[Frances Nwajei]: Hi, everybody. Welcome to the November 2023 meeting for the Commission on Persons with Disabilities. I'm Frances Wanche, DEI director and liaison to the commission.
[Tom Hamel]: Over to you, Tom. Yes, I'm Tom Hamill. I'm the chair of the commission. And right now we can introduce all the current commissioners, if you could introduce yourselves. That would be fantastic. Susan, why don't you go?
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I've got food in my mouth. Go ahead, Susan. I don't know when you guys eat dinner during these meetings, but.
[Susan Bibbins]: Hi, I'm Susan Bivens. I am, I have been a longtime commissioner. I live in Medford in South Medford. Um, I am disabled. I identify as a person with a disability and my pronouns are she and her. And, um, I am a commissioner that has been on the commission. I don't remember how many years, but a long time. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. Gabby, would you like to go next?
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_02]: Sure, my name is Gabby. I've been on the commission for a few years now. Right now, I'm serving as secretary. I'm from Medford, and I've lived in Medford my whole life. And my pronouns are she, her. Awesome.
[Unidentified]: Sue, would you like to?
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Go ahead, go ahead. And she did a great job on the fair. You were the one who headed up the fair.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. It was a, it was a joint effort from everyone.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, it was. But you really were the sparkle. So I'm Susie Palafin and I've lived actually in Medford the longest I've ever lived anywhere, which is really odd because I've lived all over the country. And, um, What I'm finding out about Medford is more and more it's been it's attracting a lot of people here. They like the kind of quiet just outside the city effect. But also I'm related to somebody with a disability that impacts transportation a lot and wage earning and even housing. And I want to put out there that next No, on December 12th, there's going to be a meeting at the Unitarian Church in Cambridge with, what's her name, Patricia Dillon will be there. And it's all about affordable housing. So you might want to look at that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Why don't we repeat that at the end as well, too, so that that way we can repeat that at the end in the correspondence and announcements, so that that way folks can have it. And then do you have it written? Do you have a flyer or something if you send that?
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I actually don't. I'm going to be a speaker at it, actually, which I'm terrified of, because there's going to be like a hundred and including legislatures. And they're going to be talking about affordable housing. And it's a group and I can't remember the name of the group. But anyway, um, I'll send it out to everybody if that's okay, or to say that. But yeah, that would be great. And I know it's Tuesday, the 12th of December.
[Frances Nwajei]: And then we'll mention, if you can look for the information, we'll mention it again at the end when we get to the announcement section so that folks can take notes, folks that could be listening. Right.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I know Medford is taking a hard look at their affordable housing. So anyway, anyway, I've been on the commission for, it's getting close to a year now. Yeah. It's a good group.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Joe. You're up.
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, Joe Casey, lifelong resident commissioner for about nine months. I have a 30-year-old child with a disability.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Joe. And I've been on, I think this is my fourth year on the commission.
[Frances Nwajei]: And Joe Casey was a holler extraordinaire for the disability fair, showed up here, supported me, getting things the day before to the event, getting things back the day of the event. Kudos to Joe. Wonderful balloons. You know, to just add to the space. So I just wanted to make sure that I gave that, you know, acknowledgement publicly. Thank you so much, Joe. Thank you. Volunteers and everybody that was that was available.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. Sorry, back to you, Tom. No worries. I've been on the commission for four. This is my fourth year. Also, I have a disability and lived in Medford for 15 years and also a parent of some kids with disabilities. Let's see, next, so that's our introductions and I lost the next item up is welcoming our guest, Cameron. If you could introduce yourself, that'd be fantastic.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. Hey, Tom, and nice to meet everybody. Thanks for the introductions. Sue, nice to see you. So I'm Cam Nab. I just moved to Medford with my husband and two dogs, John Snow and Scout. My background is in health policy. And for the last two years, I worked with California's Department of Developmental Services. thinking about rate reform, all sorts of stuff, but really it opened my eyes to a population that I hadn't had a lot of experience with. And as someone who is trying to drive value in health care and integrate social services to improve well-being, it just seemed like such a great opportunity for me to see if I could get involved and support the community here locally. be muscle for future fairs, be a young person who's willing to put in some effort and drive some initiatives if that's something that you all are looking for. But my parents were teachers, and so I have a passion for service and a desire to give back, and I'm looking forward to doing so in my new hometown of Medford.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you so much, Cameron. Be careful what you offer up. We're all taking notes.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Two strong men. So there you go.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I'm thinking he could move some of the tables that I moved in October.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, we... Back to the future.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, I mean, thank you so much, Cameron, and thank you for your interest. I think that it's a good opportunity for people who are interested to attend a meeting or a couple of meetings. Okay, we're good. You know, it's in the meeting or a couple of meetings just to make sure that it's something that, you know, really does flow with you. And it's something that you're willing to make that commitment for. So thank you so much for being here today. And I look forward to following up with you. in order to get your feedback. And just in the nick of time, look who it is. It is Commissioner Wills. That's okay. Have no worries. If anybody's done the biggest boo-boo of all, it's me, and I am okay with that. We're just doing introductions, if you wanted to introduce yourself. And you're on mute.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. My name's Yvette Wilkes, and I have been with the commission for, I think this is going on in my, I just completed my first year, and I'm very happy about being involved. Thank you. Thank you so much, Yvette.
[Tom Hamel]: Well, thank you. Thank you, everyone. Welcome, Kim. Glad you're joining us. And the 1st item on our agenda is because we didn't meet in October. We didn't have a quorum. We do have a quorum tonight, so we can approve the June and September minutes. So we'll start with the June minutes. Does anybody have any questions on the June minutes or any suggested revisions? All right, all in favor, or actually I should ask, because I need a motion to approve the June minutes. Is that you, Sue? All right, anybody want to second? Second the minutes, thank you, Joe. All in favor? All right, I think that's everyone, anyone opposed? Fantastic, all right, I think the June minutes have passed. All right, we'll move to the September minutes. Any questions or comments on the September minutes? All right, do I have a motion to approve the September minutes? Sue, you're so quick. Sue, I have first. I actually am a very quick person. Susan, I have as a second. All in favor? All right, anyone opposed? Nope. All right, motion passes. Thank you. Third item is recap of the disability fair. Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, I'm just taking notes. So the disability fair everyone turned out to be a wonderful, wonderful event. My gosh, talk about all the different vendors. I mean, first and foremost, kudos goes out to. The, the custodians at the Brooks, right? Because I thought we were all going to do the setup together and I walked in and somehow they had set these tables up in a way that I think we had close to 30. 30 participating vendors. I think a couple didn't show up, but. definitely over 25 vendors and it became a really wonderful and fruitful networking event. There is a full list that will be stored for you. I encourage the commission to keep that list as a template because the master list has more. The master list also contains the contact people and email addresses. That now becomes like your working template if you want to do something. But some of the speeches made by people with lived experience, either through being family members or having a direct impact, or being a support source, very, very moving. Was it very well attended by the city? No. So that's something that needs to be looked at, right? Why was attendance from the city low? Do people who identify as having a disability feel that this is a welcoming city? Or was it the location? Was it transport? So these are things that you keep in mind and you use as part of your evaluation for moving forward. However, as a first time, I think it was wonderful. It gave the, It gave the commission an identity, started to cement that identity for the commission. So from that, I will segue into the vaccine clinic. As you know, we were gifted a mobile vaccine clinic by the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, so that was their part for the disability fair. It was, and the vaccines were gonna be administered by Cataldo, who has a partnership with the Department of Public Health. So that's a complete mouthful. However, the state did not release the vaccines in time. They pushed the release date back until afterwards. So the vaccines were finally released on November 17th, We still had the rights for the gift and we had the mobile clinic here. 23 flu vaccinations were given out and 53 COVID vaccinations were also given out at the mobile vaccine clinic. I just, you know, I sent an email to Fatima on behalf of the commission thanking for the gift of the mobile clinic and sharing the data provided by it's how to. That's where we are with that. Does anybody have anything else that they want to add in regards to the disability fair or the mobile vaccine clinic?
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I actually would. I thought about this a lot, is the weather was horrible. It was, I don't remember, windy, rainy, something. And I remember Joe being worried about his balloons, which were lovely, blowing away. And so weather, especially with disabled, is a huge factor. Also, I don't know how many people really know Brooks School, a lot of people, and I see a lot of events happening at more at, not the Roberts School, up from there, Andrews and the one next to it. And maybe it would have been more advantageous to do it at those locations because there's a lot of lower income and disabled over there because I see them because I run and I walk and I bike and I see them. Whereas Brooks, maybe I'm wrong, is more higher income and not as many disabled. I could be totally wrong. I could be. So I think where we do it is really important. And then the weather, I said that already. But I think the people and the sponsors that were there were excited because they saw us starting to do the flame. And that was what was exciting to them. There was a woman who was running some company and I wish I knew what it was. And she looked at me and she said, I'm the boss of this company. And I can't remember whether she was how she was disabled, whether she was a little person or something. And she was excited that we were bringing it to Medford. And I have to tell you, I talked to somebody in the last couple of days that said, I said, so why are you in Medford? Because I've seen that people are going to Medford. She said, I lived in South Boston for the last five years. And she said, Medford is quieter and more respectful. And I think we have to really embrace that. Like, get on that. So let's look, of course, Frances, at the disabled. Let's look at the lower income and embrace it and find out where they want to go, where they feel safe. Is it the public library? Is it not the Brooks School? Is it more of Andrew's area, Andrew's Middle School or whatever that area is? and embrace it. I don't know how else to explain it.
[Frances Nwajei]: I think that that's great feedback and I appreciate that, but that's really feedback for the commissioners, right? So I lifted the weight to help the commission get out there. But you have to remember that spaces book up. So you might wanna think like moving forward, right? Between now and you end in June, Is there something else that you want to do before the cycle ends and the commission goes on hiatus? Or do you want to plan something for the next new cycle start so that you can get on the calendars of some of those places that you've mentioned? You're talking about the Andrew School. You've got construction classes that take place there. You know, but if you need it at a certain time, I'm sure those things can be worked in. So it's great feedback to take in. And I really, you know, feedback that I got from the vendors was that they were grateful for the networking and for the opportunity to be visible in Medford. That is huge. Again, I want to make sure that all commissioners understand that this is a commission's You know, it is, if you look at the ordinance, the commission is supposed to complete an annual report. It's what the ordinance says, right? This is something that the commission needs to do together. And when the decision is made, it really should be a shared effort. Everybody taking the piece or contributing the piece that they feel that they are the best at so that it's the full commission that's there. But I, you know, I'm very, very happy. I apologize if the volume is starting to increase. There were excited people running up and down the hallways. I guess the party's really started. I'm very, very happy to have seen the diversity of the vendors. Should plan a second event in June 20, 24. I'm very happy to see the diversity of all the vendors that came out. But I'm also very happy to see what our non-traditional, what we would not consider our traditional vendors like. our Armstrong Ambulance. Well, why is Armstrong Ambulance out there? Well, they are the responding emergency EMTs for the city of Medford, right? And we have people with disabilities. that live in the city, and they actually have, you know, specialized, you know, cards, notifications, things of that nature. Happy to see the fire department out there. Happy to see the police department out there. Oh, my goodness. They're so wonderful. Happy to see smile masks come all the way from the other side of the world. Happy to have our DSL interpreters interpreting So I think it was a great start and I'm going to turn it over to Yvette. Yvette, is that a question for me when we say diversity? Diversity of the vendors.
[Tom Hamel]: You're on mute.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I don't. Yeah. But you're on mute. OK. So thank you. Sorry about that. So when when you say diversity what was the breakdown when you know what. What was diverse?
[Frances Nwajei]: Diversity of the vendors, the services that the vendors provide. Everything from service organizations, fire department, police department. Who has the list handy? That's what you mean. That's what I'm talking about. There was a person that contacted me very early that morning who happens to be a yoga, wait, massage, pardon me, I gotta think this through. a yoga person and I saw the email and she wanted to come and be present and I couldn't make the connection and then come to find out that reading further. So in my mind, it's early, I'm like, okay, I gotta start getting ready. This thing's kicking off soon. I don't know how we're going to be doing yoga. She is trained in a specific type of yoga. for people. Hot yoga. No, not that kind of yoga. Power yoga. Yoga for people with PTSD, people with spinal cord injuries, people with nerve damage. There's a specific name and a specific school of yoga that she's trained in. So so that when I say the diverse group of the diversity of the vendors, that's what I'm that's what I'm saying. And we can see and Shanin, our playful pelican was here, Shanin. Please introduce yourself and share the feedback that you may have.
[Chenine Peloquin]: So, I was going to introduce myself before the segment. The next item is me talking, asking you guys questions, but. So my name is Shanine Pelequin. I'm a recreation therapist by training, and I'm now a play advocate, and I'm working closely with the city, both with the schools as the co-chair of the McGlynn Inclusive Playground Design Committee, and also in a more official capacity as a consultant with the planning department, helping them to figure out what they're doing with our playgrounds. So, but I was a vendor. And that was a really nice time to reconnect with a lot of colleagues that I haven't seen in a long time and to talk with families. I've been to many, many disability-related information fairs over the years. And the networking is critical, I think, as an experience for vendors. But also having the participants. So I was going to say, if the commission could do some outreach and finding maybe new people with disabilities that live in this community and find out how they'd like to communicate and ask those location type questions, that would be really great because I think the energy around this event was tremendous and it's so exciting to be starting. But if after like a year or two, vendors aren't actually meeting any participants and they're just vendors in the room, they will stop coming. So I think that that's going to be a critical background piece before you do a new event, is finding people who aren't already on your mailing list. And I concur with Sue on using the McGlynn as a better location. That's the word, McGlynn, yes. And by next fall, the fence at the McGlynn Playground is going up, the construction fence is going up Friday. We thought it was going to be spring. So all of you who read that really great press release two weeks ago, in fact, it's starting Friday. So this week has been wild. At the McGlynn. At the McGlynn. So the McGlynn will have a brand new, very inclusive playground by the next school year. So that could be a nice place to have an event. And whether you can only be inside because of weather or you can actually shove people outside to go check it out, that would be a really nice way to welcome the playground. And then... To actually have real people in the playground doing it. Yep. We're going to have only the second non-transfer wheelchair swing in the state, which is very exciting. But I think the other thing that I've been hearing from others is that there was frustration from people with disabilities that our speakers were only family members. Oh, I noticed that. This is a nothing about us without us crowd. And not one of the speakers was a person who actually has a disability. They were all parents. Oh. So that is something that I think this commission is kind of reflected in that, too. There's a lot of family members. And so when you're recruiting, I would encourage you to recruit more heavily on people with firsthand experience rather than caregivers. And caregivers, I mean, I have two kids with different needs, and it really does become a part of your identity, but you're not the actual, like, I'm not the actual user. So that, yeah. How do we think about that as a first line of speakers, as the people with lived experience? But otherwise, it was really a great day to be involved and to connect. So thank you for inviting me.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Shanine. Let's see, I'm just looking at the time. I did also want to make sure that I recognize Gabby for being the emcee and leading the event. Thank you for doing that. And also a huge thanks to Frances. Frances did a ton of work behind the scenes getting all those vendors there. And I don't know everything that Francis did, except that the event came off really well. And so thank you, Francis, for putting that all together. Anybody else?
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I can't hear you, Sue. Oh. I can hear you now. Okay. So Shanine, is that how you say your name? So I want to reflect, you said, um, about people not with the disability being on the stage. It's the parent or the caretaker or whatever. And I have to say, one of the reasons I joined the commission, and then I said to Francis and a number of people, I want to represent my son and, the whole community of disability, but I don't want it to be about my son. So I understand what you're saying. I don't know how else to say it. It's like you walk a very fine line of who you represent and who you don't want to put out there. Even though I say to my son, do you mind if I do this? Do you mind if I do that? There's a very fine line there of, I represent, I taught special ed forever. Who do you represent and who do the family, I mean, Joe and her commission is representing his 30 year old son. It's a really fine line of getting out there with personal stuff and not getting out there with personal stuff. And you know that because you said you have two kids in that way.
[Chenine Peloquin]: And I've worked with families for 20 years. So it's tricky. And I think that the parent and caregiver voice is key. And especially for folks who communicate in nonverbal ways and might or might, for other reasons, not prefer to be in public. But I think that not having anyone with a disability, from what I'm hearing from people in the disability community, was off-putting to individuals. Yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: So we can have representation from both, you know, both folks.
[Frances Nwajei]: Shanine, can I ask if anyone from the disability actually identified as wanting to be a part of this? Because it has to be a partnership, right? People have to be willing to come forward. Of course. As it is now, the commission still sits short of full capacity. It has sat short since before I joined the city almost two years ago. And perhaps it calls for a deeper reflection on why that is beyond just beyond an event.
[Chenine Peloquin]: I think it might be really worthwhile checking in with Jeff at the Mass Office on Disability because I believe they can come and do some trainings for commissions.
[Frances Nwajei]: M. O. D. was was M. O. D. was there as were many other state agencies, but I don't think the right now.
[Chenine Peloquin]: I mean, that they can come to a commission meeting. And have some of those conversations on how the commission functions, they're happy to do that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right? But it doesn't. It doesn't negate the fact that the commission has never been at full capacity. So where are the people in a city that identify as having a disability? And if they're not a part of the commission, and they're not showing up to be connected, then we have to take a look at where is the break in that communication and why is there a break. Otherwise, we can't move forward.
[Chenine Peloquin]: So I think that Mass Office on Disability could be helpful with some of those questions and lessons learned from other commissions, but also I'm really excited for our city council person elect Anna Callahan, and I think it might be worth having her come to speak to the commission, either before she takes office in January or shortly thereafter, because her expertise is actually in reaching marginalized groups of various kinds and engaging them in the civic process. So I think that her expertise could be really helpful here. Okay.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I just wrote that down.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, one thing that comes up for me is when we were working with the state and needing to engage people with lived experience, we made a policy decision to start to pay for their time. And I think that could go a long way. I know other boards have. It can be very helpful. But I think that would, or a speaker honorarium, especially for someone with lived experience, I think, again, that there's little tricks to sort of up the engagement. Gift cards. I think that's a great idea to some of the vendors.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Vendors are pretty used to doing it for free because they're all getting paid as part of their jobs. It's helpful, but... but we're pretty used to this crowd not being able to pay for vendors. These cards are good.
[Tom Hamel]: All right. Thank you, everybody. Let's see, I'm looking at the agenda. I have a question. Okay. Actually, it would be great, I think if we can move to, because I'm having a hard time following the conversation, if we can move to raising our hands. Again, so we can take turns, that would be helpful. And you can either do it that way or and if you're not speaking, if you'd be on mute, that would be helpful too. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Oh, oh.
[Tom Hamel]: You're on mute.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, yes, I turned it on mute until you acknowledge me. Sorry about that. But, um. And thank you for all of your help, Shanine. But when you just made a comment about they're used to working it for, you know, doing this for free. And when we were talking about compensating individuals, you just made a comment at the end. I just guess I wanted to know, who are we referring to? Who do you think about should receive some kind of payment or compensation?
[Chenine Peloquin]: I was referring to the vendors, because they're doing it as part of, like, the vendors are, if you're thinking about prioritizing funding, I think prioritizing paying individuals with disabilities for speaker fees sounds like a really good way to start that. But that the, if money is tight, and I'm not saying vendors shouldn't be compensated, But vendors are also used to sometimes paying for these fairs. But most of the time, they're doing it as part of their work week. So this is their professional outreach part of their jobs, as opposed to inviting somebody with a disability in to do extra work and that emotional labor of speaking, et cetera.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: OK, then. And then the other part, when you mentioned you're not used to this group paying, do you mean our group or the individuals in this field? Disability services.
[Chenine Peloquin]: So all the CPAC fares are never paid. Like as someone who's been to many types of vendor type events, I have either had to most of the time pay for a table, even if it was a nominal fee, like $30 or something up to, I mean, the disability, what was that? Disability Expo was like $250 for a table. It was obscene. And so, a lot of us stopped participating in it, which is why it doesn't go to Boston anymore. But it's paying the vendors to attend is helpful, but the free table is actually great because in other events, we have to pay for the table. In general, kind of broad disability services, info fair world, not Medford. Okay. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, anybody else have a comment? All right, so why don't we move on to the next agenda item? And let's see, we want to talk about, oh, the commission name and commission identity. So I think, Francis, this is in, so this came up during the disability fair when we were trying to create some items to give away that our name, Commission for Persons with Disabilities, is long. And it's hard to fit on items and so we. I'm thinking some, some things label it as disability commission. So, I believe for instance, is that what we want to talk about with this item.
[Frances Nwajei]: All right, I'm so sorry. I'm back. Give me 1 2nd. Yeah, so the Nome Commission for Persons with Disabilities, it's long, it's outdated, it's difficult for people to say if speech issues, and I think, you know, if you look around at what other communities are doing across the state, you'll notice that they refer to themselves as the Disability Council or the Disability Committee, so Maldon Disability Committee, Cambridge Disability Council, Hingham Disability Council or Disability Community. So I just wanted to urge the commissioners to start thinking about updating the name. Because the name becomes part of the identity, it would need to be presented as you continue to have events and you continue to be out and you need to do recruitment to build your capacity. Something that I wanted the commissioners to begin to think about.
[Tom Hamel]: Yvette, did you have a comment or is your hand left over?
[Unidentified]: Go ahead, Kim.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Thanks, Tom. This is again from my California experience, but I had to learn a lot of language and I was encouraged to avoid terminology that put the disability first. And so I think there's a lot of, there was a lot of sensitivity in California around how, you know, groups identify and, and that system, you know, says it's the system that serves people with disabilities. And, and that's the people that receive services that's their preferred language. And so, you know, I, I know it's a mouthful. I guess I don't mind the mouthful as long as it's reflective of what people prefer. And if we're a community that wants to shift, that's certainly fine, but it just would raise sort of my, I would wanna make sure that we're doing it with all voices.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm sorry did Yvette have her hand up before and we were waiting for Yvette to unmute okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I did send my um I just sent my comments in the chat thank you Francis.
[Unidentified]: Sue, did you have a comment you wanted to share?
[Tom Hamel]: I'm not able to hear you, Sue. Your microphone maybe is not working well. Are other people able to hear Sue? No.
[Chenine Peloquin]: I think it depends on where she is. When she leans forward, you can't hear it as well, but when she sits up, it's pretty clear.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, I'm still having trouble hearing you. Keep moving around, maybe.
[Unidentified]: I don't know, go ahead.
[Tom Hamel]: That looks better.
[Unidentified]: So the language he said is what I heard him say. Yes or no?
[Tom Hamel]: Yes, I think, so I think, Some folks prefer to not have disability be first, right? So person first language. So I know, like, the Melrose Commission is the Melrose Commission on Disability. So that could be, you know, one approach. It's a shorter name. It's not as long as our name, the Commission for Persons with Disabilities. So that's, you know, one possible option. Other folks have thoughts on this?
[Frances Nwajei]: The other thing that I wanted to add, Tom, to what you just said about Melrose's name. With that, their name broadens the scope of the work that they do, right? So it really bleeds into and brings the focus into accessibility and things of that nature. Yes, if accessibility issues are not addressed, like if you really go back and you look at the ordinance, commissioners are meant to be part of this broader picture that brings recommendations forward to the city councillors on accessibility and needs within the community, hence the reason Shanine is here. I'm not quite sure how things have been done before, but we can't get there if we don't have full body full capacity, active participation, and a name that defines our scope beyond. And remember, not all disabilities are visible. And not everybody that does not have a visible disability necessarily wants to identify and be open. So I caution us to make sure that whatever is decided for the future is something that embraces all people and does not in its own way create some level of marginalization and supports the foundation of the work that the commission is charged with doing. Very well. Tom, I'm just doing a time check for you. We're at 6.30 and we've still got a few things on the agenda.
[Tom Hamel]: Yes, yes. I guess I wanted to, what are next steps with the identity and branding? Like, if we want to change our name, what do we have to do to do that?
[Frances Nwajei]: I don't believe that it's a decision that needs to be made today. I think that this requires continuous conversation. People have different understanding of what disability means. I think it's something for folks to perhaps think about and revisit at the top of the new year. Give thought to the name, give thought to your commitment, What is your area of expertise that you feel that you bring to the table? It's not that nobody can take it away. That's your area of expertise. So that when something's going on, I'm like, yeah, I know Sue B is my right-hand person when it comes to like, oh, there's a universal accessibility meeting at the school. I can only attend, but I can say, Sue, can you take notes for me? Or are you going to attend? So everybody should have something that they are, the niche four, so that as you become nine people, you have nine people with nine areas like Cameron, you said policy and equity, right? Nine people with nine subject matter areas. And when you come together, It creates something really awesome. Once you start having that you start to have an identity and you start to get the support that is needed to do the work. It's you know it's beyond us meeting. There are things that there's a lot of information that I send out. I apologize. If it is information that pertains to your role, I'm going to send it out to you. I can't tell you that you need to attend, but I'm required to do my due diligence to ensure that it gets into your hands. For example, like the RTAG is having a major meeting with the MVTA to discuss snow removal and accessibility. Tom, when I saw that, the first thing I thought about was, Have you seen the commuter rail station here in West Bedford? When are they planning on fixing that? But I said, this is still a great opportunity for anybody that's available to show their face and to represent and get some direct names and direct content. So I think that folks should continue thinking about it, play around with some names, Thank you, Cameron. I've seen the notes that you've put in and, you know, revisit it at the top of the year. It doesn't have to be done tomorrow, but it will at some point have to be done.
[Tom Hamel]: Great. Okay, thank you. So, to Francis's point, we have a half hour left in our meeting. So, let's, um, let's move to the next item. So, this is also Francis talked about the accessibility issue at the Tufts T station. So, a quick update on that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Resolved 2 accessible parking spots right in the front. Done.
[Tom Hamel]: Are they already painted and everything?
[Frances Nwajei]: Painted, yep, all done. It seems like it's very quick, but it was already in process when I reported the issue, because the minute I heard it, and then when I went out and saw it, I could not unsee it.
[Unidentified]: Awesome, thank you.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I'm sorry, CT. So in midterms, In order to have not handicapped porta-potties, we have to pay a fee wherever we are.
[Frances Nwajei]: Suzie, that's a different issue. We're on the accessibility. Never mind. It was a parking issue that was reported to me that I actually did a roadside visit on twice.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: No, what I want to say is in Malden, Okay. You go on the bike trail, you go here and there. Malden has disability porta-potties.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, but that's a different issue. We need to finish this so that Shaneen can get to her point and then we can come back afterwards or put it for the next. That's fine.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, thank you. All right, so Shanine is joining us. She's going to talk about the inclusive playground at Carr Park, or should it be a different location? So, Shanine, I'll turn it over to you.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Hi. Thank you for having me back. So, just real quick, so there's lots of things happening in parks developments in the city right now. One of them is the new inclusive playground at McGlynn, I, if any of you would like to see that, I think that you can find the plans on the city parks website very soon. We're going to have a link tree to all of those, those things, the designs, et cetera. And behind me, you can see this is the stage area. which is going to be, it's ramped at the grade that doesn't require any handrails, all the way up to the top of the stage there. We're going to be able to have community movies. It's a turf field, which is accessible. And then there's going to be an inclusive playground behind me, both for 2- to 5-year-olds and 5- to 12-year-olds. So it's very exciting. But on the city end of things, Carr Park, which is in Fulton Heights, can I get just a quick show of hands of who is familiar with Carr Park? Okay.
[Unidentified]: Joe, you are, aren't you? Where's Joe?
[Chenine Peloquin]: There he is. Yeah, okay. Carr Park is currently one of two ramp structures in the city. And I want to give a little bit of background into the ADA and playgrounds because it's a little confusing. First, the ADA, when it was formed, did not have any guidelines about how that was going to apply in playgrounds. And that didn't happen until 2010. So it was very far into the process. And in that room of people deciding how the ADA was going to apply in play settings, it was very much a compromised document, which means it is not maybe as inclusive as we would like it to be. So things like each, Each slide, climber, like spinny thing, whatever it's attached, whether it's a play panel, it's got a steering wheel, each one of those is called an elevated play component. And the rule that they came up with as a group was that if a structure, a climbing structure, has 20 or more elevated play components, then half of it has to be accessible. like 25% has to be via ramp and 25% has to be via transfer platform. This is the bare minimum, right? The AGA is the floor, not the ceiling, not what we aspire to. But if a structure has 19 or fewer, then you only have to have a certain number of each type of thing, like each climber, each slide. Maybe there only has to be one slide that's actually on the accessible route of a playground. And so a lot of designers make all their playgrounds with 19 or fewer elevated play components so they don't have to put ramps in. But they're compliant. I want you to think of the playgrounds that you've seen. There's often, some of you might already know this, but just to make sure we're all on the same page, you're going to see two steps and then like a big platform on the stairs, and then the steps continue up. That is the transfer platform. That is the basis of accessibility for playgrounds, is having somebody who uses a mobility device be able to wheel or walk her up, transfer to the playground, and then scoot around or walk as they're able. But that's the plan, is to be able to scoot around on your bum all around the playground, or at least until the accessible route ends. And then you can supposedly reach the bare minimum number of elements there. So it's not awesome. And when you think about the number of people with disabilities, and then you take out all the people who can walk, and all the people who have a visual impairment but don't need a da-da-da-da, we get down to people who use mobility devices. And then what I was told by one of the leading experts in how the ADA applies in recreation settings is that 3% to 5% of people who use mobility devices can or want to transfer. So now we have 3-5% of that population that we're designing playgrounds for. And that's the code. What I have learned is that there are... The only guideline that has anything to do with visual impairment is how... So the rule is that you have to be able to get to each element and around each element, but you don't have to be able to use it if it's on the ground. And the route that you take to get to and around has to be eight feet tall so that someone with a visual impairment doesn't hit their heads on anything. But that's it. There's no guidelines on contrasting steps or handrails or anything like that. Surfacing is its own whole thing, and we're not going to get into that right now because it's a bigger discussion. But the state of Massachusetts is moving toward having all-unitary surfacing. But it's going to take a long time to get that to turn over. But there shouldn't be any more mulch in Massachusetts in the next couple of decades. So, that's like the ADA in playgrounds. And then the question about how we think about accessibility in playgrounds is accessible for whom, right? Like, we know as this group that accessibility for one person does not mean accessibility for another. I was talking to some people from Perkins School for the Blind about the McGlynn playground and they were saying, they were like, yeah, you know those like two steps on the playground and then they like take a 90 degree turn and they go down the rest of the steps? Our kids fall off of those all the time because there's no warning that these steps are just going to fall off. And I said, so the irony of that is that's the transfer platform. So even the things that we do for one population don't work for others. And you cannot have one playground be everything to everyone. It's just not possible. Autistic children might need more sensory equipment. They might need a fence because if they get scared, they might not have the awareness to not run out into a street. But not every playground needs to be fenced. Accessible swings, we want to make sure that there are things that you can transfer in for your smaller kids. And then if you don't want to transfer, you also can swing and spin. All sorts of pieces to this. And what I want to start helping the city do is take a more broad and systemic look at how we're thinking about accessibility in our playgrounds and the opportunities that are offered. Because you can have a really delightfully ramped playground, and all that's actually offered is a steering wheel and a tic-tac-toe board. It doesn't matter if it's ramped if it's not actually fun. So, that's setting the stage. So, right now, the City of Medford has 21 playgrounds between the school district and the city-owned sites. The goal, eventually, is to get to a third of those being really inclusive. Like, that's kind of the national, you can't, we can't do everything, we can't do everything overnight. It's not possible, so the goal is to go with a third of the playgrounds that a municipality owns as really inclusive. Right now, Carr is one of two that have ramps, but the playground is being torn down. My question to you right now is how do you want to think about where we should be locating inclusive playgrounds in our city? and prioritizing those. Car has parking, but it is nowhere near accessible parking or accessible transportation or any transportation at all. Ramped playgrounds tend to work best in places where you're going to be adding a lot of land, like the McGlynn. I'm going to pull up an image. But the McGlynn is going to have a hill that the structure is built into so that The ramp, we don't have to pay for surfacing under a ramp that takes 12 feet this way for every one foot in elevation height. It takes a lot of space and a lot of extra funding to do ramps on a playground that don't add any play value. So adding hill forms makes it a lot more fun and pretty and more cost effective in terms of like what you're paying for to get up high. Yeah, just to get up, if you notice on a lot of inclusive playgrounds, it'll take you four ramps and like 48 linear feet to get up four feet tall, and then none of the eight-year-olds want to play on that slide because it's only four feet tall. So how do we think about accessibility and really meaningful inclusion? Because if you make a playground that none of the typically developing kids want to play on, then you've created an exclusive space. Now, that's a lot of information. right now. I acknowledge that. So I'm going to pause for a minute. We're going to talk about CAR, but questions there? Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: Janine, is this information, is there a decision that is needed today, or is there information that can be sent out to commissioners to review so that they can perhaps have a deadline in which to get back to you on?
[Chenine Peloquin]: So we'd like at least, I'd like a recommendation because the playground, the car park playground is being designed right now. And so, no, I cannot talk. Oh, I'll be up in a minute.
[Frances Nwajei]: That is that is live occurring in the moment by commissioners. Can I ask a favor of you based on some of what you some of you may have shared with me personally?
[Chenine Peloquin]: I'm sorry, can you shut the door, please?
[Frances Nwajei]: This is my sister. I asked you to get information to make a decision by the end of the week. Could you commit to that because it's being designed? I know that you like to have time to reflect and some of you actually need that.
[Chenine Peloquin]: I don't know if personally I can get that because apparently McGlynn is getting fenced Friday. So like all of a sudden we're totally scrambling. But I guess maybe the question for discussion right now is where, how do we want to think about situating, like if we were to think about the next three playgrounds that are going to be built, or like how do we divide up and make sure that there are inclusive, meaningfully inclusive playgrounds in each neighborhood, but also prioritizing that people with disabilities often need transportation to get there.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_02]: Gabby? I think the proximity to it is the goal eventually for all of our parks to be fully accessible at some point, starting one by one. I mean, technically, they should all be accessible, right? More inclusive. I know that we would all like there to be universally designed parks, but... Right. as of right now, is kind of the bare minimum goal, one at a time, doing the best that we can?
[Chenine Peloquin]: So the goal would be to have, like, a third be universally designed. Okay. So that would be three of the city-owned playgrounds, if we were, like, that's the, because playgrounds are also, this is slow, because playgrounds last, like, 20 to 25 years. Okay.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_02]: It's tricky because it would be, I feel like proximity to public transportation is so important because especially if the parking lot is not going to have a lot of accessible parking, if we're going to have a park that's being significantly upgraded, we want it to be a park, speaking for myself, I would want it to be a park that the majority of people are able to access, whether it's by car or by public transportation. I also realized that some of our parks are not in the best areas, like in proximity to public transportation. Like our T system is not really near any parks. Our buses are not super reliable to begin with and also not super accessible. So it's a tricky situation. I have no idea where Carr Park is. I live near the square, so Carr Park was never one that I went to, but is it near any bus stop or anything like that? Nothing. Nothing.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Literally nothing. It's up by Wright's Pond in Fulton Heights. So like Tufts Park is really pretty close to the Broadway T Station.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Chenine Peloquin]: That, and then, let's see. Duggar is not super close to the West Medford eventual station. But it's actually very close to Playstead, and Playstead is big. It's a very big area and a big structure, so a ramped playground might really work well for that there. And it's accessible on the, commuter rail now, but eventually I believe West Medford is in the plan for the Green Line, correct?
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_02]: I believe so. And I think that there are buses that go near Playset, like I think near, is it Winthrop? It's still not very close, like it's still a decent distance, but... Right.
[Chenine Peloquin]: And so that's, I mean, that's some of the work that I want to, I need to get approved by the city is like mapping out where playgrounds are. And this is stuff that I don't have for you yet. And I mean, we need to make sure we have funding to do this kind of greater look at the systems. But where, yeah, where would you prioritize inclusive playgrounds and should, I mean, not that, so CAR would be inclusive in different ways, but is it gonna be a ramped playground? I guess it's like, is that, Is that something that you would like to see if there was space, but I think that that might mean based on the space of the playgrounds that we go up. 2 feet and that's all we can do. So, I don't I just I'm not sure.
[Tom Hamel]: I feel that we have about 10 minutes left. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Tom Hamel]: And I noticed a couple of comments, I think to Francis's point earlier, like, is there like, do you have a deadline of when we when you need to decide when the decision needs to be made on where to put this playground?
[Chenine Peloquin]: I guess it's kind of a. Not where to put this playground, but where if. If car needs to, if we can make car. I don't think the playground is going to be big enough to be ramped. I don't. But we can make sure that there are features that are inclusive. And then the whole thing will be poured in place. It won't have any loose fill surfacing, which is really helpful. But in terms of, like, prioritizing which of any other parks might be, we don't have a deadline on that. There's not another playground that's set to be renovated right now. So we can really be thoughtful about, like, looking at planned transportation and bus routes and those kinds of things, as well as where there might be parking. And I think to Gabby's point, like, making sure that there are more than one or two accessible spots if you're making an inclusive playground, right?
[Tom Hamel]: So, is it is it possible, like, before our December meeting, like, to provide more information and then we can, I don't know if it makes sense to have another conversation at the December meeting. Just just in the interest of time, and I do, I know Susan and Yvette have comments. So, if you guys have short comments, we should, I want to want you to have the opportunity to make those. Does that work for you?
[Chenine Peloquin]: Possibly, depending on the date, and we can, yeah, maybe we can formulate what those things are that might deliverables. But, Yvette, why don't you go? Okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Two things. One, is it possible to obtain some kind of notes or pointer notes, conversation notes, so that way, you know, as we speak to individuals within the community, who are with disabilities, we have more clear notes to share with them, right? And then the second item is that, is there funding available for the commission to host some meetings so that we can bring more people to this table? Is there funding in this, what you all are doing, you know, just trying to get input from the community?
[Chenine Peloquin]: I don't believe we have, we did come to the disability commissioner host when we did the first section of this outreach. I don't believe that there's focus group funding at this time. We did have three outreach events already. And one was at the library at the winter preparedness event. And I believe we'll be having a couple more at accessible locations. So like if people would like to come, if the commission can help get feedback or get people to those events that we're having, that would be really helpful. Were we included in the past meetings?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Are invited?
[Chenine Peloquin]: beyond Medford General, General Medford Outreach, I don't know. The commission was consulted, I believe we came two years ago when we started the first, the initial design process, we came to the commission to get feedback.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Okay then. So, I guess if, based on what Paul and Frances said, it would be great to get that information so that way we can talk to people that are out there to get feedback because, Maybe public transportation isn't the most important thing because maybe they're using the ride or individuals are using other means of transportation to get to these locations, but we would have to ask.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Yeah. I will make a recommendation that the commission has copied on all of the park outreach events. I'll talk to the planning department about that just to make sure that each of you get those. Okay then. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Susan, go ahead.
[Susan Bibbins]: I agree with Gabby that we want to prioritize the parks within public transportation proximity versus the parks without. to put this as a person with disabilities. They only give you a certain number of ride, of the ride transport rides. And if you have only a certain number of ride rides, you're going to leave the ones for recreation. You're not going to use those rides for recreation first. It's like you're going to want an easy way to get to recreation like on public transport. Yeah. That's such a good point. I hadn't considered. Thank you, Sue. So, or walking or, you know, rolling. You're not going to use the ride rides for recreation just for a day at the park, unless you're really desperate. unless you really need to. So chances are you're gonna take public transportation.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Also, I think thinking about proximity to spaces with restrooms, right? And this gets to Sue's conversation that I'm sure you'll have at the next meeting. I highly recommend you start advocating for public accessible bathrooms in our parks, because this is the body that can get that to be done. The general consensus has been like, well, if we put one of those in, if we put an accessible bathroom in one park, we'd have to put them in all of them. And all of us parks people are like, Yeah. Yeah, do that. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Chenine Peloquin]: Right? With adult-size accessible changing benches and all of those things. Right. Yeah, and I just, I don't want as a, as somebody who does not identify as having a disability, I don't think that CAR is the ideal spot if we were to really to invest in an inclusive playground. There will be McGlynn, and that will be amazing. And I just realized today that Barry has some ramps. But I think it has loose fill surfacing, so. And Adam, I need you to- Berry is not the ideal. No, certainly not. I just didn't realize there was another branch playground. I don't want to remove one without a plan for another. But when I look at Carr, I look at the neighborhood, isn't walkable. There's a lot of private ways. The sidewalks in this area are particularly and because it's so hilly, it's also not a very rollable area. But I don't want to be the one to say like, I don't think this is the site because I don't know.
[Tom Hamel]: So I think that's a good spot to end. I think we can, we have to figure out when our December meeting is, but I think it's going to be before Christmas, I think December 16th or something like that. So if you can, Sorry, I'm looking at my calendar. The 13th, I guess, would be a better date, maybe the 20th. But if you can give us the material, and I know there's some stuff in the chat about putting together a list of the parks in Medford and trying to look at location-wise, strategically, what makes sense, we can continue the conversation in December. So thank you, Shanine. Great. Um, so we have 2 items left Francis. I know you touched on expectations a little bit already. Did you want to expand on that?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, so I just wanted to remind everyone to please check their emails for the information that I sent out regarding RTAG and the meeting that is being pulled together to address snow removal issues within cities. At the table at that meeting, it looks like the MBTA is going to be a part of that. This is a part of your work as commissioners. We are all busy. And I know that sometimes it can be a lot. But if we're going to come to meetings and we're going to talk about issues within our city, we need to seize on opportunities that allow us to connect with some of the other stakeholders. So that's why I found it interesting that we're talking about snow removal, but you've not fixed the accessibility issue at our train station. You know, so I really do encourage and ask if, you know, I'm not saying everybody has to be there, but if your passion is mobility, accessibility, you should consider being there. Another thing is expectations for serving as commissioner. Review what's written in the ordinance, you know. We do this by Zoom. We don't even do this hybrid. We're fully Zoom to try to make it as attainable for everyone. And as a result, yes, of course, cats, dogs, pets, children, barking, loud noises, all those things come as part of your package and are welcome. But it is important to be at the meeting, be at the meeting on time for the duration of the meeting. Because if you leave and something comes up, we might need to vote. Remember, I can't vote. end up being without quorum. And, you know, continue to think about where you want to go. I don't know if the Zoom cloud is going to capture all of these, the meeting at but I wanna make sure that everybody goes through. Shanine has dropped her email address in the chat. If you're interested in connecting with Shanine and you have not been able to grab the email address, feel free to shoot me an email. I can make sure you have it or I can just send it out to you anyway. Cameron, no one can communicate with you yet because we don't want to violate open meeting laws. So, you know, let's wait and see. And if you want to communicate with Cameron, please go through me. Cameron, if you have something that you want to share with the team, please go through me. It's just the way open meeting law works. It's like,
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_08]: Can I help with the spreadsheet? Are you saying I can't help with this?
[Frances Nwajei]: I think that that's something that, you know, commissioners can let me know and I can definitely let you know. I mean, you said help. We're going to take you for everything. You know, but I would definitely love to connect with you afterwards offline like I do with all incoming commissioners to find out their thoughts and, you know, if they're still interested. So I will follow up with you on that. I'm just trying to scan quickly, make sure everybody else Chenine also dropped sign up for newsletters. Okay, give me one second. I'm taking that and I'm putting that in an email link. So you'll receive an email from me at the end of this meeting with Shanine's email address and a link to sign up for a newsletter that has information about parks. That's really, really important. I can help you with schools. I can't help you with parks, I'm just not out there enough. I can share information with you that I get from other communities, but it's a great, it's a wonderful resource to connect with Shanine and to have that. Utilize your networks to get the information out, you know, regarding the commission, regarding, you know, all inclusive parks, regarding, you know, keeping an ear out for the focus groups that are gonna come up to discuss that. This is all lead work that makes the role successful. That's about it. So I'm good now. Oh, I stole two minutes of your life. I'm sorry.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Francis. So the last item we have is the interim change of chairperson. So I have a lot going on with other things in my life. And so I reached out and chatted with Gabby about taking over as chair. So she has agreed to do that. So thank you, Gabby. I don't know, Francis, do we need to do anything official around that?
[Frances Nwajei]: No, this is going to be interim because we can't even really have a full vote. We would have to do a nomination. Linda is not present. Heather's not present. So this would just be interim. This will probably ride you out till the end of the year. Because when I say end of the year, I mean end of the cycle. Anticipate it's going to take some time to build your capacity. And you would also need to cross check with your bylaws. That's another thing. But I think you can ask your fellow commissioners if anybody has any objections. I mean, Sue, you have done your time. You have blessed us so graciously. And I met you when I came on board and I want why your name was mentioned. And I was like, absolutely not. She's carried the weight for, a long long time but you know and just continuing to stay on it's you know it's invaluable help so maybe ask your fellow commissioners if they have yes yeah so are there any any uh any feedback or comments on that no different okay all right So that means that Gabby cannot do double duty as secretary, so we will eventually be looking for someone to help take notes. But in the meantime, we can all, we can all tag team as best as we can and hold each other's hand, because that's what we do as a team.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. The, there is a spot for public participation, although we kind of had that as we got along. I don't know if there's anything that you wanted to add Kim in a minute. Cool, all right, the last one is, so there is a next meeting date, I don't remember, did we set December 27th as our next meeting date?
[Frances Nwajei]: December 27th, remember I asked if that date worked and it worked for everybody, so December 27th, 5.30 p.m. via Zoom. Okay. Okay. All right.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, thank you everyone.
[Frances Nwajei]: Somebody has to make a motion, I don't plan on being here all night.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah. Sue is making a motion to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a second?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I second.
[Tom Hamel]: Nivette is second. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Motion passed. Meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone.