[Frances Nwajei]: Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to our combined November 2022 and December 2022 meeting of the Commission on Persons with Disabilities. It is nice to see our two recommended commissioners that are on with us. Thank you so much for being able to make it today. I'm Frances and I'm the director for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Over to you, Tom. Thank you, Frances.
[Tom Hamel]: Well, yes, I think we're, we're the first agenda item is to do welcome and introductions and I know Sue and Joe we, we met you guys earlier but maybe we wouldn't be helpful to do another round of introductions. Yeah. Yeah. So that's right. Because Marsha didn't have the opportunity to meet you, meet you too. So thank you Marsha. So why don't we just all go around and we'll introduce ourselves. If anybody else shows up, we'll have them jump in when they arrive. So I'm, I'm Tom Hamill. I'm the, been on the disability commission. This is my third year. and I've been a resident of Medford for 15 years or so. And I have a disability myself, as well as family members with disabilities, which is my motivation, my drive to serve. All right, who is, Linda, you wanna go next?
[Smith]: Yeah, I can jump in next. My name is Linda Braden and I've been on the commission. I think this is my second year on the commission and I'm the vice chair and I have lived in Medford for six years now. And I have family members with disabilities and I specialize in digital accessibility. So that's where I tried to augment, try to contribute to the group here. Marsha, I'll kick it off to you.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay, I'll catch it. Okay, my name is Marsha Kearson. No one can spell or pronounce it, so don't worry. Say hi, Marsha, or hey there, whatever. Don't laugh, Fran. Too hard, Francis. Your last name is like that too. Have you seen my last name? So I've been on the commission for two years, almost two years. I think I started officially in February, but I'm not 100% sure anymore. I've lived in Medford about five years. Previously, I lived in Somerville after a significant illness. I consider myself to be disabled in that 25% number that you're going to hear more and more of. I possibly do not meet ADA standards. I have severe arthritis. I do not know if I meet the standards of the American Disabilities Act, which are rather stringent. But I have a lot of difficulty walking now because of arthritis. And I use some aids. I'm not in a wheelchair yet. And also, I'm 81. which I'm not afraid to admit. And being older imposes a lot of health issues in addition to the mobility issue. And I'm very glad to meet you both. I hope that We will be seeing a lot of you, and I appreciate your joining.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Marsha. You bring a great perspective to our commission. Yes, Joe and Sue, it's great to have you on board. If you could introduce yourself one more time, because Marsha wasn't here earlier, that would be fantastic. Who wants to go first?
[Unidentified]: Joe, go ahead.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: I was gonna let ladies go first, but all right. Joe Casey, I lived in Medford my whole life. I taught trade school in Medford for two years. I am Jack of all trades. I hold a real estate license, a contractor's license, and I just retired after 25 years with Department of Corrections. And I have a son that has a disability, but he tries his best to overcome it. And I just want to share a quick story. I was on crutches for six months, and I'll tell you, going in and out of stores and parking lots, and boy, I went a lot. And I just couldn't believe it that either people are in a rat race or just not thinking. And it was in the middle of winter when there was snow on the ground and people wouldn't hold the door for you when you're on crutches pushing a shopping cart. I learned a lot. And I know people are going through worse. But that was 20 years ago and I never forgot it. And it's not just because I got a son with a disability. But, um, I just wish we could just educate more people that don't know how lucky they have it. Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you so much, Tom. I want to interject because Gabby's not here to help us with notes and we didn't do that piece. Do you want me to take notes?
[Tom Hamel]: You know, we can, well, we both take notes and, If anybody else wants to, and we'll combine them and.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. Well, we'll both take notes and then support each other. Thank you for remembering that. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Sorry about that.
[Tom Hamel]: Say something. Oh.
[Unidentified]: Who's next, me? You, Sue, yes. So actually, I feel, even though I've lived all over the country, I've owned six houses all over the country, I feel like I, except for Joe, I'm an old comer, a longstanding person in Medford, because I've lived here 19 years. I've never lived anywhere 19 years in my life, starting from age zero. So now that I'm here and especially after I retired from my full-time position teaching special ed in Newton, I became much more involved in the community. And it was a good thing because when you leave your house in the morning and work somewhere else all day long and come home and you don't, your children are all grown, it's a different thing than when you move into the community with kids, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, to cut it short, I can't believe I've been here 19 years and I passed a lot of you here, but I've met so many people here now in walking and biking and running and so on in the community, but also I just chat with people as I go by them and you start to meet them, but also really caring more about the community, because I see it now and I'm part of it, I go to their little festivals. I go to their thing last Wednesday or when it, but Thursday, I guess it got changed. But I also see things that could be changed. And I'm very related to somebody with disability. I'm also getting older, even though I'm not your age, Marsha. My husband is maybe six years, five years younger than you. But I see the, senior part and I see the disability part as I go mostly not in a car around Medford. And there are a lot of things that could be changed. You know, I see trash cans that are sitting on sidewalks. So somebody with a wheelchair has to go out in the street or uneven sidewalks or whatever the things are. And I really would like to be a part of all of us being the eyes of Medford looking out for seniors and people with disabilities. And also maybe a little bit of the police understanding more about disabilities. And there's a lot of little caveats here and there that I would like to see our city, which is making some progress. We're done. That's all anyway.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Sue. So let's see, can we approve the meeting minutes?
[Frances Nwajei]: So thank you, everyone. Unfortunately, we can't approve the meeting minutes because the new commissioners are still waiting on their paperwork for the recommendations being made, and they weren't here, so they wouldn't be able to, I don't think they'll be able to vote on the meeting minutes. So that's fine. We can table that. I'll make a note to table that and bring it up for approval back in January.
[Unidentified]: OK.
[Tom Hamel]: So our next item, we will move to the updates. Linda, if you could share a update on the Commission's on persons with disabilities web page.
[Smith]: TAB, Tila Duhaime.: : Yes, I would be happy to so I met with. TAB, Tila Duhaime.: : I met with Steve, who is the director of communications for the city of medford and he let me in on the progress or the project. of moving the city of Medford's website over to a new platform. And so I offered my services in whatever way that I could help for digital accessibility to work with him on whatever he may need help with. I gave some recommendations, same ones that I've given at the commission before. So I'm not quite sure what level of involvement, but I've offered my services there. And in particular, I'm going to review the webpage, like our particular webpage. And I've started to do that already. And I've gone through and made some suggested edits. One thing that would be really great for the commission, for our group to do is to take a look at the current website, particularly the useful links the transportation and the useful links section. A lot of them are outdated and I can remove, like I can tell them to get, like we should not have broken links on our page. And I can tell them to remove those, but now would be a great time if there's any new resources that people use or want on our webpage. So if you want to send them to me, that would be great. I can pass those along. Frances, I don't know, do you want to be included in that as well? I'm not quite sure what the process is here to step on toes.
[Frances Nwajei]: It would be great if we could have some timeline so that it's not the week of the meeting and things are flying around and the agenda's being done. I think that it would be fabulous if we could all just take some time. Oh, Yvette's here. Hold on, let's just wait for Yvette to pop on. Yvette said that she was going to try to make it.
[Unidentified]: She did have another meeting. Hi, Yvette.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you for being able to join us. I'm going to pause what I was saying to give you a chance to introduce yourself if you'd like, all right?
[Unidentified]: Okay, are you able to hear me. Yeah, we can hear you now.
[Evangelista]: Okay, just to introduce hello I mean that works and I'm very excited about being here.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you. Thank you so much I shared that you, you had another meeting and you weren't quite sure if you're going to be able to make this one because it's not our typical day. So, Commissioner Braden just gave an update on what's going on with the persons with disabilities web page that's on the city website. I don't know if you recall but Linda specializes in digital accessibility. So Linda met with Steve Smerti, who's our Director of Communications, and myself to provide some suggestions and ideas on how to make the city's website more accessible, and even went a step further and put that stuff in writing as well. But Linda is going to be focusing specifically on our web page and has already identified that there are some broken links on that web page. So like click here, do this there. So we were just discussing, would it make sense for us to all make sure that we go through and if there are resources that we think need to be, should be on that page, we should be prepared to share that information at the next meeting.
[Frances Nwajei]: Or share it directly with Linda, but that information should not go directly to Steve because what will happen is if I send it to Steve and then I don't send it to Linda and Linda sends something else to Steve, Steve might think like there are two different things that could be set the same thing and we'll have rent central.
[Smith]: Yes. Yeah. I am. I'm happy to be the point person.
[Frances Nwajei]: If that makes sense, Francis, that that makes that that makes great sense I mean you can see see me but I'm not going to do anything with it because I'm not the subject matter expert.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, right.
[Frances Nwajei]: I, I would probably end up giving you broken links. So we should, and then if we plan to do this and then in our January meeting, do you think that we can then share if we've come across any resources that we think can be on the website, so that that way there's no surprise to anyone and.
[Smith]: Oh yeah, yeah and and I definitely think that this is. This is a great opportunity right now by next meeting to just refresh the page. So as far as timeline goes, to be fully transparent, I believe Steve said that they're trying to flip the switch before the holidays to the new site. But I don't want to scare anyone because what I'm happy to take care of removing the broken links so that our page, when it does transition over the new site, the page is updated, it's current, there's no broken links on it. But by next meeting, if we have a list of resources that we want on it, then this is a good opportunity for us to put those forth to Steve. So feel free to send those to me. It's a good opportunity. I don't think this is the last time. This is absolutely not. That's the great thing about the web is that it can be edited anytime.
[Unidentified]: And this is a big lift. I didn't want to say very much, but I've been thinking about a lot of stuff. And one of the things is that with disabled, a number of times getting overwhelmed So they get on a website and they just see all these numbers and figures and blah, blah, blah. And they don't, they just shut down or they start putting all these things on their, their desktop. And then they don't know where to find anything. And I guess I feel like I, I know the senior center does some things with not website design, but how to get into what you want to find. And I know they do a lot of places do a lot with taxes. for disabled and seniors, but I don't see that much where they just do like programs of. These are the easy steps to find what you want a resource or, or a food bank or whatever. Easy ones, where they don't get overwhelmed.
[Frances Nwajei]: So Susan, that's almost like a different service. You're almost like asking us to be almost like a portal where, you know, looking for food resources, click here and then, you know, that one click takes you there. But I'm not sure that we're there yet. I think the first thing that we have to do is whatever links are broken or don't work, get rid of. Okay, so that when we do, when we are on the new platform, we may have less information, but it's information that works. Okay, that's actually helpful. And then if you're suggesting. You know, off the top of my head, I don't see where, like, the food resources, you know, fits in, like, right now. But these are things that we can work towards. I don't think that this is something that the communications department can do specifically for us, but we can work towards it. Because remember, it's the entire city's website that's moving to a new platform. But Linda and her expertise are helping around Around our specific page, but great, great stuff, but in the future. So, yeah, I'm, you know. I'm coming in January and resources go ahead.
[Tom Hamel]: Oh, sorry, Marcia. Did you have a I also have a comment, but Marcia, you can go 1st.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Thank you. Yes, I think that it's really, what Sue said is really important, that there are a lot of people who will struggle using any website, frankly, because if you think of it, Tom, I don't know if you went to school and had computer education there or not in high school, but many, many people, you know, starting with your age and up had zero. They had to learn it on the fly. And the older you are, the worse it is. So I think it's incumbent on the city to offer information about how the website works in general, not just for people who are disabled, but for everybody.
[Smith]: The ideally the website would be easy to navigate.
[Marcia Kirssen]: For such thing doesn't exist it's easy for certain people.
[Frances Nwajei]: I think, though, that at this stage, though, the focus is on making sure that the information that we have on our page, because that's critical, right? If we're the Commission on Persons with Disabilities, and the information on our page, right? is broken or is outdated, then it's kind of worse. I do understand. So while we have Linda's expertise, right? Websites should be as easy and as maneuverable as possible. But Linda doesn't work for the city. Linda is a commissioner volunteering her time. And if she is willing to support us to bring our page up to standard, right? then that's going to be great, because maybe then in the future, the city can model, what our page looks like. I can only speak to our page and the stuff that we can do, moving forward. I myself don't really know all the technicalities that go on behind the scenes of taking, it's, you know, in my head, I'm like, is it like you take something from your kitchen and you go to the living room? Like, I don't, I don't understand, like, how it's all put together, because it's still active, right? The old website, but the new website is there as well, and they're moving things onto it. Yeah, so in my head, conceptually, I can't even see it. I'm just happy to know that there's somebody that knows how to do it, that can work on our page and allow our page to be of standard, you know, which is something that's lacking.
[Smith]: Yeah, so this is just a good moment. It's not like, While things are being moved from one system, one website to another website, it's just like spring cleaning. It's just a good opportunity to clean up our page and to do it in a way that really does exemplify and model good accessible content. We can start there. There are limits. You know, when I was saying like, oh, ideally, it would be great if the website was, you know, easy to navigate for everyone, but there's limitations to that depending on what system is being used and a lot of that we don't have control over. But right now we have control over our page. It's a good starting point. It's a good starting point and Again, this isn't like the end point. This is not like the one and only chance we have. It's just a good, we wanna seize the opportunity while I'm taking a look at it already to make sure it's accessible in the new site that if there's resources that we wanna add, that it's just a good opportunity at this moment in time. And Tom, I know that you said you had a comment
[Tom Hamel]: PB, David Ensign — He's the one who said it. PB, David Ensign — He's the one who said it. How accessible is the city of Medford's website and are there going to be improvements for the next one?
[Smith]: Yeah, that accessibility menu is meh. It's a step, but it's also like an overlay-ish. So like the content, not to get too technical, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole too far, but like just surface level. The system itself needs to be set up in, there's some things on the backend that need to be set up in a way that make it accessible for certain things like screen readers or someone who's using a keyboard instead of a mouse. or any sort of number of things, interactions, and things like, let's, for example, like alt text. It doesn't matter how accessible your menu is. If you don't have alt text in a picture, you're not going to see it. Like if you don't have something that renders the pictures or if you can't actually see the picture and you're relying on something that reads the screen to you, then you're not going to have that piece of content, which I think is something that that did come up and that was a limitation of the old system is that I think that, if I'm remembering correctly, I don't want to misspeak, but I believe that was one of the limitations. So in the new system, there's going to be certain things that will be baked in that just kind of come as an upgrade. That's kind of some of the point of upgrading to a new system is that it has more of those capability, more tech. capabilities. But for now, like focusing on at the page level, there's not a whole lot of the structure, like whether there's a capability for that. But we have control over the content. And that's the other half of the equation of you can have a very digitally accessible structure. But if the content you're putting on the page is not accessible, then it it doesn't, that doesn't matter. So it matters like not just the city of Medford website structure, but also the person who is literally putting the content on the page if they have accessible practices as well. So that's what we're focusing on is we are the people putting the content literally on the page. And so the way that I'm writing the content and editing the content is to make sure that the words and the links And the things we can actually control are accessible up to like a WCAG 2.1 AA standard. That was really technical.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, go on, Tom. Sorry. Go on, Tom. Were you going to say something?
[Tom Hamel]: Oh, I just said thank you. Thank you, Linda.
[Frances Nwajei]: And then it's also my understanding, and no, I'm not going to be technical, because I don't know 01 blah, blah, blah. That was just, that was just, whoop. So the city website, right, the city of Medford did not independently purchase its own website that has a designer blah, blah, blah. It's part of a group of other cities and towns. So we share space. So, you know, in my head, you know, I have like all these like fancy things that I want done, right? I want less words, more pictures, more icons. You push something and the door opens, something that's intuitive. But in the reality of it all, I may not get that because those things that I have shared, that I have seen, I've actually seen them on private and corporate websites, you know, so it's, it's, you know, it's sort of that balance and because I don't speak the technical language, the way that I've explained it to you is the best way that I can explain it to people, which may not be helpful, because it may actually have a name. But I like the websites that are just automatically intuitive for you to utilize, because it's not a lot of words. It captures all your different auditory, visual, all the different senses, and it draws you in, and instinctively, you just, you know, it blows. Thank you so much, Linda, for taking this on. Yeah, go ahead, Yvette.
[Evangelista]: the comment Marsha made. And I wanted to understand, are you speaking that about training for whatever access to the computer, but just training on how to use a computer? Is that what you were?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Well, that's one kind of issue, but training on how to use this website, whatever it turns out to be. Oh, OK. Our page will be a part of it. So if you can't use the website, you can't use the page. That's my thought. Or you might not.
[Unidentified]: You can't use the page?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah. You may not be able to use the page. Okay.
[Evangelista]: So maybe there's something, you know, I know this would be at a later time, but maybe there's a way we can work with the library on training. That would be great.
[Marcia Kirssen]: This is starting a training program too. Who is? Mystic Valley Elder Services. Perfect. You know, I'm not sure what it encompasses. I don't think it would be like the City of Medford website. I think they would work more with individual people who are clueless about using a computer, like me, maybe.
[Evangelista]: Right. But I think once you get the basic training, That would be a closer step. And as Francis and Linda are saying, as soon as we fix the click, that'll reduce some of the frustration. Because that's the worst thing, is to click on a link and it doesn't go anywhere, and you just stop. And that's for, you just stop. So us cleaning up the page, and I like that thought of just reducing the content to where It's more intuitive, if possible, and more automatic. And then providing, working with, to offer some kind of training. That should be something that we, as far as this commission, could look into. How do we do that, and how do we customize it? Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you for asking that question, Yvette, and for your response, Marsha. As you were talking, something came to mind. Linda, So many of these icons that are used, you know, because Marsha, I know you keep saying the City of Medford website, and I don't believe that it's the City of Medford's websites that people need navigation training on. I think that a foundational navigation training, because these icons are all, they're not unique to the city. They're used on like the menu bars. What is that word? What is the word that I'm looking for? Because I can't find it.
[Smith]: Yeah, I think you're talking about like just certain conventions that have been established, like the menu of the three lines. Sometimes people call that like the hamburger menu. There might be different words that have come up for that. So yeah, there's different conventions that have gone across that are now commonly used across it's like a good one a good example like the shopping cart we all know what the shopping cart means and so across the site and the magnifying glass for the yes and that those are like the things that I would like those are universally recognizable and wouldn't it be great if There's ways to do that integrate that kind of universally recognizable things throughout like websites in general but that's like that's like lofty lofty philosophical ideas.
[Frances Nwajei]: But I was thinking maybe in, as you know, as Marcia and Yvette were talking about classes. maybe when students are not in session. I know you said the library. I just, I don't know if the library has, will have enough computers, right? Cause you almost sort of need like a computer lab. So I was thinking like maybe when school is not in session at the high school or something, you know, maybe we could, we could, we could help support a request, like a six week course for community members to, you know, Again, Tom, I hope you're taking notes, because I can't, I can't speak and take notes. I am, I am. You're good. I gave up one of the notes.
[Unidentified]: You know. As you probably do, high school students are always looking for volunteer opportunities, particularly if they're juniors or seniors. It looks good on their resume. High school students should go to the library or go to the senior center and be there ready with a computer bank. and sit next to a senior or disabled person and help them navigate. What are you looking for? Your disability gets in the way of what? And do that kind of navigation. And then they could tell them how to put it on their desktop at home. So it's a really easy link for them. That's where I'm gonna go, where I have a question about how my disability can lead me to x, y, and z. Yes.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm at the senior center. I'm trying to picture it. I can't remember seeing many computers except for the one.
[Unidentified]: I'm not saying senior. Well, senior center actually probably has them hidden somewhere. They do a lot of, they have people come in every once in a while to do activities, including taxes, and they've got to have computers there for taxes, that kind of thing. But the library or wherever it is, even, You could ask City Hall, can you have two months, two days a month, where we get a computer bank, and the seniors from the high school come in and train.
[Frances Nwajei]: That's, and that's the issue so is making sure that we can actually have the computer so that was why I suggested that it happened during the school where we don't have to, we don't have to look for computers because we know the lab is already is already there. Right. Yes. I don't want to put us, you know, come up with suggestions that put us in a situation where we start looking for things that we're not going to be able to have access to for time.
[Unidentified]: But there's also a wonderful company, very friendly, very nice company right near the big stop and shop on 28. I think it's not gateway. Yeah, maybe it's gateway right near the, I know there's a barbecue place at Panera's, Wings Place. There's a computer company there that we could reach out to not just City Hall or to libraries. We could reach out to private companies that may say, come in, and we will do that kind of thing. I mean, the city of Boston is saying, we've got to reach out to people that have businesses in Boston. And I wouldn't be surprised if I think it's Gateway there. We bought two or three computers from them. Right across, almost right across from, is it Anheuser-Busch or something on, is it Riverside Street? Oh, on Riverside Avenue. Is it Gateway? I don't- Whatever it is. There's a really big computer place there, which is, Really, it may be a place to reach out to, I'm just saying we don't have to just look out for a public places we can look at private companies also.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, I mean, and that is something that I, you know, I welcome commissioners, you know, to look into. I'm just, I'm just excited about the opportunity, and the fact that we can. We can provide a service that is beneficial to all. We can provide a service that is inclusive. It's not just people that identify as having a disability that may need additional support. There are many people that need support and it's almost, it's intergenerational as a result. So I'm really excited about that. Linda, do you have anything else to add?
[Smith]: It looks like Yvette has her hand up.
[Evangelista]: That's okay. So about the library, the brand new one, they have a new computer space, and they have multiple computers upstairs on the second floor by the children's library. You're on mute.
[Frances Nwajei]: There is six of them, if I'm not mistaken. I mean, my hope is like we have like hundreds of people sign up, but there is six in the library.
[Evangelista]: What, but are you talking about on the second floor by the children's?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, second floor. Yep. You go in and that's the children's and then you go that way and that's the teen room. I saw six.
[Evangelista]: Oh, there is a computer, a computer space. where they have the 3D printer. Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of computers in there. So that could be a hub. But the other piece, I like what Sue was saying as far as having that individual one-on-one, because once somebody selects all that information, then we could possibly create a monthly video that is just available on our site. So that way, you know, you could possibly hear what you need to do versus having to like beat that and it mean nothing, right? But create little videos on how to do little things just like YouTube, but customize it for our website.
[Frances Nwajei]: We're thinking up here. I love it. I love it. I love it.
[Unidentified]: I missed that. My husband just very nicely brought me my dinner. So I missed what you just said. Could you just say one last sentence on it?
[Evangelista]: The new library has a space with multiple- I heard that, yeah. Okay. I said that from the information on the one-on-ones, we could eventually create a video and every month put updates on tricks for the Medford page.
[Frances Nwajei]: Sorry, I need to step in and do a quick time check because exactly. We've got about 43 minutes, and there are a few other topics. So this is really about Commissioner Braden just providing an update to the meetings that she's had.
[Tom Hamel]: So, Chair, if you have- Yeah, so I just wanted to say, I think just to wrap it up, it's a great discussion. I don't know if I can propose similar to what we talked earlier about sending Linda ideas for the website. I don't know, Sue, if you would be interested in collecting ideas about trainings and if you could make a list and, you know, Yvette and Marcia and anybody that had a good idea, if you could send it over to Sue and then maybe we review that at the next meeting and move forward, because I think there were some great ideas there. But I agree, we have a bunch of other agenda items. So Frances, do you wanna jump in for the, oh, Sue, is that okay with you if we send that information to you?
[Unidentified]: The company is actually called HIQ and it's right before Panera's next to the big stop and shop on 28th. And they're so friendly and so helpful. I think they'd be a great resource.
[Tom Hamel]: include that on your on your list. You're okay making that list? Send our ideas to you?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, tell me send me something that tells me what I'm supposed to do, please.
[Tom Hamel]: Okay, I'm kidding. All right, awesome. Frances, it looks like you have the next five items.
[Frances Nwajei]: So as most of you know, Sue and I sit with the universal accessibility team for the high school. So I am happy to report that over in the far corner of my office, I have received two of the items that we had applied for ARPA funds for. And that is for updated accessibility signage. And just looking at the size, I think that that is the stencils. So as you know, universal icons were updated going from showing stationary people or stationary figures in a wheelchair, with the wheelchair being stationary, to creating a more robust mobile look with the person leaning forward. So those needed to be ordered, and once it's all sorted out, the goal is for the group EPIC and the DPW to collaborate on repainting, utilizing the stencils. There were unfortunately two things that we could not order. One, because one thing, their printer that they use, their vendor that they use, no longer creates that piece. So they're looking for a new vendor. But the other is the person that created that piece, and that is the overlay reflective stickers that say no access so that you know when you're going somewhere like, oh, there is no, this is not an accessible route to go on. That was created by somebody as a one-time gift for them. And they are all sold out. So I did tell the group that, you know, so when I told the group that would try to look around and see if we could find, if we could find something else. Marsha, do you mind if I just rush through the rest of my blubs? I don't mind at all. Okay. All right, so that's that piece. I'm Sue, and I attended the two day mod training the community access monitoring training, this one was hosted by mass office of disability, and the folks out in spill Pittsfield. So all I'll say is that it was intense. I have a lot of materials and things of that nature. However, I got an alert. And on the 14th, it looks like there's a mini ADA training. If anybody is interested, please let me know. I believe this is going to be done on Zoom. OK, so I've got to check it out. So are you going to send that out? If anybody's interested, let me know. If you're interested in it, I might be, but I'd like to read about it. Yeah, it's good. I can. Good job. Maybe I'll do a job. Okay, so that's Sue, that's events. Just send it out to everyone. Send it out to the group. I'm trying to save your inboxes because I'm going to be sending a lot of things. Okay. So, upper funds request those requests are in. I have not heard back yet I have heard back from the office for what for the Office of disability, I mean, the Office of diversity, equity and inclusion, and the office funds have been approved the office funds are completely separate, because I broke everything down to make sure that. Each, each of the committees that I sit on was represented, but if you don't mind, I just want to quickly share with you what I requested I requested a sub total of $7,850 for the persons with disabilities commission, remember, upper funds, a one time, they're not, they're not recurring. So, again, as we had discussed having things that help us with our identity so money for the table money for chairs money for table skirt tablecloth with logos so that means somebody is going to be helping us create a logo. I don't know who. money for logo design, swag items so that when we are out at events or holding our own conventions or trade shows or whatever, you know, however you want to word it, we have something that we can give people to help jog their memory. Money for conference support because sometimes program speakers want to be paid, right? Persons with disabilities, especially people with lived experience, it is equitable to ensure that they're receiving some kind of, you know, payment. beyond a thank you, you know, we can't keep saying to people, please come share your story. Ah, thanks for coming. No, because they could get on a plane and go share their story and be paid their dues. So impressive funds for that. Again, these are not giant funds, but this is just something to help us with. And in this one, I requested a contractor to assist with research creation and formatting of informative materials, whether that's somebody that can help us with our, you know, our brochure as we start to like update things and put things together because I recognize It's, you know, everyone is volunteering their time and we have, we have great big hearts and we want to do so much, but we, you know, we meet once a month. And the reality is life gets in the way. So it would be nice to have, to have some shared support, right? Shared support for that. So that is the piece for that. And in there, that person can help like look for the universal disability approved fonts, approved coloring, approved imaging, that kind of stuff. So that it's not just like, okay, all on Linda, right? Somebody that could help guide us and say, as we move forward, these are the things that we really need to pay attention to. So fingers crossed I'm waiting to hear on that again that is completely different from all the other things that are going on. That is separate from the funds that the Office of diversity, equity and inclusion has requested which also cover this committee as well. So it's to. two different things so that's that. And then very very quickly. So, Melanie McLaughlin who sits on that universal. I can't remember what we're calling ourselves group with us but you know looks at the issues the ADA issues at the high school, would like to attend our January meeting. Tom, I believe you received the email or you may have been CC'd on the email. So Melanie is really, really interested in ensuring that we have some sort of Disability Awareness Day and has shared that. Melanie initially wanted a Disability Pride event. However, it was not something that I could actually take on between the time I started when pride came and when this event was to happen with all the other events that the city has already had locked in. But I do feel that the disability awareness day, I mean, I'm calling it that, that's not necessarily the name of the event, but it's a whole day. I think it's a great idea. I think Marcia, I think you mentioned, was it Marcia or Sue, somebody mentioned, you know, the police department being more sensitive to, this is a great opportunity to partner, right, and have something that is inter, inter-community related around disability. One of the suggestions that Melanie had is the movie Crimp Camp. Grimkamp is a documentary that I've seen, you know, numerous times. If you have not seen it, I think, you know, I encourage you to. Everybody has their own personal takeaway from it. I've had different emotions, you know, from different times when I've seen it. but Melanie's suggesting like having that be a movie that people watch maybe at the Chevalier or another large venue. So these are just some of the thoughts and the conversations and I wanted to bring that forward to you. I'm sorry, I'm distracted, lots of things flashing up there.
[Tom Hamel]: That's okay, Tom, shall I mute you? I was pulling up the link for Crip Camp and I started playing.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, you started playing it. Okay, no worries. No worries. Tom, perhaps if you don't mind. Yeah, thank you. Perfect. Tom's put it in the link. But I, you know, I think that this is a great thing that us on the commission could definitely work towards. Melanie is a person with lived experience and has a family member with a disability, has a daughter, and I am not sharing anything that Melanie would not be sharing herself. So this is something that she's definitely very, very passionate about. And the date that was discussed for this to take place was in April. And if I'm not mistaken, April is International Autism Month or it just so happened to be some sort of international disability related month. And then Melanie wanted to, you know, chat about possibly having a disability pride event but that is like much, much, much, much later on in the year. So she's asked for an invitation to the January meeting. to share this with you. What I will let you know is that even though I met with her in the second and I said that we were going to be meeting and I would bring it forward, she did send an email out. She sent it to you, Tom, myself, the mayor, and a couple of other people. But I just wanted to make sure that you guys are aware that she will be In for January, when we meet. And I think, oh yes, and then our. No, sorry.
[Unidentified]: Can I just say that I know I'm going to be late to the January meeting, because of work. If she, I would love to hear what she has to say. So if you can arrange the agenda, so she's a little bit later on it, if you can, if you can.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, I can.
[Unidentified]: And otherwise I'll just hear her later.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. And Sue, just so you know, just so everybody knows, today's not really a real day of our meeting. Our meeting is on the fourth Wednesday.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I know that. But I know that I work late that day. I can't get onto the meeting until at least six or 16 that day.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, all right. So I will put Melanie, I should make a note of that. I'll attempt to make sure that Melanie's later on this on the agenda schedule. All right, so. So in regards to the, the MHO a mini grant. Um, that was a. That was a no go. Um, there's a lot of data that we need, and the city does not have data so I'm just going to leave it at that. And until we can find a way of collecting reliable data, reliable data is not what I think I see with my eyes. Reliable data is what is actually collected through a credible data source and stored somewhere. Until we can get that right, I don't feel comfortable making requests for monies. You know, I need to have credible information to back up my requests, information that goes beyond. I think this is how we did it. No, that's not good enough because when the questions are asked, I need to be able to say, well, this is where it came from. This is the organization that I use.
[Tom Hamel]: What is MHOA? What is MHOA?
[Frances Nwajei]: Remember I was getting really excited. I thought we're going to have 12 grand. I thought we're going to be able to buy these grip chairs. And then I thought that we're going to be able to get the extra eight grand and then we could put the plastic coverings. Well, yeah, we can get all that. Once you can show this and show that. show things that we don't have. So this is why I have pieced together requests in various parts for interns and things of that nature, but not as a request in one lump area, no, spread throughout, because we're going to need some support in acquiring some of the things that we need. All right, now, Marsha, thank you so much for letting me switch with you. I am kicking it off to you.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I didn't see the agenda. You changed the agenda. I couldn't find it. So I didn't know what it was.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, I got your message. And so what I did was I just added you and then shipped everything out.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah. No, it's fine. It's just this brief report I attended. a seminar conducted by the Boston School of Public Health about disability and public health.
[Unidentified]: And it was an interesting seminar because it pointed out that people
[Marcia Kirssen]: people with disabilities are discriminated, not almost everywhere else, but also in getting health care. And because they may be overlooked. So that was the main point of it. Another point that I thought was interesting was the image that you were talking about, the high school, Frances, where everyone uses an image of a person in a wheelchair to represent disability. And it kind of fits with what I've been saying about the narrow concept of disability. It needs to be broader. So I guess not just for health, this was really broader than health. It was about discrimination in general, really, or it all applied to that. And the other point that I thought is worth mentioning is that the kind of disparity we see among low-income people and people of different races is also there on top of the disability. And some of this information has research backing it up. especially from John Hopkins Medical School where there's a person there who was presenting at the seminar and has published work on some of it. I do have one reference I might be able to find if I'm lucky. So I'll look for that. And I did miss the beginning, there was an advocate There was a young man from Harvard who is creating a group of disabled advocates at Harvard, because apparently there's a certain amount, I can understand this. I went to college so long ago. It was hard to get in if you were a female. Things have changed, but disability treatment and access to college is a disability issue as well. So it was very broad, but there were some specifics.
[Unidentified]: And I'm glad I attended. Thank you for the time. Good for you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Marsha. That's, it's just, you know, I'm just thinking about what you said, you know, when you talk about disability, right, you're talking about college. I'm just even thinking about everyday, you know, the long, hard battle that I fought over the past, you know, numerous years doing this work. And that is rightful access to different styles of applications for employment, right? So, you know, it's it's great you can go online you can apply online. But a person with a developmental disability might need a little bit of extra support, just to navigate it's not like this one online platform that all employers use. You know, the platforms are all different. They look, they look different. Some look very, very technical. Some are easy to navigate, but they're clunky in their design. So that person, you know, it might be Friday at three o'clock and their support person isn't coming until Tuesday. But on the other end, on the employer's end, right, the clock is ticking, because they're planning on taking the posting down. So it's, you know, trying to give thoughts to things of that nature. Because it is, it's important, you know, that sometimes people can be accommodated. Yeah. But the accommodation always seems to start when the person has completed the application. Accommodations should start at the very beginning.
[Smith]: Or if the system is built in line with digital accessibility guidelines, then the accommodation might be met up front.
[Frances Nwajei]: In my previous place, I liked the fact that when people applied, I was the only person that could see all the different criteria because the information is confidential. So I could see if somebody identified as having a disability. And that allowed me to be able to flag and go back. But I would even say one step further, if you identify as having a disability, you click there. And when you click there, you get a notification of something that says a representative or a member of the blah blah will reach back out to you. Because the disability that I might have and the support need that I might have could be different from someone else's. And I, you know, and I recall an area office had gone ahead, and I told them that they were going to have to put a halt right on the interviews, because I had a person that was deaf and hard of hearing. And they asked how long would they have to wait. I said you're going to have to wait at least two weeks, even though I know you're close to the end. If not three, because not only do I need to make sure that mass commission for the deaf and hard of hearing can get me an interpreter which they can't. I have to make sure that there is a linguistic match. It's not just about getting an interpreter, there needs to be a linguistic match of that person which means that I have to run a series of meetings, right. to ensure that there is fluidity. Remember, this is not just basic translation of information. So it was, what was it? I wouldn't say that it was a battle, but it was a wonderful learning experience that they engaged in with a slight push in the right direction, right. But it also helped recognize how bias, unintentional, but still how bias our systems are. and how they tend to bleed into what we see as quote-unquote typical, and that's probably because we don't have voices of the people that matter at the table making the decisions.
[Marcia Kirssen]: That's a problem. I think that part of the point of this seminar was that people do not even disclose their disabilities, if possible. When I applied for college, if I could have disclosed that I was female, I might have. Or applied for a postdoc, which only, you know, 25% of the female applicants got compared to many more male. So there's a discrimination issue when you think about how you're going to engage with it, and if you can get away with not disclosing, because it's not comfortable that, you know, that's part of what the seminar is about, because employers, especially with employment, which is really crucial, you know, just definitely have a bite.
[Unidentified]: So, yeah.
[Marcia Kirssen]: It's a challenge and it's wonderful that there was someone there that was going to get that interpreter service.
[Frances Nwajei]: That's one of the things that this office requested money for. I mean, granted, I know that this money doesn't roll over, but it's just, it's extremely important to me because that's how I've always done work, right? Something is happening, boom, automatic cart, automatic ASL, number of interpreters varies depending on the length of the event. So, it is very important that at least with something, we have one full set of what is required. You know, I mean that's my goal and that's, you know, that's my, that's my mission for the office to operate like it's supposed to. We will continue to look. I know that a couple of colleagues have asked me about hosting an ASL class. I'm just not sure that I'm there yet, because I just don't know. A, I don't know the space, but B, I don't know where the funds would come from, because there are so many critical things that are needed. And the police department said that that's something they know, that they would get a lot of takers. I don't know if you have any, if anybody has any suggestions, not right this moment, but, you know, think these are things that I'm hearing from what I consider the community, you know, let me know. And bear in mind that sign language is like culture, you know, there's black sign language, there's Latin sign language, there's different styles of sign language. So yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. So Tom, I'll kick the next piece over to you.
[Tom Hamel]: That sounds good. Sorry, I was on mute. I started to say that we could send any ASL resources to Sue to add it to her training. I think I have one. Don't worry, Sue, I will send you an email. The next item is a follow-up. let's see Linda and Gabby and I went to the Mystic Rivers Festival and we had had a conversation during the festival about lack of and at a prior meeting we talked about writing a letter to the organizers. As we started to discuss writing the letter we kind of had a conversation about kind of broadening it to rather making it specific to this festival, but rather looking at solutions that might be applicable to all festivals. So actually we have come up with the idea of, I don't remember what it's called. We were going to include it in the grant in addition to the chairs, but like kind of that lawn that you like lay over. So that was one of the issues is that you, uneven ground and it probably would have been difficult for someone who uses a wheelchair to navigate the condom shell. So that was one of kind of one of the ideas and then when that grant popped up it was like oh great like maybe maybe that should happen to me but you know someone would need to be the holder of that equipment and then somehow, you know, someone would need to say, and maybe it's us, like whenever a new event comes up, say, hey, this is available to make it more accessible for folks at the event. So we talked about, we talked specifically about that. I think we talked a little bit actually about ASL interpreters also. And I'd have to go back and look at our email to see if there were other items. But I think we talked about next. We weren't really sure, I guess, if we wanted to approach the organizers of that specific festival or if there was somebody else that we should approach. I don't know if, Francis, you have ideas about that?
[Frances Nwajei]: I remember the question being asked about who should one approach. And what I had suggested was approaching the organizers of the event because they're the ones that put the event together. And I also recall conversation about other locations where the event would have been more accessible as a result of what the environment was like, if that makes sense. And I do, yeah. And I, because I remember somebody saying, you know, well, instead of having something at one location, it could have been at the other, this other place, because you have this, you have that. And I feel that sometimes the organizers are the ones that need to hear, you know, need to hear it. It wouldn't be us, right? And I could be the conduit of getting the information to the organiser or you could send it directly to the organiser, but it wouldn't be me. There's nothing that I could do if somebody's having an event somewhere. But utilising your power as a community, as a committee to say, hey, listen, you know, this was great, but there is some of these issues and this location would prove to be better or.
[Tom Hamel]: Well, I think that was the other maybe Medford Square is the only place that might be you know, I don't want to say perfect, but would work for most people with disabilities. Whereas I feel like the other locations, the middle schools and con and shell, they're not going to work. And so I think that's where the idea came up of, oh, maybe we make it, make those locations more accessible rather than having all the festivals in Medford Square.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, I think that the idea was to provide some resources to the organizers, some suggested resources to the organizers on how, right? Because it's one thing to say to someone, well, your event wasn't accessible, but they actually may really not know that or know how to make it more accessible.
[Smith]: Yeah, if you don't mind me jumping in here, I have the email chain pulled up. So the thought that we were in the kind of the broader thought that we ran into was that when we were thinking of solutions to provide to the organizers, we ran into the kind of reality that some of the suggestions we might I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. would be something because it's hard for folks to get any sort of wheeled mobile device on the grass and so it's uneven. Or even anyone who's using any sort of assistive, I don't want to call it technology, equipment for walking can be kind of tricky. Plus, I don't I forget if we talked about like curb cutouts and like it gets like super we were thinking like everything that we thought of came with his own bag of problems. And so that's why we we started thinking like oh geez like we could we could offer these suggestions but. We're not really sure if it's just going to open more cans of worms and really not be super helpful. So that's why we started thinking more broadly, like, what is this city? Were there things like were there things that we could do as a city to help make these spaces more accessible? And rather than contacting the organizers to be like, you know, these are the things you need to do based on what we have, which is I definitely think that that could be, maybe we need to flesh that out a little bit more to figure out what we do have. Is there really an option that we have to give these folks before we reach out to them? Or if there's not, then is there another avenue? Is this really raising a bigger, broader question?
[Frances Nwajei]: OK, that's good. I just put it on because I wanted to follow up. It's the end of the year and I was looking at previous meeting minutes. I mean, another thing to do would be, you know, to suggest that the city, you know, just throwing this out there, you know, somebody can outright purchase these grass mats and they can live in, you know, the house in the red department. The reality is that if it's city events, it needs to be available to community people. It's not like you've left your community to go somewhere else right. So, grass is one of the most non accessible surfaces. A lot of times, there are people that actually think, oh, it's grass. It's nice and soft. Actually, no, grass is one of the most inaccessible surfaces. It gets caught up in the wheels. It becomes a trip hazard. It is not friendly to crutches, as Joe might remember from his days of using crutches. When it gets wet, it creates all kinds of risks. But even if we're able to get three of the grass mats, It's a start, right? It's not as if, oh, three is all we're ever going to get, and that's it, we're done. It's the beginning to say we're trying to move in the right direction, which is extremely important. Yvette, I see. Marsha, you've got your hand up. Yvette had her icon for raising her hand up. So I'm going to go to Yvette, and I'm going to go to you. And we've got seven, six minutes.
[Evangelista]: OK, thank you. two things. One, do we know what community centers are these certain facilities in Medford that are ADA compliant? Because when I was at West Medford, I know they were trying to build a ramp. So it would be interesting to know which of these city structures are at a space where, you know, there could be some collaboration to help them move forward because maybe they want to do some things. And the second thing, I don't know if this would go under new ideas, but I want to put it out there.
[Frances Nwajei]: Sorry, hold on one second. Are you on new ideas or are you on our conversation about the city events?
[Evangelista]: Oh, well, you were talking about facilities and being accessible.
[Frances Nwajei]: We went to outdoor, there was some outdoor events that happened over the summer. So this was a follow-up from the conversation that they had.
[Evangelista]: I think we talked about it at one of the meetings, right? And it was the thing you all did where I saw you guys, the energy. So you all were talking about how it wasn't accessible and these are the things that you were, that's how come you made the list. But I'm just asking, you know, do we know what buildings are accessible? And when we look at outdoor spaces, we do have Duggar Park.
[Unidentified]: Oh, I'll tell you about Duggar Park. It's not accessible. I'm there every day playing pickleball, it's not accessible. DCR is involved with Dr. Park, DCR does not want to take the railings down and seniors and disabled have to lift their legs over a two and a half foot railing to get onto the courts.
[Evangelista]: Oh goody.
[Frances Nwajei]: So I want to be mindful. Yeah, and I want to make sure that everybody's clear. The city does not have oversight of everything that is in the city. So once DCR is involved, it's a whole different game and I can't go down that road. I don't work for DCR. I've just seen complications and issues, not just in our city, but in other communities as well. So it's not. It's unfortunate to say this, but the city's hands are tied. If the road is owned by DCR, the city cannot go there and fix the road, change the road, do anything. So that's a different issue in itself, which I think that people way somewhere else need to try to get that sorted out because it impacts Marsha, you had your hand up. I have two questions.
[Marcia Kirssen]: One, I don't really have a clue what a grass mat is, but it says grass and grass was huge twice.
[Smith]: I put a link in the chat for the grass mat. So it's a mat that goes over grass.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Oh, it's a covering of for grass. And the red department actually made up of grass. Okay, it's not made up of grass. Yeah, I was wondering if there might be a space at Tufts. Oh, who?
[Unidentified]: Tufts University. I'm not in that regard.
[Frances Nwajei]: I don't know. I mean, they could be, these are just like suggestions that we're just throwing out there. We're not saying that these events have to take place there, but I feel like it's always good, you know, to provide some suggestions and some alternatives for, you know, to help expand people's thinking.
[Marcia Kirssen]: And there may possibly be a park. I don't know, Sue. I did delve into, yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: Well, I think we should add that as an agenda item in a future meeting to, kind of figure out next steps with this. Because I feel like if we're asking folks to host their festivals in an accessible place, we should know, like Yvette suggested, we should know what those places are. And so I think it's a good idea to put together that list so that we can share it with organizers.
[Frances Nwajei]: And it might require going out and having a look. Yeah, because I need to want to make sure that I we don't have anything that carries over and carries over and carries over at some point we need to, you know, cross something off and I was like, Oh, we haven't spoken about this in a while.
[Tom Hamel]: So yeah, no, I think let's let's talk about like what's required next time and see if we can tackle that or not. So I know we only have a minute left. PB, David Ensign --- So new business, typically the last Francis sent out the email asking if there were any agenda items just for the new commissioners. So that would appear in the new business section if we had agenda items. Public participation is if there's anybody who's on the commission that's at the meeting, they have an opportunity to share their thoughts and there's nobody else from the public here. And then correspondence and announcements, usually we just share any Any kind of quick. Information bits that would be helpful to the commission. I don't know if anybody has any of those.
[Unidentified]: Any what. Any.
[Tom Hamel]: or where I get a letter from a community member and they asked us to do this. Just kind of very quick, 30 second updates.
[Unidentified]: I'll start it.
[Evangelista]: A senior member asked about a marathon. Marathon could be for everyone, disability, with disability singers, but it would not be your typical marathon, but it would be inclusive. So I just wanted to put that out there as far as someone sharing that with me.
[Unidentified]: All right. Please send that to me because I'm a former marathoner and I'd love to get involved with it. Oh, there you go. Anybody else? All right.
[Tom Hamel]: So our next meeting is January 25 at 530.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes. I just want to thank everyone. I don't know what holidays you celebrate or don't celebrate, but I wish you all an extremely joyous season, a very, very prosperous turn of the year. Because the next time we meet, it will be in 2023, and the month will be over when we meet, because we're meeting at the very end. So I did just want to share that. As usual, I'll keep in contact via email. I will try not to assault your inbox and only share information that you might be interested in, and not every single thing to give your inbox a little bit of a break.
[Evangelista]: A quick question. If someone wants to attend a meeting, do they need to register in advance?
[Frances Nwajei]: No. We have the open meeting laws. We are the ones that are under the timeline. So a lot of times I'll just do like a rough agenda and I'll send it out to everybody. make sure that I haven't forgotten to include what we said we were going to include, make sure nobody else has anything to add. However, if somebody does have something to add, and they missed the deadline of getting that information back to me because I have to make sure this agenda. The meeting notice gets posted right, we use the new business section for commissioners to bring those items, but members of the public peak members of the public are probably watching now, because everybody doesn't have to watch by zoom they can watch directly through the MCM link or through the live link. But members of the public have to wait until it's a call for public participation because otherwise it will change the flow. But it's not an RSVP or anything like that. It's open to everyone. Thank you.
[Evangelista]: Thank you again.
[Tom Hamel]: We didn't do any motions. Do I have to do a motion to adjourn the meeting?
[Frances Nwajei]: Can we even have a motion Heather experts not here. That was a robots robots rules expert.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I can. I move that we adjourn the meeting. I have a wonderful holiday for me. Thank you everyone stay well.