areas. Um,
but that that flashing beacon, you know, isn't something that I would expect folks to really pick up on. Um, and there's not a lot of guidance on that. Um, so it's a it's a really interesting question. Um,
I I will be very interested to see sort of where technology evolves with that. Jerry. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much, Isaac. >> Thanks for Jerry. >> Hi, Isaac. Thanks so much for your
presentation. Um uh along the lines of what some what folks have been saying earlier, uh what are uh public engagement current public engagement opportunities for the community to give
you feedback around different um different uh crossings and that they might find dangerous or or whatnot. >> Yeah, that's a good question. Um,
so I think first and foremost, um, there's always 311. Um, but for a location that has a particular project in the works where there is this very formal public engagement process that we would like to
conduct. Um, I'm thinking like an Andrew Square, which we just held a kickoff public meeting on last week. I'm thinking of like Bennington Saratoga, which we're going to have one coming up on. Um there was various ones for like
Cumins Highway. Um some of these projects are following a more of a standard um public engagement process where there's like a virtual kickoff and then there are some focus group meetings out on site. Um we're relying, you know,
pretty heavily on um you know, newsletters and city councilors and neighborhood groups to get the word out on things like that and posting it on the the um City of Boston website. Um,
but I think our process, um, especially with you folks, should and could improve. Um, especially if we have a location that's not particularly on our radar as far as like a capital project goes, um, but is something that maybe we
can tackle more in-house, as they say, um, through just our operating means. Um so yeah, maybe one idea could be um if this group has an opportunity to discuss
um what areas you might want to prioritize um maybe we can jump back on a meeting some months from now or whatever the right timeline is um and and set something up. >> Great. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much, Isaac. >> Does anyone else have any questions before we move on with the agenda? I don't see I don't believe I see anyone. Andrea, am I missing anyone?
>> I'm not seeing any hands. No. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much, Isaac. And I believe Andrea has authored uh us to uh you know uh use the
tracker and they're happy to follow up with BTD to get something coordinated. So we'll be we'll be working on this and let everybody know what's what's going to happen next.
All right. So I believe next on the agenda is my report. So if Andrew you would remind me of my slides. Just wanted to wish you folks a good
evening. I'll I'll head out if that's all right. >> Thank you so much. Yes. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea. To the next slide. Sure. Um, I was going to talk more about
this, but I just wanted to personally recognize mental health awareness month. May's mental health awareness. This year's theme is more good days together, which I think resonates with most of us.
Um, and I just wanted to the opportunity to recognize the importance of mental health and well-being and encourage all of us uh friends, community members to participate in awareness activities. I
uh actually included a website from uh MHA. So if you're interested in um learning more, please visit their website. And uh before I move beyond
that, uh I want to see if uh Paul has anything else that he want to add. >> Oh yes, thank you Zary. I just have a few things that um I would like to share. Um mental health
awareness month began in 1949 and it started as mental health America and during the month of May. It affiliates and organization interests and me interests in mental health conduct a number of activities based on
different themes each year as Zary just spoke about. And I'm just reading a few things. The purpose of mental health awareness month is to raise awareness and educate
the public about mental illness such as the close to 20% of Americans who have depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar and the realities living with these conditions. During the month of May, there's a few
events that are coming up. It's Damiwalk, Massachusetts, May 16th, 9:00 am, a onemile walk at Boston Common for mental health advocacy, including a fun zone, live music and exhibits. Mental health art workshops are being
offered at the East Boston Branch Library. Host weekly art sessions to mental support mental health. Art heels workshops will be at Convent Square branch of the Boston
Public Library May 29th at 12:00 p.m. And take care together is May May 16th at at 12:30 p.m. a wellness event at SoAir Health and Wellness featuring Pilates therapist conversations in a
gift bag. Uh those were just a few things that come to mind and I want to just give a shout out to Zaryi and her good work at the Mass General Hospital and recognizing mental health awareness month. Thank you.
>> Thank you Paul and those are great activities you just recommended. If there is a way to put those uh links in the chat so people can uh visit their sites and participate that would be
wonderful. >> Thank you. >> All right, next slide please. So in addition to mental health awareness month um on May 21st we also
recognize the global accessibility awareness month. This is a chance to raise awareness around digital accessibility and inclusion and a chance to advocate for accessible websites, apps and
documents. and uh I've included a website uh so that we can learn more about the global accessibility awareness. I also want to say that when I
look at these two um awareness months, mental health awareness and also global accessibility. I see a lot of intersectionality between the the two uh because digital
accessibility has really evolved and has helped a lot of people with disabilities participate in more events um especially for those individuals with nonvisible disabilities and mental health
conditions. So I really want to make sure that we always when we advocate for these things we keep in mind how impactful um accessibility digital accessibility is for many of us with variety of
disabilities. So yeah so May 21st is GAA. Next slide please. All right. Related to that, um I don't know if you are aware, but um there was
a health and human services issued a final rule for extending compliance deadlines for web and uh app accessibility. Originally, it was meant to be uh all organizations that had 15
plus or 15 plus employees were obligated to ensure that all of their websites and apps were fully accessible by May 11, 2026. However, they've now extended it to May
11, 2027. um and except for organizations that have less than 15 employees and that deadline is May 10, 2028. Now the thing that I really want to
highlight in this is that although there is a lot of concerns with this extension um you know I know that for our hospital at MGH you know people are saying oh well we got another year well that's
great because you know we want to make sure we uh we identify all the gaps and fix all our apps. However, we feel strongly that the government is pushing for this extension so that they can
eventually water it down and not really fully make everything uh an obligation to make all of our apps and webs accessible. Um, but I want to remind everyone that under ADA, we are still
obligated to provide full access for all individuals with disabilities. So even though there we have this extension, by no means I'm giving green light at MGH for people to take a nap for a year and
not do anything. So I just wanted to kind of raise that awareness as well. Um, next slide. uh architect. So art meeting, there's a meeting for the ride. Um it's hosted by
VCIL. It's going to be on Wednesday, May 27th from 2 to 4. It's uh in person on the second floor boardroom of Temp Park Plaza. So if you can attend and provide
your feedback, I'm sure it will be much appreciated. I'm a ride user myself, so I'll probably be there. Next slide. >> Sorry, what did they want feedback on? >> They just they they want to hear
community feedback about their um their system. I think Jerry is already on our tag. Jerry, do you have any um more information on it? >> Yes. Um Zary, and actually the the
meeting is going to be at 10 Park Plaza. Um I think the slide is correct. The slide is correct. You mentioned BCIL Temple Place. So I just want to make sure uh folks aren't confused. Uh the
meeting is at 10 Park Plaza and you can register um on the T website. uh uh for the meeting either that or by calling BCIO uh I'm sure uh what uh uh the staff that
run the ride office of transportation access is going to have uh they're under their vehicle procurement um phase right now to to to secure the next generation of ride vehicles and they're going to have
uh have examples of of vehicles that are being considered uh uh in that procurement on site. That's why the meeting is only on site only. So, it's a great opportunity for members of the
community to uh take a look at the vehicles and give input uh as to uh as to what they think and how accessible uh we feel they are. So, >> thank you very much, Jerry. >> You're welcome.
>> Um, next slide. And finally, I believe this is my last slide. Um I believe you must most most of us have heard by now from BCI that PCA services are in danger of the the
Senate is actually um has proposed to cut budgets by 68 million which will impact about 50,000 people with disabilities that rely on PCA services and advocates are urging urging
residents to contact state senators in support of the budget protection. I've included a QR code which is not showing up on this but Andrea can u included in the chat. So, we are hoping you can
contact uh your representatives by Thursday, which is tomorrow, and let them know how important it is to not cut these budgets. Um because obviously a lot of people with disabilities are now
able to live in the community independently and uh these budget costs will not only impact you know um paying of PCAs but also may impact people living in the community independently with the help of
PCAS. >> This is can I add to that daily? >> Sure of course. So the Senate debate actually starts next week. So you need to get in touch with your senators like Zary said tomorrow, Friday the latest
because after Friday it'll be too late. They'll be debating it on the floor and they'll be consolidating amendments and everything because they already know the amount they can spend. So they have to pick and choose which amendments. So definitely get in touch with them by tomorrow if you can if this is important
to you. Friday the latest because the debate starts on um Monday and Tuesday. >> Thank you so much for appreciate please if you can assist I'm sure um will be
more than happy to support you can help you uh in getting in touch with that representative. So um yeah and I believe that's the next slide that we have here. Is that correct?
>> Last slide. >> Thank you so much. Does any questions additional? >> You're breaking up little Zary. Did you say does anyone have questions? >> Yes. Yes. I'm not seeing any hands or anything in
the chat. >> Right. So, next is Commissioner's Report. >> Great. Thank you, Zary. Um, before I get into my slides, I just wanted to um thank you very much, sorry, for bringing up mental health awareness month. And
Paul, I wanted to recognize you for all your work on it. And one thing I wanted to um let the board members know is that you know the city doesn't do direct services as far as like mental health care and things like that. But one way we take your input and incorporate it
into our work is things like um quiet spaces and spaces for people who may be overstimulated. We try to work those into um into our talking points when we work with other departments. So recently um there was a job fair for Boston
public school students ages I think 18 to 22 or 24 Boston youth and um this year I believe it's for the first time this year they had um a quiet space for people who maybe would be overstimulated from the crowds and things like that. So, I just want to let the board know
that we do take your input seriously and we try to translate it into programs and policies however we can and that's just one small way. But if there were a teen or a young adult who wanted to attend the job fair but was worried about, you know, hyper stimulation, this is a way
that can access their they can access the fair and their uh physical needs, mental health needs as well. So, thank you for always keeping that top of mind and um we can pull up my slide deck. So, my report is a little bit um shorter this month because last month I felt
like I gave a really long report and people didn't have enough time to do shoutouts. So, I really want to hear everybody's shout outs. So, it's a little bit shorter this um this month, but we will go over it. Here we go. Okay. So, um, for my
department updates, I just had a couple. And first is the disability community forum. I believe that's the first page. Yep. So, um, as you all know, our community forum was last week, and I
really want to thank all the board members who attended and let those of you know who weren't able to attend that we really missed your presence. Um, it was a great turnout as always. People asked a lot of good questions. Um, Mayor Woo attended along with um our cabinet
chief of equity and inclusion. Lots of city staff, lots of um members of the public. It was a hybrid event again on Zoom and in person. Um we didn't unfortunately have time to answer all the questions, but as we do every year, we are putting together a document of
Q&A for everything we didn't have time to answer. So my staff and I are all contributing to this document and we will release it by the end of May. um we'll put it in our newsletter and we'll also um you know publicize it on social media to let people know that they can always um take a look at it. And the
event is also recorded and it should be up on YouTube. If it's not up now, it should be up soon. Um maybe Colleen or Andrea could put it in the chat if it is posted already. And then also at the um community forum I released my endo report which talked
about all the work that my office did over the last year and it is linked in this report for your review and you can also find it on our website. So again thank you for all who attended it. We really really value your presence and I think you set a great example for people
in the room to know that people with disabilities really do have a seat at the table. I mean you set it right there next to the mayor. Um she listens to you and to us directly. So, it is a great opportunity and just in my work with different um disability commissions across the country, not a lot of cities
have that direct access to the mayor. So, uh I'm really glad that our city allows that and I'm glad that you all take advantage of it to let your opinions be known. Okay, my second update is on the AVA lab, which is accessible Boston leadership and empowerment. This is a
new program that we started. Um it actually kicked off last night. Um, we had some extra money in our budget. So, we worked with a consultant, the DPC, to develop a six-week training curriculum on civic engagement, advocacy, and and empowerment. And we're hosting it for 15
Boston residents, 15 to 18. I'm not sure what the total number will be, but um we really wanted to try to identify residents who we hadn't worked with before, especially from underserved neighborhoods and uh communities of color because we know that they've had disperate access to local government and
we want to make sure that they have a seat at the table. We want to help them find their uh voices and make sure that they know that um city government works for them. So, we want to hear from them. We want to know what's working and what's not working. What supports do they need? what do the neighborhoods
need? So, it's going to be six weeks um kind of a deep dive into um how do you get your voice heard in city government things like going to a city council meeting or working with a neighborhood leazison or coming to our advisory board maybe join a different board or commission. So, I'm sorry I was actually
going to invite you to speak at one of the sessions if you're available and um I'll follow up about that afterwards but it was a great event last night. Um I was really happy because I didn't know any of the advocates who attended. So that means we're reaching new people. So I will um I'll keep you updated as the
training progresses. Next slide. And then um for events, as you all may know, our ADA day is coming up again in July. It's going to be Wednesday, July 15th from 12 to 2. It will be held at
the newly renovated Copper Square Park this year because City Hall Plaza is taken up with FIFA and a lot of other uh Boston events. It's the 250th anniversary. We have tall ships coming to Boston and of course we have FIFA. So we are going to uh relocate to Cotton
New Square Park just for this year. Um it's our annual celebration of the ADA. We have a large resource and information fair with 30 to 40 organizations who staff tables. Our theme this year is disabled Boston Revolutionaries past,
present, future. So, um, as we get a little bit closer to planning, as we start planning the event, um, I'll reach out to board members to try to get your input on some people who we may want to think about, um, honoring for their work in Boston. Um, Mayor Wu always speaks at our event
along with other city leaders and someone that we recognize for their outstanding work over the past year. So, of course, we all we want you all to join us. It's a live event only. It really doesn't lend itself to being a hybrid event because it's outdoors and it's really meant for people to come
together and socialize and have some free food and enjoy some music and we give out our famous ADA day t-shirts. So, um hoping we have good weather and hoping you'll all attend. And on that note, um the July advisory board meeting
was scheduled for the same evening. So, I believe the executive committee discussed pulling it down. Um, Andrea, do you want to mention that? >> Yep. The executive committee elected to uh cancel that meeting and so the event will be coming off your calendar
shortly. The cancellation notice will still be posted on boston.gov. Like the event will still exist because we don't want people to think they just can't find it. Um, so you'll still be able to find the event on boston.gov if that's where you get the Zoom link each month. Um, it'll just say, you know, cancelled
uh, real big. So, we hope we can see you uh out on CPU Plaza. >> Yeah. And um our bylaw or actually I think it's the state designation for disability commissions uh requires 10 meetings a year. So, we'll still be meeting that um threshold because we
have a combination November and December meeting and then the other months of the year. We'll just skip July. And then my last update is on the ADA transition plan. Um, as many of you know, the ADA required municipalities to make uh to do a self-evaluation and ADA
transition plan. Um, when it was first passed in 1990, they gave cities three years to do it. So, Boston, we completed ours in 1993 and it it was somewhat helpful at the time, but now it's very outdated. So instead of doing um a report, we're actually going to build um
an interface which will be a web page uh a dynamic impa dynamic web page that will be um have the data updated on the back end. So hopefully we'll always be current. It will have images, maps, tables, and clickable links. So if you want to know access of like a certain
library, you can just click on the library. It will tell you if the front door is accessible, if there's an accessible bathroom. Uh the basic access accessibility features of these city- owned buildings. There's also a curb ramps map that talks about the accessible features of curb ramps. Um we
have an accessible parking space map that shows parking spaces uh downtown and in commercial areas. We don't put the neighborhood parking spaces on that map just because we want to preserve those for residents. So they those aren't listed on the map. But um we're really excited about this um transition
plan and we've been working on it for a few years because it's a lot to figure out. Um there are so many data sources that we're working with. So to try to get them all into one place and make it manageable and understandable for the public and also fun, you know, we want people to want to uh to look at it. So
um we should be revealing that um by ADA day and once we do, we can uh definitely present it at the advisory board. So you can see uh any information you want to know about accessibility in Boston, you can just pull up this web page and hopefully get your information. Um a
piece of this was um we the city and the department of innovation and technology launched a challenge for different departments to do a poster session on some emerging in innovate in innovative projects. So we actually used a piece of this as our innovation project. We did a
poster session on our parks map. Uh Andrea worked with an intern one one summer a couple years ago to u map out accessible features in parks that aren't captured by the parks department. Like the parks department will put if it's
like basically accessible, but um Andrea had the intern look at features like accessible u play spaces and stepf free entrances and all these things that will make a difference to people who are just trying to go out and about. So um we put that on the map and also we put the parking spaces map on our poster
session. So we actually u won one of the four awards um from city departments. So really proud that we're doing this work and I'm looking forward to revealing it this summer. Um so that's everything I wanted to report on. The only other thing I wanted
to mention was uh last month I gave a whole slide, actually two slides on some upcoming opportunities that people could get involved in. And um I want to do that every month. I didn't get to do it this month just because we've had a really crazy busy few weeks. But uh during the shoutouts, if anybody did go
to any of the events that I mentioned, I would love to hear about it. Um, some of the events I mentioned were the uh salsa class on the um hat show and there was a mass health listening session. Uh, there was an MBTA meeting. I think it was
actually today. I had planned to go but just couldn't fit into my schedule. And then the US Access Board hearing in Rhode Island which Patricia went to and Sarah. So actually Patricia maybe when you give your report you could just mention that briefly as well. But I'm looking forward to people's shoutouts
and again like I said if anybody went to any of the things that I mentioned I'd love to hear about it and happy to take any questions. >> Jerry question Jerry asked a question. >> Sure. Uh Commissioner thank you for your
report. Um and just to clarify, I believe the the meeting the semiannual um meeting was what you mentioned last last month uh with the T and the new agreement between BCIL and ANAG. Um that
meeting was actually yesterday uh uh yesterday afternoon and I was able to to listen in. It was a hybrid meeting and I was able to to listen in um you know for a few minutes on the on the meeting. They just up S SWA um systemwide
accessibility just updated um you know uh some of their accomplishments and and upcoming accessibility uh projects. It's always it's always great to hear that uh the work that they uh they do and and that office came
directly out of the uh out of the lawsuit um that was settled between the T and BCIL and and I think it's it's probably one of the best things that that came out of that lawsuit because because I think they do really really um
great work on keeping accessibility front front and center uh at the tea. So, so I wasn't able to attend yesterday. So, >> I wanted to attend myself, but I had to testify at city council yesterday uh in support of our budget because it's
budget season in the city. So, >> shoot. Sure. >> Fortunately, I missed it and I'm I'm glad you were able to tune it a little bit. >> You don't need your salary, Commissioner. Don't worry about it. >> Yeah, everybody's under the gun this year. We know that. I also um something else that Zary
mentioned about the PCA program cuts um I also serve on the state PCA workforce council and I'm also on a separate group designated by the legislature PCA working group which was tasked with recommending certain cuts or really
trying to uphold the sustainability of the PCA program. So they asked us to look for $100 million in savings which we um did not identify. We identified like $32 million in savings and that's why they're currently still looking for 68 million because the group was very
adamant that we were not interested in looking at $100 million in cuts. We don't want to look at any, but if we didn't make any recommendations, we feared that Mass Health would just make the recommendations for us. So, we looked at some places where we could cut back a little bit. Um, and we identified
$32 million in savings. But again, anybody who can do advocacy to keep the rest of the funding, um, more power to you. Please, please do contact your legislator legislators about that. >> Thank you, Commissioner. I think we are
all on board with that and we don't want to see any money cut budget cuts, but I'm glad that at least we were able to cut it down to 60 8 million instead of 100. So, let's see how much more uh
impact we'll have by calling and advocating. Um, all right. Uh, thank you so much, Commissioner. I believe you said Patricia has a report. Yes.
Hi everyone. My name is Patricia Mendes. I'm the director of um architectural access for the disabilities commission. I have short dark hair and glasses. Um and I'm going to give a brief
architectural access report. Um I'm going to share screen. Can you all see my screen? Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. Oh.
Oh, I went too far. Okay. I'm going to talk a little bit about accessory dwelling units. They're called ADUs in Boston. An accessory dwelling unit, it's a smaller independent housing
unit that can be installed in a home or in a backyard. And uh ADUs are great because they can allow homeowners to add a unit in their h their home and that is
very beneficial to their family and to the older adults and also to um younger relatives and it provides convenient lower cost and it's an income generating housing option.
Uh there city has an ADU guide book in the website that can uh help homeowners understand what's possible for their properties. So I invite you to check out the ADU guide book.
Um, what I want to do today is to invite you to city hall plaza because the mayor the mayor's office of housing has contracted with a company called the backyard ADU to bring a showroom model
to city hall. And I'm going to show you a brief video that Colleen took this morning. So, thank you, Colleen. Um, and after this slides, I'm going to show you the the date and the times for
the the tours and the schedule for showing up. Okay. So, I'm going to show you everything here. And at the entrance, it has
a lamp >> while the video showing >> entering the living room area >> with a small table and a couple of windows. >> And then we entered the kitchen.
on the right and on the left, sorry. And the wash and dry on the right. And then we continue into the bathroom and we see another window, the toilet, and also a shower.
And that's and that's a brief video. Um, so here is the schedule. It started on Tuesday, May 12th, and it's going until this Sunday, May 17, and it's open from 9 to 5 each day. And they will provide
tours. And also at 12 from 12 to noon, they'll provide information about designing, permitting, and financing the ADUs in Boston. Additionally, on Saturday, May
16, the mayor's office on housing will host an ADU resource fair on City Hall Plaza at 12 from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m. And that is the end of my report.
Oh, I was going to talk about uh the Rhode Island EUX Access Town Hall, but um yeah, just briefly. So Sarah Leon and myself went to Rhode Island to represent the disabilities commission, the city of
Boston into a town hall organized by the US Access Board and we brought in uh Commissioner Mccash's um statement in which we thank the US Access Board to
come to New England and acknowledge all the the good the good work. Um, all right. That's it. Thank you all. I take any questions. >> Thank you, Patricia. I think I see a couple comments from this from
commissioner and the others from Jerry. The commissioner just said accessible shower with a excavation mark. And uh Jerry is asking where are the graph bars in the bathroom area?
Oh, no. The bathroom is uh not like an accessible unit like group two. So, it's doesn't require grab bars. However, these showers have reinforcement. So, if you were if you needed to install grab
bars, you you are able to install that. >> Richard, did you have a question? >> I I do. Sorry. Thank you. Um, Patricia, thank you. Uh, my question about ADUs, ADUs is this. I I recall it's been a controversial issue at times, especially
for those who use the extra units to rent to others as opposed to using for their families. Um, has that been addressed here? In other words, does this program allow for that or does it
um disallow for that? um from the the language there it says that income uh how was it word how did I how was it worded like income generating so I think that is allowed but I could
look into it and confirm >> that's very interesting >> as long as it meets all the permitting it I believe it is allowed Richard but we will confirm >> yeah that's interesting commissioner because uh it was a while ago but everybody's being
very controversial And um I think the um hospitality industry wasn't too thrilled about it. Um but um I don't know where it stands today. I remember when the program first rolled
out in Boston um um because uh there were very few housing units that were able to do it because at first it had to be just within the footprint of the house. So, it really be like an attic or a basement because we gave a lot of input on
accessibility because it's really tough to get accessibility in an attic or a basement. Um, and then they were looking at expanding it to like an outside house footprint like a garage or a carriage house or something like that. So, it's definitely evolved as a program. So, um,
we have this model unit on City Hall Plaza right now, which is what we really wanted to highlight, but we can definitely get back to you with all the program parameters because you're right, they definitely there were a lot of restrictions at first and we had like grant money available and like nobody was really applying for them because it was very restrictive, but I think they
did um they did expand the grant was on that, but we will definitely confirm. >> Thank you. Okay, great. So, next on the agenda, um, shout outs. Members, if anybody has
anything they'd like to share, please share. Anyone wants to uh bring up anything that's on my mind? >> This is Carl. >> Go ahead, Carl. So last month at last month's meeting,
Commissioner McCaus um mentioned an event called Silent Rhythm which took place on the Hat Shell and it was um where a deb blind woman named Carrie Thompson who has Usher syndrome has a nonprofit
where she teaches people the enjoyment of salt. if that's your sort of thing. I decided to go and try it out. And it was interesting to watch her communicate and teach because she uses protactyl sign and
ASL and oral communication. But she did she taught a bunch of people with disabilities how to salt dance and we even had joggers jogging by stop and join us right on the floor and salt dance with us. Um, for the dev community, we had a vendor there that
provided haptic vibrating vest so that when the music was going, they could feel the beat of the music um with the haptic vibrating devices within the vest. They were ASL interpreters provided for the deaf. They were um
tactile interpreters provided for deaf blind. and they were um they even did live audio description for those who were um blind and low vision in the audience. So it was a truly a tr and I think we even had a wheelchair user attend. So it was a truly accessible
event that took place in the head show. It was nice to see. I however chose not to salt the dance. I just sat there and clapped and supported everybody. But much to my wife, she grinned because she was hoping to get me on the floor, but I told her when we got married that she
was never going to dance with me. So, um, but it was a fun event. >> Well, I was just going to say I would have bought tickets to watch your salsa. >> Well, but you didn't. >> You're going to save a lot of money.
>> Oh, well, thank you very much, Cole. Um, Zary. >> Yes. Thank you, Zary. Um, my shout out uh is just to uh to really thank the the um commissioner and staff and the
members of of this body um for the uh wonderful um community uh forum event that happened uh on the 5th. Uh I thought it was a great uh event. very well. You know, the turnout was
fantastic a as as we've mentioned and what what I was really uh happy about was this year um the mayor uh after her remarks, the mayor actually sat with us. Um and so it it really brought brought
up to me that the mantra or or living example of the ma mantra nothing about us without us. you know, it really showed that the mayor considers us as part of her team. Uh, and and that was very very impressive and very
heartwarming. Um, and like I said, it was great to see so many members of the community and I was able to meet uh a few folks after the meeting and in fact there was one um uh young uh gentleman I
believe uh uh on the autism spectrum. Uh he spoke up. He asked a question uh you know during the public uh portion of the meeting and and he had friends there who who weren't expecting him to to speak
and it was it just goes to show how empowering you know to to have a voice like that can be and I mean you could see it on his face he was thrilled that that he was able to to get his uh question addressed and it was great. It
was really really a great event. So, >> and can I just add to that, Jerry? Um, I appreciate you saying that and as I said in my remarks earlier that, you know, not every city gives people that opportunity and we really want to get you all a seat at the table. That's the
point of this board. And that's why I really encourage you to to use the power that you've been given in your appointments. Um, I know you all do a great job with letter writing and things like that, but like even um the presentation we had earlier, it sounds like board members have like serious
concerns about the concurrent signals. >> So, you know, Andrea said we can work on organizing like a site visit so we can show the engineers what what that concerns are. So, I I really encourage you to keep doing those sorts of things because it literally makes a difference. Like I said, when we give input, we make
systemic changes like the um the quiet spaces I mentioned earlier. Um, we had one at the community forum this year. I think we had one last year, too. That was the first time. But, um, when we build in those things, like it just makes the events more accessible for everybody. So, keep up the good work
and, uh, anytime you can have an impact, um, please take advantage of it because it does make a difference. >> Thank you, Commissioner. I thought it was a wonderful event, too. I second everything Jerry just said and it was
wonderful to have the mayor stay most of the meeting. I think that for me anyway as an individual with a disability made me feel like I really felt very much heard and respected
um and seen. So, I want to relay that message to the mayor if possible, how much we all appreciated her being there and staying throughout the event. So, thanks commissioner. And I believe
Wesley had a question or a shout out. Ah, yes. as part of my shout out. I'm not sure if this is the right time in the agenda for the shout out or under old business. So, I just thought I would go ahead and
include it here in the shoutout. There was an article that was just released about two weeks ago from an agency called Axis. It's a news outlet and they gave a review of how Boston has
been doing with their captioning for individuals and how that's working. And I know that the commissioner gave a presentation about that in some of her report last month and the article said
that many restaurants and stores in Boston are actually ignoring the captioning ordinance. and their research has found
that a total of 108 places, more than half of them are not in compliance with the ordinance. And I think that I would mention this because it is an issue
and it's something that we should discuss and look at a solution moving forward. Is there is there a way is there a way for us I'm sure commissioner will be
able to respond to this. Is there a way to track where these uh are not applied or in violations uh so that we can follow up? Um, I can just give a little bit more info unless Wes wants to comment on
that. >> Oh, Commissioner. >> Okay. >> Go ahead, please. >> Yeah. So, >> I was just thinking I was thinking >> No, no, it's a it's a good point, Russ. um when the ordinance first passed a few years ago now we did a big push at first
to get the word out but then um just because we you know get busy with the everyday work we we haven't really revisited another push to get the word out but um I do think this is good timing because we have so many events coming up this summer we have like there's going to be street closures and
there's going to be events and there's going to be so much happening in Boston that we want to make sure that all the TVs are in compliance so that people can the information they need. So, we are definitely going to ramp the campaign back up. Um, I think what we've found
when people are not or businesses are not in compliance, it's mainly lack of awareness. Um, we know like restaurants have a lot of staff turnover. Um, it's it's a very civil thing to be in compliance with. So, we really think if we can raise awareness um that that that
will go a long way towards um helping with compliance. We did work with U Meet Boston back a couple years ago to get training out for restaurants. It is part of our restaurant training which we will be doing again this summer. So I think we're going to um with Colleen um we can
make a plan like an outreach plan on how we're going to work with the businesses to get the word out again and we'll definitely keep the board updated on that. But I really think it's just um we did a big push and then we we didn't go back and revisit it. But now's a good time to do it. I think um Andrea, did we
order more business cards um for the public? >> Excuse me. This is Andrea. We still have quite a few. Um we will be doing another order as they run out. Um but we still have quite a few. So if you would like these are um sort of did you know cards.
Um and they say did you know this is the law, you know, here's a link to more information. uh has the contact information for the commission and the size of a business card so you can fit them in your wallet or your purse or your pocket. Um DM me here if you'd like
us to mail you some. Um or next time you're at city hall, come on up to 967 and we're happy to hand them out. Great. Anyone else want to bring up anything? Okay, I don't see any hands up. So,
uh, any new business? I know I don't have anything. Anyone else? No. Okay. So, we'll move on to old business and there are two things that we want to cover tonight. one was
the wheelchair repair bill supporting letter which Jerry helped draft and the second was the autonomous vehicle discussion that we had uh last day. So,
we have a letter um that I believe Andrea sent out to everyone and uh hopefully everyone had a chance to review it. And uh do we want to to Does anyone want to make a motion?
>> This is all. >> Yes. >> I make a motion to um send out the letter to approve the letter and send it out. >> This is Jerry. I second. Thank you, Jerry and Cole. Everyone, is
everyone able? Can you raise your hand if you please? >> Hi. >> Thank you. And any abstensions? >> And this is the farthest the wheelchair repair bill has ever gone in the
legislature. So, let let's keep positive thoughts going. >> Yes, absolutely. This is Jerry. I'm sorry. Um, do you have a sense as to as to uh if there's momentum for it?
>> I think so. Yes, I really do think it has a decent shot this time. >> God, it's been it's been in the legislature since I started. >> It's been there forever it's ever gone. >> Yes.
>> There is a I don't you are involved with it but they they call themselves unstuck is a group of uh people who are wheelchair users from disability consortium and if
you're interested they're actually the ones that really really have been getting the word out and they meet monthly and if you're interested in joining uh please let me know and I can uh connect you with the person that
organizes the meeting every month. It's called unstuck just in case you're interested in joining. All right, great. So, we have one hour one more to go. Autonomous vehicles discussion. So, we had the discussion.
Um, was there any follow-ups? Is there a letter that we need to make a motion on? Now I think Andrea was gonna lead the discussion to start with. >> Yeah. So this is Andrea. Let me pin
myself. Um we have been talking about this as a board for um quite some time. As you may recall uh we had a presentation in December uh from a professor of the technology who spoke
about um you know what's the state of the technology? what can these autonomous vehicles do? Uh how many companies are there? That kind of thing. Uh then last month uh we had a presentation from a policy perspective from another city where these are
deployed um to understand the the challenges um and positives they've seen uh in managing these these vehicles. So, the reason um I I've heard from several of you um one-on-one as well as in uh
the executive committee meeting and what I'm hearing from everyone is that this is an excellent opportunity for the board to um have an input on something from the ground up from the very beginning. Uh so Commissioner Macos
talks quite a bit about how Uber and Lyft just started operating in the city of Boston without really rules or regulations and they had no uh you know wheelchair accessible vehicles in their fleet. And it took negotiating with them
to to build that access in kind of after the fact after they were already here in a presence because autonomous vehicles have not deployed in the city of Boston yet with riders. they are here mapping um but they've not deployed with writers uh people in the city at city council
the mayor I know at the state as well um our policy makers are trying to figure out what regulations could or should look like if they should be allowed if they should not so one thing that this reminds me of is uh quite a number of
years ago some of you may remember that the little um sidewalk robots like the coolers on wheels schools that wanted to do like food deliveries um on college campuses. Uh the city was considering
act um allowing them to operate and the department came to the board and asked, you know, here's the the application that we want to make them fill out. What are we missing? Uh Wes, you mentioned to them making them have both lights and
sounds on the the cooler robots um so that they would be, you know, alerting people to their presence. uh former member Elizabeth Dean Clower had flagged that uh one of those robots had like broken down on a curb ramp in another
city and so suggested that the city require those those companies to have a plan to remove barriers from the sidewalk within like an hour or 90 minutes. I forget what the suggestion was. But all that to say, this is a similar
opportunity for the board to say, as representatives of the disability community, if robo taxis are going to be allowed in Boston, here's what we think you, Mayor Woo, city councilors, um, you know, state legislators, if you
want to do a couple different things, there's opportunity here to talk about what your concerns are, your hopes are, uh, what you think should or should not be required um of these vehicles. So that's my pitch. Uh but Carl, I think
you uh had some thoughts as well. >> How did you get um I do have quite a few thought. First of all, Whimo, you heard Andrea mentioned that Uber and Lift came to town and they never really had uh a wheelchair
accessible fleet. That's also as big a supporter I am of Whimo. a concern to me that Rainbow does not have any wheelchair accessible vehicles. So, one thing I would put in the recommendation is that we require and I don't know how but we require wheelchair accessible
vehicles to have a ramp and maybe a self locking mechanism for people in wheelchairs. And I don't know whether we do it by percentage or what what but I I do think we need to make sure that this time wheelchair users are not forgotten because I was speaking to one the other
day who said he actually has less options now than he did 10 years ago when they had accessible taxi cabs. So that's one thing I would include in the document. Second thing is uh communication for the deaf and heart of hearing. Anything that's said out loud
audibly in the car or communication, is it transcribed? Is it ASL? I don't know. I would I would make sure that anything that has sound and audio that the deaf and heart of hearing can access, whether it be on the app or on
the monitor in the car or something. Third thing is digital accessibility for the blind and visually impaired. um whether it be through the app or haptic feedback or or screen reader capability, we need to consider that. I
would even go as far as um cognitive ability. Uh do we we keep the interfaces simple so people who may have intellectual or hidden disabilities can also access the vehicles. Those are just some of the and I might suggest that we
start off as a pilot allowing autonomous vehicles in the city with you know maybe people from Boston Transportation Department you know Department of Motor Vehicles uh people from the community. Uh New
Jersey just actually passed a law last night saying a lot of what I'm just saying. So, Andrea, why don't you write down New Jersey Senate pass law so we can look at that as a um template. I haven't had a chance to research it uh completely. But those are some of the
things that I would include, but I'd love to hear feedback from others. I just want to make sure that we do it before it comes because Whimo, Zeus, which is owned by Amazon, Tesla, which is owned by Elon Musk, they all have significant resources and if they can't
do it, nobody can. So, I think I and they they're going to want to come into our city. So, I think I think maybe us getting ahead of the game might be a good thing. Thank you. >> Uh Sarah, did you say it was I could
speak? you you went out a little bit, Zary. So, >> yeah, that's J. Go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, thank you, Carl. I think you hit the nail on the head. Um, I seem to recall uh during
the uh during our discussions with the mayor uh prior to the um prior to the uh community forum uh she's saying that there may uh that there is there's a there's a working group either being
formed or or already formed and I believe that the commissioner uh said that uh she would like you to be on that working group. So, um I don't know, Andrea, if you know any more about it or you can find out more about it and so so
you can let um let us know when when they're meeting and and make sure that we have representation at uh on that um on that group. Um that would be great. >> Yeah, thanks Jerry. Um that group will
have four members of the disability community on it. uh Carl Kristen um a representative from BCIL who I believe is also blind or low vision um and Mara um uh Ark of Massachusetts. Sullivan,
thank you. Mara Sullivan from the Ark of Massachusetts. >> So that has they haven't started a meeting yet. >> Correct. No, but Jerry, I think >> we don't know when the meetings are going to start because I think it's complicated because there's labor
interest involved and other things and um there's many communities they're trying to align to be involved in this. So, so I think the purpose of this discussion is to us to create some sort of working document not only for the meetings but to send to the mayor ahead
of time. >> Is that sure? Yeah, >> this is Wes. I would suggest that we actually add the timing interface with the data to make sure it's
block special events and has the messages that we require. So, we can avoid going through specific areas when they have large populations of people. Uh, Wes, can you expand? I'm not sure I
understand. This is Carl. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say. For example, in the presentation, I saw the woman from Texas had shown that the police officer
was able to signal traffic and prevent one of the areas from being accessed. and the automated vehicle went right through that access point. And so we just need to have a real time delay or
something that prevents that and with the AV um access just to make sure that everybody in that area knows and they can avoid the area and prevent the car from going into that area.
>> Okay. Does anybody else have any thoughts? Uh, well, I guess I want to hear from the commission. Are we all okay with putting together this document? Because I know there are probably some that have some hesitation. I think commissioner may have left
uh is that correct? >> Yes. Commissioner Masha had to leave. I don't know Carl if you meant uh departmental commission or board. >> No, I meant I'm sorry. I meant commission members. I'm I apologize. Commission members. Do do any of us have
any hesitation about doing this creating this document? uh advisory board members. I'm sorry. Let me use the correct ter the current advisory board members that are on this call tonight. >> I'd like to look at it and uh react to
it. >> That's great. Yes, you should do that >> because we're throwing out a lot of different ideas about it. I want to see what it looks like in its final draft form. I think that's very fair.
>> Carl, were you also asking for a general sense of the board about whether the board is comfortable allowing a pilot, saying that that the board is comfortable with a pilot >> or allowing a document to be created? I think more.
>> Okay. >> Um >> cuz it's coming, guys. It's coming whether we want it or not. I personally want it, but it's coming. And I think I think we ought to um I will tell you I do have discussions with Amazon, Whimo,
and and even Tesla cuz I'm trying to and I'm just as critical and some of them don't want to do wheelchair accessible vehicles because they're like, "It's hard to engineer. It costs money." But if we put it in there and we put it in our rules and regs and the law, the other thing I will let you know is we
have time to work on this because although there are bills currently in the Massachusetts legislature regarding autonomous vehicles, I have it on very very good authority that they will not pass this session and the next session doesn't even start till
January. So the bills are going to have to be reintroduced and start all over again. So we have at least a year. I'm not saying I want to take a year to work on this document, but we have time to put in the right rules and regulations or thoughts and ideas for others to look at.
So, this is Jerry. Just so I'm clear, what Carl, you're suggesting that we work on as a as a advisory board is a um is a document that can be presented to the mayor and her team saying this is
what we you know in uh you know recognizing that autonomous vehicles are coming, but these are these are um things that we we think should be included in the regulations. uh before they're allowed to or as
they're allowed to to u come to in operate in the city of Boston, >> something to that effect. Yes. >> Okay. I support that certainly. >> Yeah, I think most of us will support it.
And like I had said it would be good to take a look at the final draft for input. Okay. So um does anybody want to I volunteer myself
to start. Does anybody want to work on it with me or um >> Carol? This is Jerry. I'd be happy to work on it with you. >> Okay, great. >> Cuz I want to make sure that we have enough uh representation from the the
wheeled uh mobility device community as well. So, >> absolutely. And that's the perspective I can offer. >> Thanks. and actually call it would be great if we could get uh some representation
from um the developmental disabilities ASD mental health uh group so that they're as they're comfortable as well with the idea. Um so maybe we can kind
of work with everybody and see if we can identify individuals who are interested in participating. >> Okay, >> great. All right. Um
I believe that that's all the old business we have. Um All right. So, is there are there any questions from community members or any
uh anything that anyone wants to raise? This is Andrea. I don't believe we have any members of the public on the call right now. Uh we do have a board member who joined a little bit late and didn't get to say hi. I don't know if you want one Carlos to say hello. Um but other
than that, it looks like it's all departmental staff and uh board members. Yes. Hi. Sorry. >> You're breaking up a bit. One car. >> This is one of
the part of the commission. Well, Carlos, you're breaking up. >> No. >> Well, glad you could join us. >> Yeah. Sorry about that one, Carlos. >> Next time you get the first
There's steak at introductions. So, all right. >> Do I get my infamous motion? >> I was just going to ask you, would you mind call making a motion, please? >> No, I don't mind at all, especially
since I have to be somewhere by 8:00. So, I make a motion to adjourn. >> I second. >> Thank you everybody. Good >> evening. Good night. Right. I got