Commission for Persons with Disabilities 03/25/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.8-flash from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The Commission for Persons with Disabilities reviewed logistical plans, vendor recruitment, and activities for the upcoming Disability Fair. The commission also received an update on the City Council advancing its proposed ordinance to the mayor for legal review.

3:22 Approval of Meeting Notes — The commission approved the meeting notes from the previous month.
6:38 Disability Fair Vendor and Logistics Update — Nicholas Karinge shared the roster of confirmed and prospective vendors for the Disability Fair, and commissioners discussed day-of volunteer duties and attendee sign-in tracking.
20:47 Disability Fair Site Tour Announcement — Karinge announced a walkthrough of the event venue and playground scheduled for Friday, April 10, at 11:00 a.m.
23:23 Assistive Device Decorating Table — The commission discussed plans to partner with the Medford Public Library makerspace to host an all-ages assistive device decorating table at the fair.
33:45 Update on Commission Ordinance — Anthony Andreottola and Karinge reported that the City Council voted 7–0 to send the commission's proposed updated ordinance to the mayor for legal review.
43:12 Public Participation — Disabled veteran and Medford resident Mark Ingram introduced himself, and the commission welcomed him to the meeting.

[Frances Nwajei]: Hello, everybody, this is the March 2026 meeting for the Commission for persons with disabilities. My name is Frances Majee. I'm the DEI director and ADA for the coordinator for the city of Medford. And I will only be in the meeting until 545. Okay, Nick. There you go. Nick.

[Nicholas Karinge]: All right. Hello. Sorry, everyone. I was still muted. My name is Nicholas Taringa. I am the disability specialist in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, working with Ms. Frances Nguyen. And I am happy to see all of you here. First of all, let's just go around and do our normal introductions. So I will pass it over to Anthony.

[Andreottola]: Hi, I'm Anthony Antriodala. I'm a disabled blind Medford resident and a member of the commission. And I'll pass it over to Joe.

[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, Joe Casey, lifelong resident of Medford. I got a disabled son and I got some small disabilities myself and I'm just here to help out. Thank you. John, I think, can you go next? Sure.

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, thank you. Hey, I'm John Shaib. I'm a Medford resident, an amputee, and somewhat disabled Medford resident, and I'm going to pass it on to Kate.

[Kate Ryan]: Kate Ryan, she, hers. I'm a longtime professional disability advocate, and due to genetic mess-it-up-edness, I am just a bundle of brokenness. Yeah. in basically every body system. And I will pass it on to, I don't know, what?

[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Kate. All right, so what you do now is you introduce yourself, Matt. Matt is the guest via Anthony. I believe Matt was on with us not last month, but in January. Mark. Mark. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See, thank you.

[CAS00002364_SPEAKER_00]: So go ahead and introduce yourself. Well, my name is Mark Ingram. I'm a disabled veteran. And I'm living here in Medford, and I want to show some support with what we're doing here. And Anthony told me about it, and here I am. Welcome. Thank you.

[Frances Nwajei]: Welcome, thank you so much. So I'm just going to take a look at this very quickly. Everybody received the meeting notes. So does anybody have any requests for changes to the meeting notes from last month? And if you don't, I would need somebody to make a motion to approve and somebody to accept or second.

[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, so Joe made a motion and seconded by John. All right, so I'm going to leave you at this point so that you can, and I hope that you will enjoy the updates that you receive in regards to the Disability Fair, celebrating disability pride and culture and so many wonderful things that are actually making me smile as I'm saying this. But if anybody has any questions or any logistics things, please email me so that I can, you know, have it and work on it.

[Nicholas Karinge]: I need to share my screen. If I- Because if you log off, we all log off.

[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, we all log off. And Kate or John, can I slide my host key over to one of you so that that way I don't shut everybody down if I log off.

[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, John, I just sent it to you. OK. I thought you were nodding. I'm so sorry. All it means is that you just stay on the, you just stay on. It's just, yeah. OK. OK. All right. Thank you, everybody.

[Nicholas Karinge]: All right. Well, good evening once again, everyone. It is so good to see all of your faces. Although, Anthony, I think we are looking at your window right now. I don't think we're looking at your face.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, I think your screen may be frozen or something, but that's okay. As long as we can hear you, we're good. Okay. I'm here, so. All right. Great. Well, good evening once again, everyone. It is good to see all of your faces and your window. As for updates on the Disability Fair, I am so excited to tell you guys some good news about it. So, if I can share my screen here for just a second. Basically, we have a lot of vendors that have confirmed and we have a few that are that are interested and are still waiting on their confirmation because of the logistics. So let me share that screen with you guys for just a second here.

[Nicholas Karinge]: No problem, Kate. Let me just zoom in a little bit here. And y'all can hear me fine, right? Yes.

[Nicholas Karinge]: So I will give you some updates and just let me zoom in on it a little bit. Is that good?

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yes. All right, good. So for the confirmed vendors, we have the Boston Center for Independent Living. We have Cataldo Ambulance Services, which, as we just mentioned, is the new ambulance service for Medford. We have the Medford Public Library. They have the longest name I think I've seen for a public library. We have, we have a man from Comunitas. And once again, they have decided, they have decided to sponsor an ice cream truck for us like last year. Awesome. We have Dance Latin Boston.

Dance Latin Boston. They offer integrated dance classes. And so we might have a dance workshop. I'm still trying to figure out logistics about that, which will come up in a later point. We have definitely inked, which I think we have talked about before with you guys. Deaf hip-hop dance group, which is fascinating to me, so I am really looking forward to hearing from them. Or rather, I'm looking forward to seeing them. We have our family-centered yoga, Friends of the Duffels, Inspire Café, which will also be doing some type of food thing for us.

We have the Institute for Human-Centered Design, which is also in partnership with the New England ADA. They're kind of one and the same kind of thing. We have Math Advocates Standing Strong, We just heard today that the MBTA teams will be there with us. Medford Family Network, Medford Fire Department, Waypoint Adventure, and Ronald Street Center. These are the ones that have completely confirmed for us that they will be there, that they will rent. that they will be vendors. These are the ones that we have to look forward to, absolutely. Now, there are a few, like I said, who have expressed interest, but just need to figure out logistical things before they confirm, and they are as follows.

Now you will realize that I put Mass Advocates 10 standing strong in both categories. This is because Mass Advocates 10 standing strong has found a a keynote speaker for us, that will be one of the self-advocates. But in terms of being a vendor and housing a table, that is why they are here at BBA BBCB, because they are still trying to figure out logistics. Apparently, this is a very busy day in the disability world. A lot of people are having events that same day. So that's why. And then you have Massport. Massport also have expressed their own interest in wanting Go to be there. They just have to figure out whether they have the logistical matters to be confirmed.

I believe that's all I have for you guys in terms of the vendors. Does anyone have any questions or want to say something about this?

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: I do. How can the commissioners be helpful on that day?

[Nicholas Karinge]: Logistically, let me say we will know for sure as we get closer. That's probably something that we will be confirming next month. However, definitely in terms of on the actual day, from being a greeter to even just being I'm not sure to the auditorium. There will be much more concrete things that you guys can do when we move closer to the date. I only say this because we are We at ODEI have been so busy that we are running behind on things, as you have heard from Ms. Frances.

But, I mean, technically, there's still time that, like, if you know I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, and greeting and being some type of like usher or something like that. I mean, we will be back at the school. And so if you guys remember how that was last year, basically kind of the same thing like help us on the day off just whatever we might need help with on the day.

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, Joe and I were talking about the sign in sheet. And if you guys need help with database afterwards, and I'm curious enough to tell me now, you may not know, but I'm a sign in sheet. So it's name, address, email. Was that saved from last year? And do you know you guys need help? I'm slow, but I can be helpful and documenting that and recording that into a database, if needed, that would, that would be very, very

[Nicholas Karinge]: very helpful. As Ms. Francis said, please send her an email about that. I think that that would be extremely helpful.

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, and also the sooner we get a save the date flyer of some type, we can contact our friends and let them know and get it out there.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yep. That is definitely something that is in the works. Okay. We have been very, very busy. But that is definitely in the works. Cool. Thank you guys. Anybody else?

[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, just one thing like John said about signing in. They do, I would say it politely, they do not have to sign in, but if they would like to be on like an email list, that's all, you know what I mean? So it's just, just volunteer their name and address or email. But to say that they do not, it's not, how would you say the word? It's not mandatory. But they don't have to sign in, but it's just like, that's all. Because you know, some people can take it the wrong way. You know what I mean? Right, right, right.

[Nicholas Karinge]: No, that's all. But I think that that would be... helpful not only for being put on a regular email list but probably even for like letting people know about the following year. So I can definitely see where that would be helpful. I'm trying to stop sharing my screen. I sent you an email with like the idea that I had about having a decorate your

[Kate Ryan]: whatever related to disability thing and I and I wanted to ask people if they think that people would be interested in that where like you could decorate like your cane or your glasses or probably not your hearing aids because those are like small but um your assistive devices or whatever and you think that people would and like we could get ribbons and stickers and nothing permanent like not paint obviously

[Nicholas Karinge]: I was actually going to do that in a later point, but we can definitely do your walker over. Right. So let me just finish up what I have on this agenda before I forget. But thank you, Kate. I will bring that up real soon. So in light of the logistics of it, thank you, John, for being a foreshadower. We have a date for an on-site tour. So if you guys would like to join... Of what? Of the venue, so the school and the playground, just to make sure that everything will work well and all that.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yeah, we we we we we we we didn't go last year. Bye bye bye. So that will be on April 10th at 11 a.m. That is a Friday. So Friday, April 10th, 11 a.m. If you guys would like to join us on that day, please let, please send a, please send an email to Ms. Francis and myself. so that we will know who will be there with us. I mean, I believe that is what, like two weeks from now?

[Nicholas Karinge]: So, yeah. So, April 10th. I don't know how we are already at the end of March. It's crazy. I don't know where time is going. But like I said, yeah, so we will be visiting the site April 10th, that is a Friday, at 11am. So please, if you want to join us, you are more than welcome. Just send us an email, Ms. Frances and myself, so that we can know who will be there. Does anyone have any questions or anything to add about that?

I'm going once, I'm going twice. Okay, great. Now, Kate, now to your point. I think we mentioned this last month, I think, if I'm not mistaken, but Kate had sent us a, yeah, I'm gonna quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, a kind of decorate your device thing that we can do for the player. When she brought it up to Ms. Francis and I, we were both like, that sounds awesome, let's do it.

And so we spoke to Sam at the library. to see if she would be able to bring some craft stuff from the makerspace and she is enthusiastically on board. And so I wanted to kind of hear from you guys what your take on that might be. Before I do that, let me actually read some of the ideas. Give me one second.

[Kate Ryan]: Like, okay, I'm thinking non-permanent and not because like, so I'm thinking just like stickers and I'm also thinking no glitter because that's evil. And like, so like stickers and ribbons and washi tape and, you know, colored duct tape, really easy stuff that you could take off, basically.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yeah. I mean, I am with you on the glitter thing, because I would not want to be the guy that spills glitter on my chair, and now all my pants are shiny. But... And I love the ideas that you came up with, Commissioner Ryan. I'm trying to build, there we go. I'm trying to build this technology. I tell you, it's a nuisance. But anyway, but let me, sorry. Stop annoying me from computer.

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: I talked to Sam setting today also. But she did mention coming to the event and looking for ideas for that for decorations. And I like the stickers idea.

[Kate Ryan]: Yeah. Like do they make stick on like eyes or stick on like gems but because I don't want to use glue because that takes time to dry.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yeah, I'm not sure. I think they do, but I can talk to Sam and see about that.

[Kate Ryan]: And I have great faith in the Everything is Free Facebook group to provide whatever materials you can dream of.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Mm-hmm. Well, hey, I am not anti-Zap ever at all. I just... So... I love what you were hinting. So on the flyer, she gave some ideas and said, lift up your glasses, make rounds with your wheelchair, raise up your walker. Now this one, I got to say, this one was creative. Ornaments your orthotics.

[Nicholas Karinge]: I love it, though. As someone that used to wear orthotics, I'm like, why didn't I think of that? Oh, no, this is great. And I think the idea of having like someone talking GPS. Um, A decorate your device or table is, I think, an awesome idea. And yeah, basically, what do you guys think? I want to hear your feedback on this idea. Anybody?

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think if we talk about stickers, we should pick some theme something happy, bright and colorful or spring like or peace signs or I mean, just things that it could be joyous and happy.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Right. Oh, And also, of course, we would put on the flyer something like, oh, you are responsible for decorating your equipment safely. We don't want people putting gems on their wheels and then getting us in trouble when their wheels don't work. No. But yeah. Commissioner Ryan, I think this is a great idea. So I am all for it.

[Kate Ryan]: Does you ever notice how like at fairs and stuff they'll have like crafts for kids but not for adults?

[Nicholas Karinge]: Yep. Yep. I have no notice. I think sometimes... Adulting can sometimes rob that child like this.

[qy5_Am-xQ_s_SPEAKER_04]: Well I'd be happy to put a sticker or two on my chain.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, I guess we will be looking forward to that date. Joe, Anthony, and I am...

[Andreottola]: No, I support whatever you guys want to do. It's really not my thing. I support you guys with any kind of artsy stuff. Being non-visual, it really doesn't do much for me. But whatever works is fine with me. I think whatever you guys want to do, I'm behind you 100%. All right.

[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, you know, same thing with Anthony. Hey, you know what, if you feel like doing it, do it and have fun doing it. And, you know, express your happiness on celebrating the show, you know. That's it. Whatever you want to do, enjoy it.

[Andreottola]: Maybe I'll yodel or something. I don't know. I'll do something like that. Psychodrama or something. I don't know. But I'll adapt. Don't worry about me.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, I'm all for it. Well, thank you. Thank you, guys. I think we can get to work on that once We settled down with everything in the office, but I'm looking forward to seeing how various people in the co-co-co-community will take time to decorate their devices. Now, it's going to be Sorry. Aside from that, I don't recall having anything else but let me just double check the agenda here. Sorry. Let me just double check this agenda right here.

[Andreottola]: If I could take a minute just to update the commission about last night. Oh my goodness. Just to let people know. Nick Francis and I spoke before the city council last night and we got a 7-0 vote pushing our new ordinance to the mayor just for legal review with their full-throated support. Everything went, you know, it couldn't have gone better. You know, like I said, Nick and Frances and I spoke on it and, you know, I think it was received real well. Nick was received especially well by members of the city council. And I just thank you all for your support and contribute, you know, your feedback and edits. And like I said, I don't think it could have gone better. And thank you for giving me the time and support to push that through.

[Kate Ryan]: Yeah, I do understand it though, because I thought that, like I was watching on Zoom, and I thought that you went to city council, you presented it, goes on to the mayor, and it's done. And they talked about coming back for something.

[Andreottola]: Well, it'll come back with this legal review just to make sure that we didn't come up with something that violates the Constitution or some law, which I already had it kind of looked at by an in-home attorney. But it's fine. So the mayor and the law firm will, you know, if they edit anything, I don't it would be totally minor because there wasn't any really, there weren't any changes. So it's just like a formality now, it goes to the mayor, she says, okay, and the city council affirms it and we're done.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, it's not quite that simple, but yes. Because once it goes through legal review, there are, I believe, three readings by city council. to make sure that it is set certainly. fine and applicable and everything else. And then once those three readings are over, it will be made into the official law of Mitchford. But this was a very big step because now it really just gets the ball rolling. Once it passes this step, it's kind of like, okay, let's just move on with the process. Like, we're good to go. But like I said, it is a process, but it is a process that will hopefully be very smooth sailing from here.

[Andreottola]: Yeah, but we had seven. We had seven zero. And if they if they get it back and they vote seven zero, it doesn't have to go for the three readings. I don't think we'll have to go for three readings if there's unanimous support. It'll just go through. So I know you just want to make sure that. But when something's not controversial, you know, there's nothing really kind of problematic. All they have to do is if they all vote seven yeses, which sounds like they're very ready to do from saying we support this and what a seven zero kind of vote.

We're just in for, this is just technicalities at this point. I would say we could, you know, unless somebody finds, you know, polls, you know, find some nugget in there that needs to be changed. I think it's just formality at this point.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, again, we shall see. All that I have said is the more legal, put proceedings that the law states, and so we shall see. But, yes, it went very well. It received it very well. Just as a side note, I was telling Ms. Francis, Councilor Starpelli, was actually my gym teacher back when I was a little kid. So he's known me since I was like six years old. And at that point, not only was I in a wheelchair, but nobody ever thought that I would be walking. And so now for him to be able to see me standing and not only walking, but working with the sensitivity in this role, it was meaningful for both of us. So I am very happy that that went well.

Yeah, so I think that's really a thing that I, have for you guys in terms of my announcements. Was anyone else other than my co-commissioners Ryan and Angela, was anyone else able to watch the DM meeting or no? If not, that's okay.

[Andreottola]: I want to remind folks that when it does go back to the council for what I'm projecting to be a 7-0 vote, if somebody will remember to bring up the disability fair to the city council so they're invited so you know we can kind of have them present too. I'm just trying to get you know the word out for the fair a little bit more and I meant to mention it last night but You know, being at the podium and talking on a microphone, I get a little, you know, sometimes I forget everything I want to say. But if it's something that we really should make sure we kind of, you know, say out loud whenever we have a chance in public, you know, to invite, you know, people from the city council and the community, you know, any chance like that.

[Nicholas Karinge]: And of course, as that day comes, as we know when that day will be, we will let you guys know so that at least you guys know and if you're available to come, you're more than welcome. Aside from that, Does anyone else have anything to add on that note? All right, well then once again, thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your work on that point. We were ecstatic last night to get that 7000 vote and we are looking forward to the future. Yay.

Yes sir. Now, anybody have anything else that they want to put forward? before we move to the public participation. Okay. And with that, Mark, you are welcome to this meeting. Thank you so much for having joined us. This is your moment to say whatever you want to say to the commission.

[CAS00002364_SPEAKER_00]: Well, just thank you for having me. And right now I'll just listen in and learn and pay attention. And as we go, I will start to speak and then you'll be telling me to shut up.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Well, hey, we count ourselves lucky to have you here. And you had mentioned that you are a veteran, so as I'm sure I speak for myself and Ms. Bradford, thank you for your service to our country. We honour you. And so, thank you. We are also looking forward to having you and to having you join us more and to hearing your voice and your thoughts. As I'm sure Anthony has told you, we meet every fourth Wednesday of the month, same time, same place. And although we do take a summer hiatus during July and August, so we do not meet in those two months, but you are more You are more than welcome, sir. And so thank you for being here tonight.

[Nicholas Karinge]: OK. All right, well, that has been moved by Anthony and seconded by John. And so thank you guys. I think we can move on. What do y'all say? Have an awesome night.

[Nicholas Karinge]: Thank you very much. You too. Thank you, John, for being co-host.