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, where
recording will remain. With that, I will turn it over to our new chair. Uh, first meeting as chair. Uh, Zaryi, take it away. Oh, you're muted, Zary. >> Nice way to start. Um, thank you so
much, Andrea. Uh, good evening everyone. Um, as Andrew said, this is my first meeting as a new chair. So, I'm going to just introduce myself and give you a
little bit of a brief description of who I am and my hopes and visions, but I probably will wait to do that later on during the meeting. For now, I'll just uh do a quick introduction. Um, my name
is Zary. I've been a member of this board for I believe over 10 years now. Um I uh work at Mass General Hospital as the disability program manager. I've been
there about 15 years and uh I have also worked in higher red. I worked at UMass Boston and uh Harvard University. So I have a very kind of a high level
perspective on all the barriers that affect our communities from different populations. Um so I am a white woman with short hair, short brown hair and my background is a
painting of a leaf painted by my mom. So that's my background and uh I'm a resident of South Boston. So happy to be here. And next I'm going to go to Paul Karen.
Thank you Zary and congratulations on being the chair in your service. My name is Paul Karen and I serve on the disability advisory board for about se over seven years now. I work as a supervisor in the city of Boston
planning department, serve as a mental health advocacy due to family and friends um with mental health disabilities and I live in the west end of Boston. Thank you. >> Uh let's see. Would you just give a little description
of yourself? Um, I'm a Caucasian male with short cropped um, salt and pepper hair. >> Thank you so much, >> Olivia. >> Hi, my name's Olivia Richard.
I hail from Brighton and uh I am a middle-aged white woman with uh closed cropped hair, glasses, and I'm currently wearing a gray hoodie.
>> I'm also a manual wheelchair user. >> Thank you, Olivia. Uh let's see. Um am I see it all there? I don't know if I can see everyone here. >> That's all right. I can call them out
for you. Uh Pette is here. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Pette Dret. I live in the Madapan section of Boston. I'm a older African-American woman and I have on a bright lime green
hoodie in honor of St. Patrick's Day. and Wesley is here. Hi everybody. I'm West Ireland. I'm using American Sign Language and I have two interpreters, two female interpreters, sign language interpreters
working this evening. So you hear their voices. I live in the north end and I think this is my eighth year now on the uh the board on the advisory board and I'll give you a visual description. I'm
a white male and I have very short closecropped hair and I've got a beard reddish beard and I'm wearing a greenish blue sweater. in the background is actually another type of color blue background.
And um yeah, and I'm and I wanted to just say this is uh my first meeting of the new year. So happy new year to you all cuz I haven't been here in the first couple meetings this year. >> And Zary, that is all of the current members. Commissioner Macos is here and
I know she is an announcement in addition to her introduction. Hi everybody. I'm Kristen Mccos. I'm the disability commissioner and ADA 202 coordinator for the city of Boston. I am a woman with blonde hair and glasses and uh there is a an image of city hall in
my background. I use a manual wheelchair and happy to be here tonight. I'm also happy to welcome three new faces to the meeting. Um, we are privileged to welcome three new board members who are not officially sworn in yet, but that will be happening soon. So, I would like
to ask if they could introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their background. Um, give us a description of what they're looking like and uh, yeah, just tell us who you are. I'm going to start with Denise Martinez. Denise.
>> Hi, good evening. My name is Denise Martinez. I live in South Boston. Um I am a state employee as well. I work with Massability. Um and this is my first year. Hopefully
once I get appointed um I did the application and I thought I wasn't selective. So this is a very surprise for me. >> I have two kids both in Boston public school. one has a IEP. Um, and
I'm looking forward to being a part of this committee. >> Yes. So, Denise is filling the seat that is designated for a parent of a child with a disability. So, we're really excited to have that perspective. So, welcome Denise. Uh, next I'd like to ask Sam Pastor if
you could introduce yourself and tell us about your interest in the board and your background. And >> Sure. Hi everyone. I'm Sam Pastra. I live in Dorchester and I work for Mass Advocate Standing Strong. So, I'm an advocate just like you all and I'm a
power wheelchair user. >> Welcome Sam. >> Thanks. >> And then finally, Alan Mac. Alan, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? >> Yes. Um, my name is Alan Mack. I'm currently a student at Berkeley College of Music as well as um a criminal
justice associate at Berkeley Hill. Um I also serve on Boston's uh advisory council on ending homelessness and um I'm an advocate. I I I love what I do and I hope to bring um a skill set to the board that can help
the city. >> Great. Welcome. Okay. Okay, with that I'm going to turn it back to Zari. >> Great. Thank you so much and welcome to the new court to the new members. I hope
I have the opportunity to connect with each of you individually to learn about your interests and your passions and also I hear a couple people from South Boston. So I'd love to connect with
neighbors from my area too. So, um, next on the agenda, I believe we have a presenter tonight. Um, I don't know if you have a quy form to make the Andrea.
>> Great questions. Jerry has joined us. If you'd like him to introduce himself, but that still only gets us to six, not seven. So, we don't have a quorum yet. All right. So, with that said, I guess we'll just move forward with the um
Easter Seals presentation. If they're here, um welcome and we are happy to have you and excited to hear your presentation. >> Hello. Um my name is Sarah Parker. I'm excited to be here. Um I'm the program
manager of the Assisted Technology Regional Center. Um, and I have kind of long brown hair and some fresh blonde highlights in there. And I'm um coming to you from the Boston Assistant
Technology Regional Center um with Easter Seals Massachusetts. And Paul is here as well um to help answer any questions that come up about Easter Seals in general that we can help you with. Um,
and I I live in Boston as well. And um, I um, yeah, I'm just going to kind of give you some information about the Assisted Technology Regional Center, which is a service that's available to everyone in Massachusetts. Um, I'm going to put my
before I forget, I'm just going to pop my um, email address into the chat. Um that way if anyone has any um more specific questions or has anything they want to talk about um I would love to chat after um the presentation.
Um it's just ATRC at Easter Sealsmma.org. So um yeah so Easter Seals um so our mission is to provide services to ensure children and adults with disabilities have equal opportunity to live, learn,
work and play. Um and we really stand by that. That's probably one of my favorite parts about working for Easter Seals is that we really see everyone as as the whole person, you know. um we're not just there to help with vocational goals
or just there to see the person as a student. We really want to hear about everything that they're interested in and working on and what we can do to help um get them set up with the tools to help them um reach whatever goals
that they have. And so we are part of the um state assisted technology program um which is funded by the AT act which is again a federal um act that every state has. Um
every state will have a similar program. Um it's not exactly the same, but um every state should have a program like ours to get assist of technology in the hands of um community members and um help them learn about it, help them try
different things out. Um so yeah, that's our main purpose. Um yeah, we so we make it possible for people to um learn about and have access to assist of technology. And I should probably just say what
assisted technology is just to be clear before I keep talking about how you'll have access to it. Um so it's really any tool that's um acquired off the shelf or um you know modified to help anyone improve
maintain um ability to um to do anything really. So it can be it's really a spectrum and you know when I say assist of technology um the first thing most people think about is some of that higher tech technology
like iPads and um high-tech communication devices and we certainly have a lot of that technology um and we have that available for people but we also have lots of like lower tech technology or midte like it's a it's a
real spectrum of services that we have and devices that we have. Um it can be as low tech as a pencil grip or um a tool that someone holds in their hand to be able to hold a fork better. Um it can
be um digital magnifiers. It can be um all types of devices and we really um hit every category. We have um communication devices. We have um lots of leisure activities. We have lots of
like accessible gaming adapted gaming controllers. Um really any category that um people are looking for. We have devices to support you in um we also um just kind of the way that assist of technology has changed in the last
couple years. a lot of technology um tools are already built into people's devices like every time there's a update an iOS update on um Apple phones um all types of new stuff gets added in so we really help people learn about how to
turn those on and access them um so yeah so our our probably our our main um focus is short-term device loans so um we do we loan out devices for
around 30 days um for people for all different reasons. Um the main reason is for people to um use it to determine if it's going to work for them or use it as an assessment or evaluation. So if they're deciding
between a couple different devices, they can borrow ours and see if it'll work for them before they purchase it. We work with a lot of um clinicians in the community. So, uh we have lots of like SLPs and OT's that will come in to
borrow devices to try with their clients before they make a recommendation. Um you can also come to borrow stuff, you know, if you have a device that you like to use and it's broken. Um so, you need something in the meantime.
Um short-term accommodations. Um and we also all our services are available for people to use to learn for themselves or you know um I used to when I was out in the community working at schools I would often use the ATRC if I
wanted to do an activity um my school classroom wasn't going to buy me six new iPads and switches to do an activity. So I would come here and borrow devices um so that I could bring them to try out and um do different things in the
classroom. Um let's see. We also some of the other programs that activities that we do as part of um the assisted technology regional center. So again the main thing is device loans I would say. Um, but we also do
demonstrations and trainings. So, people can schedule times to come in to our office to um, again get a demonstration if they're deciding between a couple devices or they think they're going to again maybe buy I'm just looking around
because I'm in our office here. Um, if they're thinking about buying a again a digital magnifier, they want to come um, see the different sizes. Do they want one they can hold with their hand that they can go in their purse to use to read the menu when they're at a restaurant? Would they prefer a larger
one with a a tabletop that they could move? Um so, um we're here for demonstrations like that. Again, those trainings, we've been doing more and more trainings about um accessibility features that are on people's phones or
um just different topics of assist of technology in general. Um, we'll do those. We do public awareness events, so keep us in mind. We love coming out to different community events and, um, tableabling or we have a a van
that is like our mobile demonstration center, so that can come to events. Um, so uh, we really again want to just get the word out about our services. is a lot of people um you know want to know what the catch is because I don't know if I said that everything we
do is totally free. Um so loans are totally free, events are totally free. We just want um to get our information out there. So um sometimes people want to know what the catch is, but there really isn't one. So again, please
invite us or keep us in mind um if you have any events. Um and um let's see. Oh, I also I'm going to put some more links in the chat. Um I have a link to our a couple websites. So
um we have an inventory online so that people can go on and um look through the inventory that we have. So Easter Seals has two locations, two ATRC's, one in Boston. We're on South Street right by South Station at the nonprofit center.
So um that's where we are in Boston. We also have a Worcester location. And then there's a third ATRC in Western Mass in Pittsfield that's not operated by Easter Seals. Um but you can view our inventory
all online. Um so I'll put that in the chat. Um we we are um in partnership with Massibility. So um that's our inventory to to get in touch with us. I I would recommend just letting us know that you wanted to come
um just to make sure that someone's available to um connect with someone if they come in. You can send us an email. You can um give us a a phone call. I'll put the number in the chat as well. Um or you can go right ahead on that
inventory site and request um a device. And um I'm timing myself. I'm 12 seconds over, but I want to say that um we're having I'm really excited. We're having a web accessibility webinar series that's starting. Um and it's again
totally free. We have a couple different presenters. Um Harvard's digital accessibility team is doing the first presentation in April. Um so I'll put that information um online again. Again, free available to anyone. We just want to get information out about
accessibility and to help um people get connected with um resources that they're looking for. So, um, I'll wrap up, but if anyone has any questions again for me, I'm happy to answer now or if you want to give me an,
um, send me an email. And, um, Paul's here as well if there was any general Easter Seals questions. >> Thank you so much, Sarah. This was great presentation. And I've worked with Easter Seals before for some of our
patients who were being um who had some needs around assist of technology. So it's great to know that your services exist in the community and our faith. Um so I guess I start with a question for
you and that is um how much connection do you have to rehab hospitals um especially around um the fact that some of the patients who are newly
>> turn on my living room lights please. >> Uh could you turn off your audio? Um uh as part of being connected to rehab hospitals, how well are you connected to them so that they know they're aware of
your services and they can put patients in touch with you? >> Um yeah, I would say we're not um we're pretty connected. Again, it would kind of be if the the clinicians at those um
hospitals are familiar with our services, which again, we're doing um whatever I can to to spread that word. Um but we do have um people that reach out all the time that are at um again assisted living or rehab or
substance abuse programs that um clients will uh clinicians will reach out and say I have someone here who is not able to fully participate in the um recovery program or things because of an access barrier. So, they're kind of looking for
a short-term recommendation or solution um to kind of implement those services. Um, but we're always looking for new connections and again anything I can do again to if there's like conferences or again anyone that I can connect with I
always kind of share that information to again either give them an accommodation to be able to participate in their services or come up with a good solution for um going forward. Um we also since we're in Boston I'm connected pretty
closely with lots of the um like college programs like people that are in OT PT um graduate programs. A lot of them will um come in as a part of a class or different programming to learn about
services that going forward, you know, they'll they'll be more informed to make recommendations um for devices that could help. >> Thank you. Sorry, I saw Jerry had his hand up and then Olivia and Wes also put questions
in the chat. Um, okay. So, Olivia's question says, "Do you share at items between sites? So, if Worester has an item, can I pick it up in Boston?" Totally. All all the time. Um, again, I I just met up today with my colleague that works in
Worcester and we traded devices um back and forth. Um, the we also there's devices in um I get the question a lot about the devices in Pittsfield. So, that's a little bit harder. Um, but we totally make it work. Um, it might just
be, you know, not as um not as quick to get those devices. like um I'm meeting up again with the the person that works in Pittsfield the first week in April and we have a plan to swap some devices um that that day.
Um so but Boston Worcester is no problem. We can certainly swap those around. Um >> yeah uh the question says with the age of artificial intelligence has this been incorporated in some of Easter Seals's
assisted technology offerings? If so, can you give a couple of AI examples in some of your products? Uh, yeah, totally. So, um, we have, um, the Meta Ray-B band glasses. So, those are I just
saw some happy faces. Yes. So, those are um available. We have one we have two pairs. So, one at each location. Um, those are hard to keep in stock because as soon as they come in, someone else um wants them out. So, how those work is um there's lots of different features that can help again with all different
categories of um things you're trying to do with them and all types of different abilities. Um but one thing is the AI. So, you can say like, "Hey, Meta, what am I looking at?" And it'll describe in great detail what's in front of you. Or
you can say, "I'm looking at this board. Which train has the train to Adabor?" And then it'll kind of describe that to you. or um things like that. So um we're learning. It's it's changing very
quickly. So um I'm we we try to stay up to date and and learn about different things. Um we also have oh this really cool device. It's called um the Lyric. So that's for people with um very low or no vision and you can put um a paper
under it and it'll read it out loud to you. Um that helps. A lot of people come in asking um that they need help um reading their mail out loud to them. So that's something that people use and there's also an AI version of it that's really cool that will like describe
what's on it. So you can put a painting under it and it'll say you're looking at a watercolor painting of a lily with a red butterfly in the background. So that kind of thing um has been really cool. and also the meta glasses I should say
they also like integrate with um be my eyes and different um apps that are available to help people. So we're learning all the time about um different AI that's built into different assisted technology and um so that we're able to
share that information out and again just kind of stay up to date on what's changing within people's phones and um different note takingaking. Um, I used to work in higher ed and we would do a lot of note-taking apps that would record and then now they have the
ability to kind of pull out that information and tell you what to study for your exam and um yeah, things like that. And but also being aware too that there's also lots of people are still trying to figure out the restrictions and things around that. So, um, leaving
like making the choice up to the person, but just giving all the information that we have. >> Any other questions? >> I think Jerry still has one. >> Yeah, Jerry. >> Thank you. And thanks, Aran and thanks
for your presentation. Uh, I may have missed this earlier, but uh, do you offer any training at all or how to on on how to use any of the technology that you lend or or is the user I mean is the
person coming in expected to like really know how to use the uh, like the medic glasses or or whatever it is? >> Yeah. So, we do offer trainings. I will say it does kind of vary depending on the device. So again, like those Meta
glasses I'm pretty familiar with and I'd be able to show you how to use it and tell you different commands that you can use with it and how to connect it to your account and all that stuff. Um and we also do again trainings on different
general things when it comes to assist of technology. Um the only thing we we you know really can't do is spend a lot of time training someone on like some of that really indepth things that you might need to work like some of those
really um you know more complex uh communication devices like something like that to be trained on it um is going to take work with uh an SLP or someone that you're working with to get really like fluent and comfortable in
technology. But we can certainly get you set up and give you the um the basics of using the technology. And I also like can send you I'm big on like YouTube videos and like handouts. So um I can always send a bunch of information your
way. Um so we do to answer your question yes we do like um we do train people on things but um there's certain things that you may not leave our center you know totally
>> yeah but the basics the basics most of most things you can give them at least a basic so they can try try it out try out the technology anyway so >> totally >> that's great thanks so Thank you, Sarah. Oh, just one last
question. Is there a list of different equipment on your website that people can just know about? >> Some of the things you mentioned I've never heard of. >> Yeah. So, I just put I put um the link
in the chat a little bit um up there, but I'll repost it. So that's our inventory um that you can go on and search by category or you can search by center. Um but again you will see things that are in Boston, Worcester and
Pittsfield on that. Um but you can always go through it. One of my favorite parts is on the left you can say like newly listed items. So you can go right to that and kind of see what's new in our centers um and what's updated. But um yeah, that website has our inventory.
So that will have like all our devices listed there. >> Thanks for having us. >> Sorry, you're not muted, but we're having trouble hearing you. Uh, is that >> Yes.
>> Okay. Thank you. So, sorry for that technology. Um, okay. So, next we're going to have Commissioner Mlash do our um slides and presentation.
Thank you, Zary. Just getting my text set up. Great. Thank you. All right. Um, let's go to my first slide. All right. So, I have some general updates uh from the city of Boston. First, I wanted to just uh kind of close
the loop on snow. Uh, as you all know, um, we had a lot of snow this winter in Boston. In particular, we had two large storms that dumped feet of snow in the city and it really impacted people with disabilities. My office works very closely with the public works department
and the streets cabinet and neighborhood services, the equity cabinet to ensure that we um, really pay attention to access and um, especially the public rights away that the city is responsible for. As you may know u from Andrea's
presentation in January, the city is responsible for cleaning snow from sidewalks that are in front of city property like schools, libraries, and BCF centers. However, residents or property owners are responsible for clearing sidewalk in front of their property. So, we really work hard to get
the word out um about responsibilities to property owners. We also work closely with the office in the city that issues fines for people who don't do snow removal and the city did issue um a large number of fines because we saw that people didn't always remove the
snow. Um the city was really overwhelmed with snow and they did a lot of removal which they don't do every year but um they basically ran out of places to put the snow because they had over a dozen snow farms but there really just isn't that much room surrounding Boston or
within Boston to move the snow. So we know there were some challenges. Um we heard about them at the city council hearing I testified at. And I just wanted to let this group know too that if you are hearing anything from your community or you're seeing things in your neighborhood, please reach out to
me and let me know because these are things that I can help to figure out before it gets to the point of a city council hearing. Um, you know, you're all welcome to do your own advocacy, you know, in the news and things like that, but it would be great if you work with us as well to help us figure out trouble
spots and let us know what the community is saying. So after the winter ends and this uh snow is finally over, we're going to circle back with the streets cabinet to assess the clearance and removals that took place this year and also to make improvements.
Um on a more fun note, um the city of Boston is working on Boston 250. This is the 250th anniversary of America. Um, it will be followed in a few years by Boston 400, which is the 400th anniversary of the city of Boston. So,
we're working on social stories and historic markers. The city um I'm sorry, not the city, but Boston 250 is issuing mini grants for organizations um if they want to submit ideas for historical markers. Um things like the Perkins School for the Blind, which was in South
Boston, started downtown and then it had a few different locations, but things like that. Um, you can propose ideas for an actual physical marker to mark a spot in Boston where um, something historical happened. We want to make sure that disability history is represented. So,
if you have any ideas or recommendations of sites to highlight, please let me know. Um, another new item is Mayor Ru is hosting office hours outside of city hall. Um, she's really committed this um, in this administration to bring city
hall outside of city hall. So, she's working um with the Office of Neighborhood Services to set up events in the different neighborhoods. The first one was held um two weeks ago at the Bowling Building in Mian Square. And it's a way to kind of do it like a one-stop shop to pay parking tickets,
tax bills, get an application for an on street accessible parking space or other applications you may need. So, we want to encourage residents to attend these events if they have questions, want to talk with city officials, or just need to get basic city services done and
can't um access city hall for whatever reason. So, future dates will be announced. So, we want to ask you to watch out for those soon. And any notices like this that you get, please uh spread to your networks. Next slide.
So, some department updates, and some of these are really exciting. So, we are working on a civic engagement cohort. We're partnering with the disability policy consortium on a six-week program about civic engagement. Our plan is to empower 10 to 20 Boston residents to get
involved with disability and accessibility civic issues. It's sort of like our civic engagement day that we do every September, but it's going to be a six- week program with trainings um learning about different departments like learn how to register to vote, learn how to testify at a city council
hearing, um learn about planning department initiatives, how you can provide public comment, where you can give testimony. So, all ways that you can impact the city, um and use your lens of disability and accessibility to really make improvements throughout the city. So, our applications are planning
to be sent out next week and we really need your help spreading the word. We're trying to target people who aren't already um disability advocates. So, maybe find some new voices and um get new lenses um in this world in this space. So, we would love it if you know
people who are interested in accessibility and disability issues but aren't actually in the advocacy community. We'd love to reach those groups of people because we know there are a lot of people in underserved neighborhoods and from underserved communities who don't always know about the opportunities to get involved and this will be a great way to train them
and help them organize their groups within their neighborhoods to really impact um policies and infrastructure in the city. Our annual disability community forum will be held on Tuesday, March 5th from 2 to 3:30 at Suffach University Law School and on Zoom. We've done this
event hybrid the last few years and it's worked out really well. Although we really like to see you all in person, so I'm hoping you'll all be able to attend. Um I'll produce and highlight the 2025 year annual report. Mayor Woo usually attends if her schedule allows and other
city officials and department staff will be there to answer questions and provide information. I'm looking forward to board members participating again this year and wanted to ask a few things. if you had any thoughts on changes within your usual role. Although pretty much
you just introduce yourselves and kind of listen, but if you're interested in being more actively engaged or reading pieces of the um annual report, I'd be happy to see those pieces of my report to you all to read. So, I thought maybe it would be a good match for the areas
of interest that you've identified. You may want to take on that piece of the report and just read it out to the community. And a few years ago, we did a postevent social at um what's the name of it? And you'll have to help me. It's a restaurant right on Tmont Street. Um >> right across from
>> Beantown Pub. >> That's it. Beantown Pub. Uh it was really fun. A bunch of us went. So if you're interested in doing that again this year, um I'd definitely be open to it. And then our other big event every year for our new members who may not know is ADA Day. This is our annual
celebration of the anniversary of the ADA. Um, we do a big event every year on Boston City Hall Plaza. Um, we always run it ourselves as a city department except for the big anniversary years like the 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th. We do joint events with different
disability organizations. Last year, we had a huge crowd for the 35th anniversary. So this year we'll be going back to our um our event, our typical event, but instead of being on city hall plaza, we will be at CPR Park. And that is because the city of Boston will be
very busy this summer with FIFA and tall ships, which are going to basically take over city hall plaza by the month uh late June and early July. So we'll have more details coming out about ADA Day, but want you all to hold the date. And just uh for those of you who are new,
this is a celebration where we have music and food and t-shirts, but we also connect disabled residents to agencies and services. It's the biggest uh resource fair in the city for people with disabilities. We have tables with over 30 different agencies who attend. So you can get information on the
services, programs, uh information that you may need or that you can pass on to your communities. So we always look forward to seeing our board members there and also spreading the word to their networks. And one exciting thing that we're planning is to launch our updated ADA transition plan. Um it's
kind of at this point more of like a dashboard just showing all the infrastructure in the city when it was last updated uh what accessibility features it has. And this will cover everything from schools to public buildings like libraries and BCIF centers to curb ramps, sidewalks, um
accessible parking spaces. It's going to run the gamut. So, it's going to be a one-stop site for all accessible infrastructure in the city of Boston. So, stay tuned for more on that. We're really excited. And then for the next slide, I'm going to turn it over to Patricia Mendes to
give her architectural access update. And Patricia, will you just uh introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your department for the benefit of our new members? >> Commissioner, we may have lost Patricia. I can do it for her. I don't believe she's in right now.
So, I'll chat. Um, hi everyone. I'm Andrea. Uh, not Patricia, apologies. Um, but, uh, some exciting news from the US Access Board. Um so the US Access Board is a federal agency um charged with
developing technical standards um to allow for the implementation of the ADA. Uh right so the ADA doesn't necessarily in the law that Congress voted on say curb ramps can be you know no greater than 8%. Um they delegated all that
technical piece uh to this uh US access board. Um and so they uh host uh meetings around the country each year. Um and their upcoming meeting in May uh is a town hall in Providence, Rhode Island. So they're coming to New
England. Um they want to hear from the community about accessibility in Rhode Island and and really all of New England. They reached out to us specifically to invite us to attend. You'll be able to meet and speak with presidentially appointed board members and representatives from other agencies.
You may notice that it is Tuesday, May 5th from 1 to 3:00 p.m. which completely overlaps with the disability community forum. Um, of course it does. Um, uh, that's how it works. Uh, so let us know
what your plans are for that day. Um, but we hope you will also communicate with other folks maybe outside of Boston, uh, who aren't coming to the disability community forum about this event. Um, you can register if you're attending by April 25th or sorry, 26th.
The event is open to the public and will have a public comment period. Um, so again, uh, anyone who is in New England, all of New England, if you have friends in Rhode Island, friends in, uh, New Hampshire, uh, they can go. Um, Patricia, who unfortunately is not here
right now, um, will be attending along with our senior architectural access specialist, so you'll miss seeing them at community forum, but they will be there representing Boston. Um, you can also submit comment um, if you would like to that email. Um, so if you're
going to join us here in Boston, uh, you can submit that, uh, information over email. And so that's a general town hall, um, a board meeting event that is happening. Also hot off the presses from the access board, um, is a public comment period
about something specific. So again, they developed technical standards. Um, you know, two years ago they released specific technical standards for electric vehicle charging stations and and what the requirements are for those to remain accessible to people with
disabilities. Uh, one of their latest uh pushes um is that they're seeking public comment regarding universal changing tables uh changing stations, excuse me. Um, specifically for adult changing
tables. Um there are a lot of standards um for you know baby changing tables um in other building codes. This would be the first code for um what is a federal standard for an accessible adult changing table. So uh you can learn more
on their website but the public comment period is open through April 20th. So this public comment could be technical if you have technical knowledge of that you want them to consider. Um but it does not have to be. It can be sort of plain language and in your own
experience. Um, if you or someone you know have an opinion of any sort about adult changing tables, um, please feel free to submit comment. >> Thank you, Andrea. And I see that Patricia has rejoined us. So, Patricia, Andrea, Andrea gave your report since
you weren't able to log on, but I wondered if for the benefit of our new members, you could just introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your staff and what you do in our office. Hi everyone, my name is Patricia Mendes. I'm the director of architectural access
for the disabilities commission. Um my role in the disabilities commission is to look at the architecture, the built environment, um sidewalks, projects that has to do with uh the
public right away and also buildings and p um project development in Boston. I have an awesome team uh with Sarah Leon and with Sierra Tilton and it's really nice to meet the the new members um and
look forward to getting to know you and to work with you. >> Thanks, Patricia. And that is uh the end of my report. So, I will turn it back to Zaryi if anybody has any questions. I'm happy to respond. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner.
Thank you Patricia and Andrea for the updates. And uh right so next we're going to um talk about three letters that uh we've drafted. The first one is
on voting machines and uh I believe that we have Andrea did we already want to draft these letters last time? >> Yep. So, uh, last meeting we voted to make these drafts. Um, and now these
drafts have been proposed for review. Um, a second vote would need to be taken, um, to approve them for sending, although we don't have a quorum right now. So, we can discuss them, but we wouldn't actually be able to take that vote.
>> Okay. So just to give you a bit of an overview of each of these letters, the first one is um on the voting machines, the automark
uh which is not very accessible to people with disabilities. So our request is to um we could look at alternative voting machines to be more accessible for people with disabilities. What we've
experienced in the past is um people with disabilities have a difficult time independently marking the ballot and some people have experienced um uh with papers getting jammed or just difficulty
managing it. So our hope is to look at alternative ways of voting um for our community. So hopefully when we have a forum we can um you know uh make a
motion and approve this letter. Um the second uh letter has to do with a um bill that has to be uh has to do with um service animals.
And basically um this is so that people with disabilities um are allowed to um well let me just replace the first one is a Senate bill
Senate Bill 1714 and basically is an act to form a commission to study discrimination against service animal handlers. Um so basically we want to we are proposing to
form a commission to take a look at um why people with service animals are um penders are being discriminated against. So again once we have a home we can vote on this letter moving forward.
This the third letter H2066 is a letter to at the imposs fines on transportation network drivers who discriminate against riders with
disabilities who use service animals. And again once we have a quum we can vote on this letter. Um does anybody have any questions? I don't see anyone with any hands raised, so I'm assuming
no one has any question. Uh, all right. >> I see Jerry has a hand. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm still getting used to this, so sorry, Jerry. Go ahead. >> No problem. and I was just able to to
find the raised hand, so don't worry about it. Uh sorry, you're doing a fine job. Um uh my question is in regards to the uh to the letter to the secretary uh of
state regarding the auto mark machine. Um you know, I I don't know what our policy has been in the past for for followup. Um, it's kind of an open-ended letter. So, I didn't know whether uh
whether we should keep it, you know, keep the issue up under under old business so that we can check in or or maybe what's some uh I'd be open to to discussing, you know, followup in
regards to either this or or any of those of the letters, you know, you know, and maybe, you know, Andrea or the commissioner can talk to uh can uh to help us, you know, with follow followup. What has been the typical followup on
any issues or letters that we've sent? >> This is Andrea. I'll say um there have been a in my experience, you've done a few different kinds of letters. The legislative letters don't tend to have a
specific followup or like a specific ask, right? it's we support this, you know, please push it through. Um, >> right. >> I think the only one I can think of where there's been a specific ask is Abilities Expo where you've asked like
for a meeting or or to talk, you know, with them further about what it would look like to bring the the expo back to Boston or back to New England. Um you all could certainly ask for a meeting with the secretary or you know
something like that if you wanted to ask for a specific action from him um beyond add a machine to your list. Um you can certainly request you know those actions. Um, the only other thing I'll say because Carl's not here, I know he's
mentioned to me um that other boards like yours have similar interest. Um, and so you could also vote to uh invite other commissions to co-sign the letter um
as an additional action that something that would not currently be reflected in the draft. Yeah, I mean I just noticed that that we that the that the um that the letter is pretty open open-ended, but we do ask
that they begin the process of you know researching other technologies and you you know that that they can that people with disabilities can have to to vote. So, I just want to I just want us to be
able to to follow up. Um, you know, and and I I think uh thank you for uh that suggestion, Andrea. I think, you know, asking, you know, maybe talking to Carl, finding out what other commissions
uh are interested in this issue and maybe asking them to sign off in the little will will help. And also asking for a meeting with the secretar's office. I don't I don't think that would hurt. So, >> and
yeah, I want to add one thing. Um I didn't get to u mention it in my report but um on a parallel track uh my office is also still working with the elections commission in order to address the barriers that we've heard. Um we know as
outlined very eloquently in the letter all the problems with the automark. Um, we know there hasn't been a great alternative suggested, but we are also encouraging our elections commissioner and um, chief of of the registry in the
city to work with us on crafting a letter so that it will come from the commission and from the city. Um, we continue to explore better options for access including training um, you know, better materials available for pole
workers, things like that. So this work on election access is ongoing and I think the board's letter is a critical piece of it but just want to let you know that we're also working on parallel track to include things in house uh in the city government.
Andrew, would you add anything to that? >> No, I think that's everything. But it I just like to add um based on what Jerry just was asking as far as followups
um I'm just wondering once these letters are submitted do we revisit or you know go back to them and say you know maybe how far we've gone with this
request um what was the responses what are some of the updates. Do we do that normally with these letters or what happens once they're submitted? >> Everything uh and nothing. Um it's up to
you. Um there are some uh topics you all have revisited such as accessible trails. Um there's accessible trails legislation that you all have followed up on and discussed. Um again, Commissioner has engaged over email with Abilities Expo on your behalf. Um, there
are also letters that you've sent and we didn't hear anything and the board has not put it back on their agenda. Um, but there's no rules here. It's it's whatever you all want to do. If you all want to talk about this every month, we'll talk about this every month. If you want to talk about it every six
months, every six years, um, you know, it's your agenda. >> Well, this is Jerry. I would suggest that I would suggest as a followup, you know, we speak with the um you know, I
don't know if if the I know that uh that Andrea and the commissioner, you you've mentioned uh being on those co uh monthly calls with disability commission uh boards uh and disability commissions. Um I don't know if you've heard from
other other boards and commissions on this issue. I know Andre, you just mentioned Cary. So, I would definitely, you know, want to h have some followup and and maybe ask ask for um ask for other commissions
support and maybe sign on to the letter. Um sign on to the letter number one. And two, I you know, I would like uh us to follow up and maybe ask the secretary of of state for for a meeting u uh either
with the executive team or with with uh with you or with the you know commissioner's office to discuss this issue further as well. >> Okay. So, I'm hearing a suggested edit to the letter asking for a meeting with
the Secretary of State. And if and when you all um can can take a vote, um uh Jerry, I hear your motion, including um sharing it with other boards um to to
sign on if they would like. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> I hear him, too. And that's that's exactly what I would say. Perfect. Thank you, Jerry. This is >> so do we Well, we can't vote, right?
Because we don't have forum. So, >> we can't hold today, >> right? >> But we can't take the suggestions and >> I'll definitely >> um All right. So, I just actually skipped.
>> Can I add one more thing? >> Sure. Of course. Just before we um leave this topic, it's not specifically related to elections, but speaking of letters, um I meant to suggest in my report if anyone is interested in digging into the adult changing table
issue um and drafting a letter, that could be something that could come from the board. But again, it's very impactful when you work together as a group to give your thoughts. And I don't know if anyone knows a lot about them, but they're a new accessibility feature in bathrooms and a lot of like stadiums are installing them. um they're super
helpful for people with um severe mobility disabilities. So um any input would be great. So just throwing that out there. These are the types of things that you could write letters on which will be really impactful. So I will leave that in your hand. Sorry. >> We are realizing how needed they are.
And unfortunately because most of our buildings in Boston are old, the bathrooms have not been able to accommodate these tables. So I would have to draft this letter and hopefully
um present it to everyone and see what you guys think. Um but I think it's important and I appreciate the >> This is Andrea. I'll just say that because you can't vote tonight because you don't have a quorum, you'll likely miss the April 20th deadline for the
board, uh, the US Access Board as a board. However, Zary, it sounds like you've got some individual opinions. You, as a member of the public of of America, um, can certainly write a letter on your own. Apologies but again um I'll
I'll just make an excuse that this is my first stop doing this as a I skipped over board members shiming any anything that they want to bring up. Um, so I'm going to open it up to the members
of the board if you have any anything that you want to share. >> While you all consider, I will just offer some context for our newer members about what this means when we say share out. Um, we have called it uh, sorry,
I'm gonna swap the interpreters. Um we've called it announcements in the past uh but we specifically renamed it shareouts um because there's so much excellent work happening between board meetings. Um if Zaryi writes this letter to the US
Access Board, we hope she'll share about it next month. Um there's so much happening in your neighborhoods whether it's disability access related or not. Um and so this is the opportunity for everyone to share out with the board um
whatever was happening um this month. So that is what this share outs means. I know it's not intuitive and I see Jerry's got a hand up. Uh yes, thank you Andrea and thanks for the opportunity. um a couple of weeks
ago uh or maybe even last week um yes it was last week um I was able to hop on uh virtually uh the disability policy consortium I hosted a legislative u
briefing on um on wheelchair repair reform bills uh that are uh current currently in the legislature mass legislature at the at uh at this point. In fact, the House version uh has been
in committee since since last August. Um and it was a very powerful uh legislative uh briefing. Uh folks with disabilities, you know, shared their uh wheelchair repair, you know, um stories
both in person and in in the chat. I was able to to share my perspective on on things. So I would yeah you know I would u you know it was very very powerful and I would hope that we could yeah maybe
under new business talk about maybe uh writing letters in support of of of these pieces of of legislation um under new business. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you. >> Yes. Hi there.
>> Um, I have uh three short things that I wanted to mention. community area community meeting um related to the tall ships, the tall ships event and that was um
sale Boston came and gave a presentation uh to the community to the basic community meeting and they were talking about um some of the basically the fact that that event is going to impact the community
um because that's happening generally obviously in our area with the tall ships which is interesting. It'll be an interesting event. The second thing I wanted to share is I wanted to basically put up on the table an issue related to an experience that happened this winter
that I had related to a parking situation in the north end. Um, interestingly what happened was, um, it was on a Friday or Saturday night when, uh, people, you know, generally come to the north end for dinner to
visit the restaurants and often times, you know, I was looking for parking and there was a car that parked and it actually didn't have a north end uh, permanent basically sticker or resident sticker on
it and they told the person that um if we can't see the sticker or we can't see the sticker. So, what they did is they actually put a handicap card on the front of their uh
dash and the car was located in um in a space that was only for residents. So there was no space for a handicapped person to park
and basically the person just ignored them and went away. I took a I took a shot and I I filed a report. I report reported what had happened and I think that you know I I'm wondering what the city's response was going to be to that issue because with
the parking sticker situation um for our parking space that really should be accessible. I mean, I don't know what the city has to say about that, but I felt like that was a real issue um when it comes to disability parking
spaces uh versus residents residency sticker parking spaces. So, there's a bit of a tension there. So, I wanted to I wanted to bring up that issue u put that out there. The third item was
I actually have a question about the adult uh the adult size changing table and I'm wondering if if they're adjustable. Maybe it's possible to have these to be adjustable for children and for adults. I mean,
this is an interesting issue because there are new changes coming that um I'm not sure if they're actually going to be safe for changing a baby or like are the large tables going to be sufficient for both sort of types of consumer. Um so
I'm just wondering if people are aware of the fact that maybe some of these new with some of the new changes it may or may not be accessible or reasonable for uh both types of users. So I want to put that out for discussion or just for an FYI.
Well, see, I know that the changing tables are adjustable as far as the height. We had looked at it a lot for MGH and I know that they
they um require a lot of support as far as the weight. Um, so the height is adjustable, but the size is not. So that's the issue as far as the space that it takes, but once it's set up, I
believe anyone can use it. It's is it's it's much bigger. So for a child, it just might be too big, but I don't think that it could be adjusted to a size that it could be smaller for a child. So in
this case I think that we would need to look at both adult and a child changing table in the backs. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So the packing question, Andrew, do you want to jump in on that when we get to
it and then I'll add some commentary? >> Sure. Uh, this is Andrea. I will just add that um having one of those blue placards from the RMV that hangs inside your car does not exempt you from the
resident sticker requirement. So, if it's a street that's north end permit, south end permit, JP permit, right? Um, the placard does not exempt you from needing to have that sticker on
that street. If there is an accessible spot on the street, right, two signs midblock that point at each other for accessible parking, the placard allows you to park there without a resident sticker. Even if the
rest of the street requires the resident sticker, like those signs don't. There's a very small pilot of new signs. I'm sorry, this is a little complicated that have both things. They have the HPDV,
you know, wheelchair symbol and they say South Boston permit. If the signs say both things, you need to have both things, a plaqueard and a sticker. But if the signs just have the
wheelchair, you only have to have a placard. And if the signs only say South Boston resident, you have to have a South Boston sticker. So if parking enforcement came out and didn't ticket that person and they said,
"Well, they have a plaque card. They don't need a sticker. That's wrong. Send me your sticker or your picture." Um, and we can chat with with transportation about that. >> I think that sums it up pretty fairly. >> This is Wes again. I'm sorry uh to
interrupt this. Yeah, I can confirm that this person was did park in the wrong place. And um I I sent the picture, like I said, to the um to 311. That was a misinterpretation earlier. I sent it to 311 earlier um cuz they were parked in the wrong designated spot even with the
handicap placard. >> Okay, thank you. May I make a request just a general in terminology um if we can not use the word handicap
um is is a bit of an outdated language. So, if we can just instead say disabled, that would be better. And um I might be able to um present at some point on etiquette and terminology just
so that you're all on the same page. >> Yeah, this is Wes. I um Yeah, I I meant the blue placard. Yes. Yes, the blue placard that hangs in in the car. Yep. Noted. >> Excellent. Thank you.
And then I see Pette has a hand. >> Hi. I recruited a group of um deaf individuals from work, Inc. to do volunteer work at the Salvation Army.
They do a food distribution uh twice a month. And I was at another event um with their organization and uh one of the women was just chatting me up about what do I do in retirement and I
told her this and so I recruited this wonderful group who are trying very hard to teach me sign language and I'm doing so so um but they are faithfully coming twice a month and we feed them lunch and they
love it and so That's um a victory for us. So similarly a group from life works which is a group of adult developmentally delayed um individuals
comes on. So we have two days one day we pack and one day we distribute. So the deaf individuals come on Monday and pack and the developmentally delayed adults or individuals come on Tuesday to pass it out. And it's a wonderful way for the
community to see um people that are different than them serving the community and being part of it. And so I'm really proud that I'm I'm part of that initiative, you know. So, I
always make sure that um that I get around with them and make it light for them because sometimes people do come in and kind of just get a little uh taken back that all the people that are working with them. But now they're
starting to get used to them and looking forward to interacting with them more. So, I'm really glad about that. So, that's my shout out. Thank you. That's beautiful. Thank you so much, father. Lots of good work happening
there and uh I appreciate it. Um anyone else has any like Oh, Olivia. >> Yeah. Um, just wanted to throw it out there that the Boston Housing Authority
has a very limited number of Chromebooks and tablets that they're trying to bridge the digital equity divide. Uh, you have to be a BHA resident or a
public housing section 8 tenant um to receive one. But uh they they're doing that. Um you have to be able to go to 52 Chanty to pick it up. They aren't
delivering to sites. Um but yeah, that's that's available. Contact uh your local management office or digital equity at BHA at bostonhousing.gov gov
>> or bostonhousing.org. >> I always forget they're not go. >> What is the program called again? >> Uh the digital equity office. They they perform all kinds of of uh
digital equity events around the the sites that the BHA manages to make sure that community is aware of this resource. How do we update people on this?
Um, I received a flyer. Uh, it's got a QR code that doesn't work. So, I recommend calling digital equity directly. >> Okay. >> The irony.
>> And they have to be a BHA. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Olivia. Um, anyone else has any questions or updates?
Um, well, I have nothing to report for this evening. So, um, no new, um, projects and, uh, hopefully next month I'm working with a national
organization called Posio that is looking at disability data in healthcare environment and how to document disability as part of a demographic
um, rather than a health assessment. So I will once I have more to share I will definitely share it at the next meeting but I just kind of wanted to highlight this work that we are doing across MGB
and hopefully it will have a big impact on how disability is looked at as a part of demographic along with ethnicity, race. Um so that will have a hopefully a
long-term impact on benefits on health care and uh yeah so more to come. All right. Um I guess next we'll open it
up to the community to see if anyone has any questions. >> Sorry. Give me one second. And I'm trying to troubleshoot captions so that we have access for everyone. >> Right. >> Apologies. One moment.
Okay, I think we may have lost the captioner. I'm going to remove permissions and they'll go to like AI captions. Okay, less are they working now?
Okay. Yep. I think they'll be the AI captions, >> so they won't be as great while I work offline with the captioner. Apologies for that. Okay, Zary, back to you for new business.
What's that? The interpreters are having a hard time hearing Zaryi speaking. I'm not sure it's audio or others are having the same problem. >> Are people having difficulty hear me? >> Any other >> You're back now.
>> I'm back now. Okay. Um, what I was saying is that I have no new business, but I see Jerry's hand up. Jerry. >> Yes. Thank you, Zary. Um, again, I just wanted to keep uh I know we can't make
any motions or whatnot, but I did want to um I can forward the information in regards to those two two wheelchair repair legislative um bills, both the Senate and the House version. Um, I can forward them to you
or Andrea or put them in the chat, whatever is appropriate. And maybe we can u um discuss next month making a motion to uh have a letter in support of of of those uh of those bills. and maybe
we can u put a bug in Carl's ear to to let us know if if if there's been any movement on them before before next month's meeting as well. So Jerry, this is Andrea uh noted. send
them to me. I can make sure it's on the agenda for the next executive committee meeting. >> Okay. And and unfortunately I know Zary's having trouble with her her microphone, I guess, Andrea. So
this is Andrea. I'm pausing to recconnect with the interpreter or the captioner who should be set up in a minute. Okay, Catherine. Great. Katherine is back on.
Okay, I think we can continue. Sorry, I don't know if anyone else has new business. Does anyone else have new business? Going once, doing twice. Oh, since uh no one has new business,
we're going to open it up um to input from the community. So, please feel free to let us know if you have anything you want to say. >> As a reminder, uh anyone who has a
question or a comment, uh if you're a member of the public, you'll have noticed you can't unmute yourself. Please use the Zoom raise hand function. Put a note in the chat or turn on your camera and wave at me. I'll find you. I
will let our chair know that you have a question or a comment. Um and then when she recognizes you to speak or to sign, uh we will give you two minutes to make your comment or question. I think at this point our members of the public are
mostly our soontobe new members. Um, if anyone wants to say anything, uh, please feel free to, like I said, raise hand, put in the chat, uh, or come off your camera and wave at me. Sam, did I see a wave?
I'll ask you to unmute in case I saw a wave, then you can unmute. Oh, and I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Didn't want to miss it. >> Well, Carl is not here to make his favorite motion. Um, so if there's no more public input, I think someone else may need to make it.
Um, do we even need to make a motion since there's not a quorum? Uh, Andrea, >> you still need to to close it. You still need to close the meeting. Otherwise, it will exist forever. >> I'll make uh this is Jerry. I I uh move
that we uh we uh close the meeting. We end the meeting. >> This is Paul. a second. Have a great evening. We'll see you next month. >> Bye >> everyone. Have a good evening.