[Frances Nwajei]: Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to our April 2023 meeting for the Commission on Persons with Disabilities. I'm Frances Magie. And I'll turn it over to you, Tom.
[Tom Hamel]: All right. Well, we can do our introductions. Before I jump into the introductions, I just wanted to reiterate, I think, not necessarily, I think Rob will just basically share that. During our meeting, I think it would be great if we could all raise our hand, like either by putting it on the screen or you can use the reactions out of this if the reactions at the bottom, you can click that with the little smiley face with a plus. And there's a raise hand button in there. And that way we all get an opportunity to participate and we don't interrupt each other. So, please make use of one of those, those two items. So introductions, I'm Tom Hamill. I'm the chair of the commission. I've been on the commission for almost three years now, resident of Medford for 15 plus years and have a disability myself as well as family members that have disabilities. Who would like to go next?
[Smith]: I'll jump in. I'm Linda Braden. I'm the vice chair and I'm a Medford resident. I've lived here for about eight years and I have family members who have disabilities and I have a specialty in digital accessibility. And so that's what I help to contribute to the group. And I see that Joe has his hand up.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: No, I was just waiting for the next introduction, that's all.
[Smith]: Then I will popcorn it over to you.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, my name's Joe. I'm proud to say I lived in Medford basically my whole life. I think it's a great city, great location. I have a disabled son that's 28 and no matter what, I'm grateful. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Joe. Would you like to go? You're on.
[Evangelista]: Yes, hello. My name is Yvette Wilkes. I've lived in Somerville, I mean, Medford for about five years. And I have been on the commission for, this is my first year.
[Tom Hamel]: Susan, would you like to go?
[Susan Bibbins]: Thank you. I am Susan Bivens. I have been a commissioner for at least 10 years. I'm ballparking that. I am past chair of the commission, and my pronouns are she, her.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. And Marsha.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Hi everyone. I'm Marsha Curzon. I know I have to qualify as disabled now because my arthritis is really bad. And I'm having trouble with stability. But I didn't start out that way. I've also had experience working with people who have disabilities, or their parents, for quite a bit of my time. And I've been on the commission, I started a little after. So about three years, I lived in Medford for almost six years now, if I can count. It sort of gets boring after a while.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Marsha. We got everybody. Is Kevin, Kevin's recording the meeting. Alright, so we can move on to the next item, which is approving the March minutes. Frances sent them out. Hopefully, everybody had an opportunity to review them. Anybody have any questions or comments? Anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes? Susan?
[Susan Bibbins]: I make a motion to approve the minutes as written. Great. Joe, would you like to second it? Yes, sir. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Smith]: Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye.
[Smith]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Smith]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye Anybody wanna volunteer to take minutes for our April meeting? We can combine our notes because I will also take minutes as we go through. Well, if you take notes. Oh, I got you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Hold on, Tom. Tom, I don't know if that, were you trying to unmute? Are you saying, no, okay, no. Okay, I thought, I'm sorry, I saw Yvette, because I'm sort of like right in your line of sight. I thought Yvette was volunteering, so let me not volunteer Yvette then.
[Tom Hamel]: No worries. Linda?
[Smith]: I can take some notes.
[Tom Hamel]: Awesome. Thank you.
[Smith]: Thank you, Linda.
[Tom Hamel]: We can combine our notes at the end and put them together. All right. All right, next agenda item, Frances with the logo.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, so Sue is not here today, but Sue reached out to me and asked that I present this on her behalf. Sue did run into some difficulty in terms of getting responses from places that she had done outreach to. And she came up with an idea, which is actually the same that all the other departments do and have, which is just to utilize the city of Medford colors, which are blue, and to utilize the city seal with the words commission on persons with disabilities. That keeps us in alignment with how it is done across the city. And it allows us to be able to expeditedly get what we need. But we can also tweak it a little bit because as I was speaking with her, we came up with, she had suggested using a white ribbon because white signifies universal disabilities. And I remembered that there are actually different colored ribbons for different kinds of disabilities. And maybe this is something that we can continue to add to to pin to our table covering whilst also providing some education, i.e. like if we are out at an event or something of that nature, you know, we have a book, a binder that shows what the different coloured ribbons mean. It's another way of drawing people in. So we chatted about that and she asked if I could share that with all of you. So that's what I'm doing on Sue's behalf.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Yvette, did you wanna add to that?
[Evangelista]: Yes, I wanted to add. So Sue had shared that suggestion and regarding the logo, and I finally had a chance to speak to someone that is visibly disabled. And they were willing to sit and speak with Sue and I, I was going to share the, you know, the suggestion that Sue made, and get their input. This individual works for the Center for Independent Living, you know, downtown in Boston, and just to kind of give get a, like, input from that kind of community, especially since Sue did not get any feedback, or not much feedback from the individuals she had reached out to that were referred. So his name is Rashid. He is, you know, he's been in a wheelchair since the age of three, probably in his 30s, 40s right now, and just kind of share that thought with him. So I just wanted to add that, Francis.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Marsha. I looked up the color for disability and on the list that I looked at said maroon. I'm sorry Marsha, I'm having, you looked up the colors you said? I looked up the colors for disability, I didn't specify and it said maroon. So I'll check again, I just wanted Maybe different organizations have different lists. I don't know.
[Frances Nwajei]: So there are different, there were ribbons. Do you want to call them ribbons?
[Unidentified]: This was general, not specific to a disability. But I don't know.
[Marcia Kirssen]: It'll take a little time to, you know, I could have found something from a list that's no longer used.
[Tom Hamel]: I think my understanding of what Francis was saying was that we could display a lot of different colors. I don't know, maybe on the tablecloth or something like that to try to represent. I mean, we're probably not going to cover all the disabilities and so forth, but we could make an effort to do as many as we can. And then I'm sure people would want to add them, but then it would give us an opportunity to explain all the different colors.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I like the idea.
[Tom Hamel]: Okay, is that right, Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, there are different colors that signify different kinds of disabilities, be it medical, be it psychiatric. So I think that that's a great idea. I'm also really interested in seeing what the contacts that Sue and Yvette have are making could come up with. Remember, for me, a clock is ticking, though, things are not funds that are just like indefinite and are going to sit around. So if it looks like we're not going to make the deadline, that's OK, because guess what? The city of Medford will still need to commission on persons with disabilities, right? If you want to write mail, you would still need some sort of a letterhead that you could still have your logo on, right? If we're going to do events on the flyer, you will still need a letterhead that you could have your logo on. So I'm open to Oh, somebody's they're looking for someone. So I'm open to as many ideas and suggestions as possible. But at some point, I am going to cut it off because we have to move we have to be able to move forward. And I have to make sure like these funds are spent and out and not reverted back. I see Linda and then I see Yvette.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Yvette, did you still have your hand raised?
[Evangelista]: Or? I have a second part. I'll wait for Linda. Okay.
[Smith]: So what is the deadline that we have to use those funds by? What's the deadline you're working with, Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm thinking that I need to get something to the printers in all honesty by June, because I acquired these funds in October. And I'm just, I'm just worried, like these are not your standard general funds, these are, you know, because we have other funds that we also need to spend.
[Smith]: Right. So looking at the calendar, it really would be either this meeting or next meeting that we would have to finalize something. Is that what what you're thinking?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes. Yes. And I feel like we can run with both ideas. I'm very, very interested in what's the the person from the Center for Independent Living could come up with. Right. That could be more of a personalized you know, logo that, you know, the commission uses on a variety of different things. But I just can't have, you know, it can't, the table covering and stuff can't go on and on and on. I don't, I don't, I don't want to lose funds. I don't want to turn around and be told, oh, this has to go back. So
[Evangelista]: So nothing will have to go back. And just to know, I did find a company that can make the business cards with the Braille on them, with half Braille, as well as, you know, just the city of Medford, et cetera.
[Frances Nwajei]: So that's great. So are we- If we make the business cards, are we gonna make the business cards general? Or are we gonna have a QR code that's gonna for the non-brill people that people can scan and then it takes us to the landing page?
[Evangelista]: Do you want us to design the business card real quick, Frances, and mail that to you?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, if you could email that to me, that would be great because I think like, you know, something like that is lifelong, right? It doesn't have a specific date. It can go to all the events, you know, until we run out and we need a reprint. So I think something like that is great. I, again, I'm really excited about the possible contribution from the young man from the Center for Independent Living. So if it can't go on like the table covering, I'm okay for it being, that's our letterhead. Because sometimes I have to send stuff off and it's always on my letterhead, right? But what about when commission wants to send stuff off? It would be nice to have your own letterhead, your own design. So I feel like we can still incorporate.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. Yvette, you're going to design the business card and you'll send that to Frances. Do you need a deadline? Should we set a deadline, Frances, of like May 15th or something like that?
[Evangelista]: I'm going to get the design of the business card to her sooner than later. So that way, and you know, within the next seven days, because once she says, okay, then I'll send it to the vendor so that they can give me a quote. But yes.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Anything else on logo?
[Frances Nwajei]: And I think that is it on logo. I just want to make sure that all commissioners on here are all right with how we're moving forward.
[Smith]: Yes, do we need to make a motion? Anything like that for anything that we're doing?
[Frances Nwajei]: No, I guess we're not voting on anything. I think we're just having, you know, we're just having conversation. I think it'd be difficult to vote on something because it's sort of like, well, there'll be future commissioners, right?
[Smith]: I vote that we're okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm okay. I was going to say, did you want me to quickly pull up the site that shows the different kinds of ribbons? Did you want me to screen share that or you're all set? You can, yeah, why don't you share it?
[Smith]: Yeah, if you wanted to put the link in the chat, I can add it to my notes.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, fabs. So, Tom, why don't you pardon me and go on to your piece whilst I do some Googling.
[Tom Hamel]: Got it. Okay. All right. So next item is the Listed as Paul events. After our last meeting, I had sent out an email, talking about delaying delaying the event that we've been talking about. difficulty in finding a location and felt like it would be better to plan something for the fall we had some more, more time. So, I, I wanted to kind of take, take advantage of that extra time today and just kind of revisit some of the things that we've talked about. Also, I think, we need to decide, are we going to focus this on as a disability pride day, or is it disability resource fair, or is it a blend of both of those things? And then I would love to list out the different tasks that we have to accomplish to make this happen, and have a deadline, and then have folks volunteer to take on tasks so we can get them done. Um, any questions on that? All right, great. So, um, so let's spend a couple minutes, I think talking about disability pride, uh, fair or resource fair, or, um, a blend of the two of them. Um, do people have strong feelings on any one of those three options?
[Smith]: Linda, I just had a,
[Tom Hamel]: a follow-up question i remember when you had sent the email out i'm sorry i don't have it in front of me of like moving it there was some connection to a month theme was like october oh so july is disability awareness okay but i i think we july might be too soon especially since we don't meet in July or August. Is that right? We don't meet in July or August. So right. And then also be in the summer. So I think we just I mean, I'm open to people want to consider July to fit into disability. I may not have the name right, but the timeline might be tight.
[Smith]: Yeah, no. Okay. That answers my question. Then that does not help me make a decision about what opinion I have. I think based on I wasn't in the meeting. So I'll just throw this out there since I'm I still have the I'm still unmuted and talking. So I'll just throw it out there. Based on I wasn't at the February meeting. But last month's meeting based on the conversation I heard it sounded like there could be a way to combine both of them. As long as we're very clear in the mission, how we set up the table and how we be thoughtful about the vendors and how we market it, what type of awareness we want folks to have, and then what kind of like how pride ties into that.
[Tom Hamel]: I think there's a way to do both. I mean, that would be kind of the direction I'm leaning. I'm curious to hear if anybody else is up, where other people are leaning. Susan or Marsha or Joe or Yvette, you guys have anything that you want to say, appealing one way or the other? Are you okay with a blended, you know, try to accomplish both goals, both a pride day and a resource fair?
[Susan Bibbins]: I think the blended thing is a huge bite to try to do all at once if it all falls on us.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay.
[Susan Bibbins]: Now, if the school committee or some portion of the education committee or whatever is taking some of that, like Melanie and McLaughlin kind of indicated they would, then I think we can do it. But, she was very much gung-ho on the doing of this. And I'm not sure if we can expect
[Tom Hamel]: any help from that end or it was it our ownership yeah that's a good point and i i i think it is i think we have to operate as if it is us right we're owning this and we're um you know we're putting it on um and I think Melanie will help out or have ideas as she has contributed. I know that she talked about lining us up with the movie, the Prep Camp movie. So I kind of marked her down as the person helping with that component. So that's fair. Joe, what did you want to say?
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Blending it together is a pretty good idea, What timeframe are you looking at again?
[Tom Hamel]: We're thinking of doing it in the fall.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: So we haven't decided yet. When you do it close to July, if it's correct, disability month, you might be in competition with other towns and activities where you might only get half your vendors or whatever. And, you know, it would have been super nice to blend them together in July, but I think October is better. And I don't think you'll have any competition two or three months after disability month. You know what I mean?
[Tom Hamel]: I hear ya.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: All right, that's all I got to say.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. Marsha.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I guess I'm not clear on what the disability pride would involve besides the movie. If it's showing a movie, maybe someone talking about it a bit, That's not, I don't see that as a huge effort. It's some effort, but it seems to me possibly more doable to combine it. If you want disability pride to be much more of a focus, then I agree with you.
[Tom Hamel]: I have a clearer picture of what a resource fair would look like. I don't have as much of a picture of disability pride. I agree we could do a kind of a low lift one. Frances, what are you thinking?
[Frances Nwajei]: I was going to say that I feel that it's really up to what the commissioners feel the most comfortable with, right?
[Unidentified]: We don't have to do everything at this time.
[Frances Nwajei]: I mean, first of all, you know, maybe should we start at the beginning and ask where is a disability community, right? And create a space where that community can come out and our non-disability community can come out and we are sharing education. And there's a reason I say that because you will notice that there are two updates on this agenda, two really unfortunate, absolute mind boggling updates that I have to present to you to show you just how unaware people are. And I know I threw the word resource fair, but maybe it's not a disability resource fair. Maybe it's Medford Celebrates or the Commission on Persons with Disabilities celebrates our unique abilities or our disabilities. Then you can bring in, we can reach out to the different vendors. We can reach out to, you know, the Boston Center for Independent Living to see if they have somebody that would want to man a table to talk about, you know, supports that they might have for people who, you know, want to live independently. We can reach out to a group. Remember, we still have that question. are seniors disabled, right? So we can reach out to a group that works with seniors. Like that question is still very much on my mind. It's like, which came first, the chicken or the egg, you know? Then we have, you know, physical disabilities, psychiatric disabilities. Then we have all these other resources out there, like, you know, these fantastic, fabulous, inclusive, recreation programs and extreme sports that many people would never be familiar with. And then there are OTA resources that could be beneficial to people. So I'm throwing that out there, but I think that it's really up to the commission to move in the direction that the commission feels comfortable. It's great for us to get all the ideas, right? But what direction does the commission feel comfortable moving in? And if this is done in October, then maybe it allows for us to better plan to say, OK, boom, next year, we're going to have to do the disability tribe and we've got one under our belt and this is how we're going to do it. or we connect with the Pride Planning Committee and say, can we partner with you on a co-event? So just suggestions for you to mull over and decide. All right.
[Evangelista]: Yes, so I like the thought of moving this to October and just maybe even finding a way to collaborate, not collaborate, but the city of Cambridge, you know, Keisha Graves is over the MS, she's their representative but maybe there's a way to really get additional hands-on to provide input so that way we're only providing the structure and other organizations are coming in and providing those places at the table but I like the fact of like it being some sort of a resource meaning like information type there because first of all I mean, if you say someone's disabled, most of the time they're looking for something visual, right? Something that they could see. And that's what's so important to... in so many different ways. And if we really reach out to the various cities, like Somerville, they have an ADA office. And of course, I've mentioned to them about us and all of these different places would be happy to jump on and provide a table and do their thing if we provide a structure and space. But their disability, we don't, you know, unfortunately, people that are have this visual disability sometimes do so like second class citizens. And, you know, we have to put it at the table to show, you know, this is what we're doing in our community. So thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Linda.
[Smith]: Yeah, I just wanted to kind of like, try to crystallize the idea of like, if we're of the event of like, so it sounds like we're trying to do like we're showing off different abilities and the community that supports them for education purposes, but then also to kind of like what Yvette was saying of like kind of lifting them up, lifting up the community to support them. So kind of like shining a spotlight on this community and the support networks around that community. So whether we call it a pride event, and maybe that does fall more in the pride event. When I think of a resource fair, I think of like a fair of like a table of companies that provide resources to folks with disabilities that folks with disabilities may want to like purchase or pursue or something like that. Like it almost feels more of like an exchange of like, are you someone who has, I don't, well, arthritis, we'll say March since Marcia gave that that example, would these types of resources help you, you know, that kind of thing. But whereas it sounds more like this event, we're thinking of along the lines of shining a spotlight on this type of community for like awareness building for community building for bringing folks together. Is that kind of that kind of where we're thinking of going?
[Tom Hamel]: I'm shaking my head, yes. We got a couple, we got a few others. Marsha, what would you like to add?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Well, two things. I sort of had an idea. I was using arthritis. How about if I say that part of what is being said is, I have arthritis, but this is what I can do. Then I'll toddle around in my cape. So you put a positive light on, yes, I have a severe limitation, but there's a lot left in life. And the other thing I wanted to mention is that there are two city events in October, one the first week and one the second week. So we need to be aware of that too. I don't know. I don't think they want to compete with us. Unless someone else does, I don't know. I agree. I don't have to say.
[Tom Hamel]: Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: So I was enjoying the way Linda had crystallized everything and suddenly a thought came to my mind. How about we're simply celebrating the mother of disability rights, right? Judy. that ties in, right, the showing of crimp, crimp, crimp, keep getting it all mixed up, right? And we can, we can make it a fun style of a day where If you do have arthritis and you show up, there are products for you. If you want those products, you can buy them. And if you don't have arthritis, but you think you may, right, in the future, you can take some educational materials. But you know what I mean, just like a mix, right? a blend and, you know, sort of a resetting, because the movie can be quite heavy. So we're going to need to be able to break things up a little bit, right? I would love to see some vendors that are people that have a disability, you know, or if they don't, vendors of clothing, people with a disability, you know, because back in the day, if you were an adult and you had, you know, a, let's say, a muscle situation, you would have to wear, you know, a bib like a little child, right, even though you were an adult. And now, clothing has advanced so much that you actually have to know what you're looking at to recognize that, oh, wow, that's just a, it's a bib. Again, just throwing out more ideas. I just got awakened by Linda's crystallizing of the uniqueness, all of our unique abilities, because we are all disabled in one way or another, right? We can't all do the same things. And there are certain things that some of us just cannot do. But when we all come together, like, Look at the amazing lens that we have here. You have family members, you have people that provide support, you have people that are in the digital industry, the lived experience, it's just... I don't know. I'm getting all sloppy and off topic. Somebody shut me off permanently. I gave you the co-host key, Tom. You should be able to get me out of the meeting. I think there's an eject button.
[Tom Hamel]: I did want to say a couple of things. One of them is I know we have a number of agenda items. And so we probably should wrap up. But also I know that we have some deadlines around moving this forward. So it kind of seems like the consensus is moving toward the focus on celebrating people of all abilities. And if we are not setting the expectation that we're providing resources and doing all these other things that's really a lower lift for us and just really focusing on kind of the celebrating part is maybe a good first event. How does that sound to people? Like thumbs up? Will?
[Evangelista]: I have a question. When you say celebrating individuals with all abilities, I don't just kind of marginalizes that. I mean, we're here to celebrate individuals with disabilities. Now, if they're visual or not visual, they're not, but our focus is in that area. Like Francis was saying, the vendor tables, I mentioned performers, but provide an opportunity because, you know, I mean, I just, I'm just saying that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, I hear you.
[Tom Hamel]: I think it's a reframing of So I've heard from some people, like, not focus on the dis part, but focus on the ability part. It's just, it's kind of why I reframe it that way. I know, I'm not trying to, we are, the focus is, right, the disability community. It's not, it's not everybody. But I hear what you're saying.
[Evangelista]: So it's kind of like have the word disabilities, but draw a line through it. And it's like celebrating abilities, something like that, where it's like, I don't know, but maybe we should like really sit down and try to have a quick planning meeting so we can present something back about what we're all talking about, because there's a lot of things. And then we could present that back to Francis and Tom so that they can at least see what we're talking about and do it offline. Because even disabilities to me sometimes feels like individuals feel proud, you know? It's not anything not to feel proud about. And by not saying it, that's just like, you don't wanna say this is a black event. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll stop.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're on mute, Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: I knew where you were going with that, so I intentionally said, did she say black? No, I understand what you're saying, Yvette, and I hear, I think the way Tom was trying to phrase it, and Tom, correct me if I'm wrong, is that we're looking at all, all the disabilities. We're not focused on just the physical, we are looking at all the disabilities and that's what we're really about. And Yvette, as you were speaking, I remember too, you know what? Delaying this event till October allows for partnership with some of the, we have some group residences that are in the city of Medford. We had some disability providers in the city of Medford. So I feel like delaying this allows for some collaboration with that.
[Evangelista]: And- Yes, exactly. Just like, as we mentioned, I don't know if it was last month or the month before, like how do we create that social group for individuals with disabilities in our community? That could be the first leg of really just trying to get people involved is to kind of go off what Tom had mentioned, that it was a gathering. But I think a planning group, you know, It's a great start for it. And just making sure that individuals that want to acknowledge their disabilities are in the front of this. And, you know, we're there to support.
[Tom Hamel]: So I'm going to have Marcia share what she wants to share. And then I have a kind of a quick spreadsheet that I put together to kind of do whatever it's talking about, where we can start to have people volunteer to take on certain pieces, and then maybe we can bring those back to next month's meeting. Actually, maybe in between, you can do work in between, and then we can regroup next month. I kind of envision, you know, one or two people volunteering and doing that, doing that component before we meet next month, so we can try to move things forward. Marcia.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay, Tom, I don't want to to create a burden or anything. But I noticed that Katherine Clark, our House of Representatives person, sponsored a fair in, a resource fair in Somerville. And I don't know exactly what she did or how she helped with it, but that might be something interesting to people We have time. Some other possibility.
[Tom Hamel]: I'm going to put that on my list.
[Smith]: Just for note sake, who was I'm sorry, I didn't hear who that was. Catherine Clark.
[Tom Hamel]: Frances, did you have something else you wanted to add? You're still up so. Great. Okay. Alright, so I'm going to share my screen and then hopefully we can kind of go through this quickly and then we can move on to our next agenda item. So, share button. All right. of that, this is kind of what I was replying to someone. One of our bears last year, somebody pointed out that we should capitalize the A in disabilities, but we can figure that out later. So here are the kind of the different tasks that I've identified so far. One of them is actually securing the space and Gabby's been working on that. And then I have these other tasks that will need to be done. So I can't see all of you on the screen. So if you, oh, I can make the screen bigger. So if, well, raise your hand if you're interested in helping out with any of these things. Go ahead, Frances. You're on mute.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm sorry, I was going to take what would traditionally be off the committee's plate. So advertising slash promotion for the events, that is something that you could put under me because we would obviously have the help of the city. Yes, commission would also be responsible, you know, for advertising within the groups as well. Items for the commission table, well, that would be under me because we need to make sure we have our table covering, you know, whatever, what's the word, whatever, swag.
[Tom Hamel]: Yes, I kind of put that up here, actually.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right. So that again, those those three things would come under. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Thank you. I'm sorry, Tom, the ADA committee. Sue, I can't see Sue. Sue, you're still here. Is that us? Is that the meeting that we... Yes, I think so. But I thought it was called something else.
[Susan Bibbins]: It's... I can't remember what it's called.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. And I'm sorry to have this conversation online, but do you think that maybe you and I should email Melanie? Because I remember I sort of stumbled upon it, and I think there's some sort of like regularity so that that way, you know, Tom has the information, we can ask if we can get some support.
[Susan Bibbins]: Right. Yeah, I think that that probably should be us.
[Frances Nwajei]: So Tom, you could put Sue and Sue B and myself in that one. All right, Susan, Susie, and... No, not Susie, just Susan Bibbins and myself. Okay, great. And yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: Great, thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Sue. No problem.
[Tom Hamel]: Jo, are you raising your hand? I see a thumbs up. There's your hand. Hold on, you're on mute.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: I'd like to volunteer at the third from the bottom, get names of attendees for future engagements. And also I'd volunteer if you want to set up like some type of refreshments like water or snacks or whatever. So I'll volunteer if you want to have that also.
[Unidentified]: You're talking about doing it at the event? Yes. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: All right. Anybody else see something they're interested in? Marsha?
[Marcia Kirssen]: I might be able to find a couple of vendors contact by name. I, I, I, they have indicated to me that they don't want their name shared. So I will do it.
[Tom Hamel]: Just so there's no overlap if you could let me not to do it here but let me know offline. Obviously we don't want to have two commissioners contacting the same vendor. Depending on
[Susan Bibbins]: I'll volunteer to direct people and answer questions during the event.
[Tom Hamel]: We can we can define these things later, like what they actually mean. I think a better idea. I know it's kind of vague now, Linda.
[Smith]: Yes, kind of tag teaming with the advertising promotion of event with Francis. I think I'm the one only one that has a login to the MailChimp account. So I'm happy to like, send the email out to our list to whatever list we have in there.
[Unidentified]: Great. Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: Do we have social media?
[Tom Hamel]: Well, we have the, well, we don't, we don't have it, but there's a disability, Medford Disability Facebook group that we can post on. I don't, I know I'm a member of that. I don't know if anybody else, I know Gabby is.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, I didn't even, so that's a group that we would definitely want to send a save the date to then. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So I would just say all media outlets, basically. And collaboration with community organizations and reps. When I read that, Tom, I'm thinking You could be talking about co-op for human services, Boston Independent Living Center, Federation for Special Needs, is that?
[Tom Hamel]: Yes, Waypoint, the ones that we have on our website, as well as like Marsha mentioning representatives and senators and inviting them if they wanted to join us. And there may also be non-disability-focused organizations in Medford that would want to.
[Frances Nwajei]: Does anybody want to reach out to Medford Recreation? Because I think that, you know, I mean, I know what Medford Recreation does in terms of some of its inclusive programs, but that's cheating. That's only because Danny was here yesterday and he was updating me on some stuff. But if somebody wants to reach out to them, that would be great because it would be nice to have them Medford rec at the table, they are the city's recreation department.
[Tom Hamel]: Maybe considered a vendor or really, it's not like more than a vendor, right? They're more really of a collaborating with them.
[Frances Nwajei]: I would say they're more of a collaborator than a vendor. When you say vendor, I think you're selling me something for my arthritis. That was the best. Marsha and Linda, that was the best Google Fest you've given me. All right.
[Tom Hamel]: So I will, I know it's 630. We should move on to the next, the next items. I will, I'll email this out to folks. And if you can get back to me with, you know, other ideas. that you may want to do if you need clarifications. And that way we can move it forward. Linda.
[Smith]: Real quick, did we decide are we going to have a couple of contact, like point people to run like overall coordination or Thomas?
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, so actually, I didn't say that I put it up here. So I know Linda, you and I talked about that. And Gabby also said that she would happy to be You know, yeah, exactly. Lead folks. So you can ask any one of the three of us for, you know, for direction in this event. Okay. All right. Awesome. I'm going to stop sharing my screen and kind of go to the next agenda item, which is, oh, the car part update. So I think this one, To be short, Marsha, I think you ended up talking with Kayla?
[Marcia Kirssen]: I can't remember.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah. So for those of you who are new, last year, a group of us, Gabby and Heather and I met with Kayla, and we presented as many ideas as we could think of about accessibility at the park. I gave her a long list of what our ideas were plus what Megan Hager had done with the Department of Planning. A couple more things came up though. One, oh, and they are building the ramp from the parking lot. And I checked to make sure it has ADA standards, because it's a very steep hill. And she said it did. Suzy's idea about port-a-potties, they're going to be building a shed, but it will be up to the city to go further and get the port-a-potties. And there are accessible ones available. I looked online for around $6,000, but who knows what the city has. And also, one more idea that was not mentioned last year was accessible access to the playing field in the park, in this park included. And Kayla's reaction was, oh, well, what? They're bleachers, I said. Well, they aren't except because they aren't to everybody. So that's a summary as fast as I could talk.
[Smith]: Sorry, just for notes purposes, what was the last item? What wasn't accessible?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Making an accessible path and having accessible seating at the places where events are going to happen. Like when my grandson, who for the first time at age 10 has the guts to join a baseball team. I wanna see it. I don't wanna get to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm sorry, Marsha, what was the response to that? Because it is possible to have accessible bleacher areas.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Well, she thought bleachers as they were accessible. I'm talking about the area, not the bleacher itself.
[Frances Nwajei]: So how would you get to the bleachers if the area is not accessible? You have to put a pass there. You have to put a path or a mat? Or a mat, whatever. So is it grass then? It's grass at this time. So grass is considered not accessible? I know that. Okay. I don't know where the park is, so... I've been there a couple of times.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I've seen... I was checking in on the planning process, and I visited the park. And there is grass there. And I can email her and make sure she gets that point.
[Frances Nwajei]: So does it look like they're taking that into consideration? I don't know where that will go.
[Marcia Kirssen]: That was my input. It's a problem in every single park in the city. I will communicate that with the Department of Planning. Awesome.
[Tom Hamel]: All right. Thank you, Marcia. We should move on to the next item. Francis sent us an email about reviewing the ordinance for commissions on persons with disabilities. It looks like this is the city of Medford's ordinance. And actually, thank you for sending it, because I had not read it before.
[Frances Nwajei]: You're welcome. And part of the reason I sent it out is because I've been hunting all over the place for it so that I could actually have it. I had one for my other committees, but it was, you know, a PDF that was all crooked. And I wanted to know where is the actual full ordinance. And, you know, my apologies for finding it so late, but, you know, it's never too late to have information like this, because this is really, When our hearts get really big and we want to do all this stuff, this is what guides us and helps people like me stay within the lines, you know, color within the lines, not outside of the lines. I felt that it would be nice for us to review to see if we had any questions. And I'm not going to say that we do that today for the sake of time. Or even if we have any suggestions as to What would we like to see changed in the future? Remember, these ordinances were written a while ago. Do we feel that they are still representative of who this community is? Are there things that we would like to see tweaked? And we can start that process. I'm not saying that we're going to tweak the ordinance overnight, but keep this in mind as we move, as we move forward. So that's why I wanted everybody to have it. And just to remember that in future, as we have new people coming on, we should be sharing the ordinance with them as well, as part of our welcome.
[Smith]: Hi, Elinda, go ahead. Just one question with this. So it's the ordinance and then our bylaws together. The bylaws more are about how we operate as a group, and then the ordinance. The ordinance is the governance of how the, yeah. What our power and authorities are. And then the bylaws are like how we operate as a group.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: And then I just wanted to ask everybody to please be cognizant every now and then check. I don't know if things happen to our website sometimes, term expirations. I mean, Tom, you just became chair, it seems like, and all of a sudden your term is expiring. So I don't even know if that is accurate. But I wanted to ask everybody to please take a look and just send me an email if it's accurate, if it's not accurate, if you want to continue, tell me you're not allowed to go anywhere, if you want to continue and things of that nature, it would just, it'll make my job easier and it will make sure that the website is more current.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, so we should email you confirming if our term expiration date on the website is accurate or not.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, yes. And if it is, if somebody is showing at a point of expiry or close to expiry, it's nice to know as well if the person wants to continue serving. I mean, I don't want to be the one that makes that decision.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. All right, it looks like we're on to updates. Disability related issues reported by community members, for instance.
[Frances Nwajei]: So last week and week before last was an unfortunate week for the city of Medford, where there were two separate incidents that were reported to me. One was reported to a person that no longer lives in Medford, but had lived in Medford for 35 years. This woman, again, it's one of those things, right? Your disability's not always visible, right? Even if it's physical, it's not always visible. Had gone to, as was reported, had gone to Ocean State job lot. Person has difficulty ambulating, so usually either has somebody with them or uses the carts as a way of staying upright. Purchased shopping, you know, as per usual, started to exit. and was literally had the cart pulled out of her hands. The exchange, just look at my notes very quickly. She had actually sought permission to take the cart out because of all her stuff and was thinking that she would get some assistance. It was not the first time that this person had shopped at this location. That's why this person goes to this location because she's familiar with the process. Lo and behold, there was that day, there was just a different person working and was insistent that she could not take the card out and she was already outside she was mortified she was embarrassed in this person physically held on to the car to tell her that class exactly so. I spoke with this, I returned this woman's call and literally like when she started to talk to me, like she was up here, she had already spent 24 hours and the more she thought about it, rightfully so, I mean, I was just thinking to myself, I am so glad that she did not let go of that car, because all I could see was her going forward and losing her balance. You know, but there's these common sense things here, right? Like, okay, so you have a store policy not to take the carts out if you have that. Do you still engage in a physical altercation over a cart? You know, several things going on there. So I provided some support to her. I asked her what she wanted to do about the situation. She informed that she had already contacted the corporate office. They gave her the name of the regional manager. And I said that I could support that process and that I would send her a civil rights complaint form because disability falls under civil rights. What makes us even more egregious is that when she calls the corporate office, there is no policy about not being able to take cards out the store. So this continues to get worse. Right. So because of, you know, her mobility issues, I said, why don't I do this? I will mail the form to you so that you can complete the form and then return it in the enclosed envelope. I'm not going to have a drive from Reuben here and back and forth. And I did say that, again, MCAD, she's got every right to file with them if she chooses. But I did say that I could support her that way as she goes along with the process and that I would share this unfortunate situation with with the commission. So that's one. And then another one occurred actually top of this week, there was an email that I was CC'd on it was to a Dunkin Donuts. I actually thought that it was a spam email until I did some research. It's my understanding that This person that wrote the email was in Medford visiting a family member. They actually live in Connecticut, and they went through an exit, but there was a big enough lip that they could have become injured. email and not one of the, nobody said, are you okay? Like there was no level of compassion or, oh my goodness, let's put a caution sign. This is what they were reporting. So there's sort of concern about that. By the time I got to their email, I replied back in to thank them for letting me know. And because that's something like if it is a physical thing, that's really code enforcement needs to go and have a look at that. So I've already shipped that off to code enforcement to add to their list, just in case if it is a building violation, then, you know, it needs to be addressed properly. But what makes it worse is that the person that sent the email received a response. from the complaint center saying, please stop by our store and fill out an incident report again. And again, this person identified as living in Connecticut. So they're just like, you know, There are some of these things, but I wanted to share them with you as the Disability Commission. I wanted to make sure that there was nothing else that you would have liked to see me do that I didn't do so that I know for the next time. I don't have any legal governance that says, oh, I need to do this or I need to do that. So I'm using the avenues that are already in in existence and I can keep you posted. So this is why we need to do more education.
[Unidentified]: No, I had trouble with that. Everyone was having limitations.
[Marcia Kirssen]: There are those kinds of things that you can trip on everywhere. So my suggestion, if the commission is interested, First of all, I haven't stopped last year contacting the better business. Secondly, I think the city needs to adopt some policies in regard to existing buildings where there are problems between the landlord and the owner of the business.
[Unidentified]: So it's not an easy fix, but it's very difficult. Yes, I saw, and I think it impacts more people than once they get here, from my personal experience. Thank you, Marcia.
[Tom Hamel]: Did you need anything else from us, Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: No, it's just, I mean, it was just an update. You know, it's like sometimes I feel like we're moving so far ahead and then other times I'm like, my gosh, we're going back in time. And I mean, to me, it's just, I mean, they're both egregious, right? And I'm glad that both parties, you know, felt that they could reach out. I'm just very thankful that there was no further injury for either party, especially the person who was using the card in a dignified manner, right? So it doesn't scream, I have a disability, everybody look at me, right? You've got a card like everybody else has a card. Is it really worth it to pull something out of somebody's hand? So I did talk through some things with her based on how she chooses to respond, what she does with the form. If she comes back to me, I gave some suggestions on things that could be requested. And fortunately, she's able to, they're able to identify who was on shift at that time. You know, she's not interested in like a gift card or anything of that nature. Like she wants proper training, which kudos to her.
[Tom Hamel]: Is, is, I don't know what the, if there's ever a situation where it makes sense for the commission to write a letter to the business and say, Hey, we became aware of this, this incident. Is there some kind of support that we can provide you to help, you know, train, train employees or to, handle these situations better. I'm not quite sure what the language is, but... That would be lovely, Tom, right?
[Frances Nwajei]: I mean, I think that that would be really great because then that is, you know, sort of see that as supporting, as adding, not being the voice, but adding, blending the voice. It's like harmonies, different, you know, people are singing at different pitches to say, hey, we know that this is an issue, but we're also here to help. to help you. And, you know, once we have a letterhead, these are all the things that the commission can do. I'm hoping she sends back the civil, I'm hoping the form comes back, because without having that concrete documentation, I can't just go to a random business and say, hey, heard this happen, what's going on?
[Tom Hamel]: Well, I can, I can take a shot already. I envision like a form letter that we would use for these types of incidents. And then we should always customize one of the paragraphs or, you know, certainly who it's addressed to, but one of the paragraphs to refer to the incident and, and then just utilize that. So I'll, I'll write that on my list.
[Frances Nwajei]: And I'll reach out to her to confirm that she got the, she got the stuff and she's going to return. I'm just going to return the completed form, because then I can add what we're doing to that form as well. Okay. Anybody else have anything that they wanted to add to this situation that we just, you know? Joe, before I forget, I know that you had mentioned a person that is able to fix wheelchairs. If you have the name of the business, please email it to Tom, because I think that that would be a great vendor to have at the event when we decide on a date.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Actually, it's me, but I think I get another reference, but I'll double check. But I'm very handy. I'm very mechanical. I got a lot of tools. I'd probably offer my services to volunteer. Working with electric wheelchairs also.
[Tom Hamel]: Great. Nice. Thank you for saying that Francis. I had it on my list. I was going to email you Joe. It'd be nice to have, you know, we talked about being a resource like that sharing that information at our event in the fall. So yeah, I will if I don't hear from you, Joe, I'll email you and we'll square away the information on that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. Were you going to say something? Oh, no.
[Susan Bibbins]: Okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thanks.
[Susan Bibbins]: I was just trying to get warm.
[Frances Nwajei]: I know, all of a sudden, I just feel warm.
[Tom Hamel]: So yeah, bring us home with the correspondence and announcements.
[Frances Nwajei]: A whole bunch of wonderful, fabulous, fabulous events happening. So, well, the first announcement is next month, Janelle Austin. who is the open meeting law subject matter expert at KP Law will join us for like 15 minutes to 20 minutes, half an hour. So any questions that you have about open meeting law, because yes, you know, we can all read it, but then we interpret it differently. I figure let's find out what the legal definition is so that we're not being overly protective and we're not being too lackadaisical. We could just be just right, you know. And maybe we can throw in little questions in there, Linda, like, you know, do we need to make a motion? Because, yeah. So this is, you know, this is a great opportunity for us. So she couldn't make it this month, but she said yes to next month. This Saturday is National Arab American Heritage Month. It's happening at the Brooks School. I hope that I will see as many of you there as possible. Then we have Haitian Flag Day that's coming up in May. And then we have the Pride flag raising event that's coming up and then the Juneteenth flag raising event. So all these events are coming up. I am excited. I will move forward with looking at different kinds of swag for us that could be meaningful. And then I will try to figure out how to compile that so that I can send it out and we can make a decision the next meeting, which is May, as I would like to have this stuff like ordered. I was thinking about doing pens like I did for the Human Rights Commission, but the words won't fit. And I have to, you know, yeah, yeah, the words won't fit. But if you, you know, just if you have some ideas, let me know. And I didn't add this on here, but just a friendly reminder that you have a little bit of money for an intern. Now, now, it's just a little bit. It's just everybody. I see the smiles coming. How much did I say it was? I think I said it was about four grand. Anybody remember? I do not. I'm just, I'm just looking. Yeah, because we've had the funds since November of last year.
[Tom Hamel]: It was that I thought it was for broader than just our commission said it again. I thought it was for not just our commission, but broader, but you're saying it's for our commission.
[Frances Nwajei]: No, every, yeah, we have broader, but the commission has its own diversity, equity, and inclusion asked for support for all. Right. But I also asked for support for just the commission too. Um, So I'm going to run through this really quickly, but I can always email it. These are all one-time purchases. So folding table, folding chairs, table skirt, tablecloth with logo that we have $600 for that. Logo design, we have monies for that, $500. miscellaneous swag such as pens, hand sanitizers. This was stuff that I had to put. We have about $1,000 for miscellaneous swag. So my suggestion is let's not date anything. I just found out. So conference support, three grand. So if we spend 1500 this time and then 1500 before the end of next June, that will be, you know, so that's like if we have to pay a speaker or that kind of stuff. And then I asked for a contractor to assist with like research or creation and formatting of informative materials. At that time, it sounded good. I can't tell you right now exactly what I meant by that. I think we must have been speaking about gathering our information somehow. But that's, yeah. So we got $2,500 for that.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, if you could email that to us, that would be really helpful. Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: If anybody knows any ASL interpreters, please let me know ASAP, please.
[Frances Nwajei]: Beyond the usual, usual channels, like, yeah, beyond mass commission for the deaf and hard of hearing, we really, you know, we really need, you know, Of course, I would love Medford first, but if we don't have anyone in Medford, I'm open, but we need to like be able to build a list. And I think that even Mass. Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are having difficulty fulfilling. There aren't that many in Massachusetts.
[Tom Hamel]: Great. Well, thank you. Anybody want to make a motion to adjourn our meeting?
[Susan Bibbins]: I'll make a motion.
[Tom Hamel]: Go Susan. You have a second?
[Susan Bibbins]: I'll second.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, Linda. All in favor. Great. Anyone opposed? Great. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everyone.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you, everyone. It was so good to see you all.