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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011_1115_Meeting Minutes_APPROVED Meeting Minutes - Approved as circulated 1/17/12 Mayor's Advisory Committee For Equal Access (MACFEA) Tuesday, November 16, 2011 Mo'ikeha Building, Meeting Room 2A/2B 4444 Rice Street, Uhu'e, HI 96766 Members present: Rita Manriquez - State Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board (STBIAB); Linda Nuland-Ames - Director RSVP, COK Elderly Affairs; Roberta Eiben - Consumer; Rhoda Rojas - Hawai'i Center for Independent Living-Kaua'i (HCIL); Ana Valdez - Family Advocate; Dawn Cummings - Family Advocate; Dr. Lucy Miller- DCAB (Disability and Communication Access Board) Board member; Kathy English - Hawai'i Disability Rights Center; Sharry Glass - Advocate, Teacher/Trainer; Betty Bell - Kaua'i Federation for the Blind Staff members also present: Christina Pilkington -ADA Coordinator; Marc Guyot - Deputy County Attorney; Barbara Davis - Support Clerk; Paula Morikami - Administrative Aide. Captioner: Karen Yates - Caption First. Members absent or excused: El Doi - Kaua'i Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC); Elena Costales - Consumer, KCIL Volunteer Call to Order Chair Linda Nuland-Ames called the meeting to order at 12:02 p.m. with 8 members present and 2 members joining shortly thereafter. Approval of July 19, 2011 Minutes Action: Ms. English moved to approve the minutes of July 19, 2011 , as circulated. Ms. Glass seconded the motion. Motion carried 8:0 Communications • Parliamentary Procedures: 8 Steps in a Motion • Hawai'i Revised Statutes §103-50, Report of Activities relating to facility access for persons with disabilities, July 1 , 2010 through June 30, 2011 (report on file with Boards & Commissions Office) • Annual Report, FY 2010-2011 , Disability and Communication Access Board (report on file with Boards & Commissions Office) Action: Ms. English moved to accept the communications as distributed. Ms. Glass seconded the motion. Motion carried 8:0 Business o Suggestions from MACFEA Members on Recommendations for Goals and Objectives for 2011/12 Fiscal Year (tabled from 7/19/11 meeting) MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 1 Ms. Davis read suggestions received via e-mail from Ms. Glass. One idea was to consider soliciting or advertising that the Committee was open to hearing residents' suggestions and concerns regarding accessibility in the Kaua'i community. This would help the Committee become aware of barriers affecting people who are not on the Committee. Ms. Glass had also suggested including an objective concerning service dogs and how to get new legislation affecting behaviors of these animals on multi-use paths, TSA at the airport and in public places. (Dr. Lucy joined the meeting at 12:09 p.m.) Asked how the County advertises that the meetings are open to the public, Ms. Davis said that every meeting of every County board, commission and committee is open to the public, unless it is an Executive Session item, in accordance with the State's Sunshine Law. Additionally, all agendas, minutes and accompanying agenda items are posted on the County's Website on the appropriate webpage. Someone from the Committee may wish to get a story line going with one of the reporters and get information out that way. (Betty Bell joined the meeting at 12:15 p.m.) After a brief discussion of submitting articles to the newspaper that would bring awareness to people regarding access barriers, Chair Nuland-Ames said they had considered that but the newspaper did not show much interest and said they would look at items submitted to see if they were termed news worthy; the interest from the former MACFEA committee faded at that point. Ms. Pilkington recalled something with the Department of Justice that says that you are annually supposed to make communities aware of ADA coordinators, where their offices are, names and contact information. Ms. Pilkington said if the Committee was interested in increasing public awareness of MACFEA's purpose and contributions they could put a short article in the paper and include information on the office of the ADA coordinator. Dr. Lucy said they need to tie in access to high-speed communication throughout the County facilities with the Mayor's Holo Holo goals. Because of the long range planning and difficulties in obtaining interpreters, Wi-Fi could allow for remote captioning with minimal notice. Ms. Pilkington said they had been working with the Information Technology (IT) Department and found that installing Wi-Fi and Hi-Fi in the meeting rooms was quite a larger task than what was originally thought. Chair Nuland-Ames reminded the Committee that they were working on recommendations for goals and objectives and they can address the points of how to get there at future meetings. MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 2 Dr. Lucy suggested they use broader language such as to make use of current and future technology to promote better access for more individuals. Chair Nuland-Ames recapped the 2011-2012 goals and objectives that are to be considered. I. Identify county services or sites requiring oversight to address access barriers A. Access to high-speed communications (Wi-Fi/Hi-Fi) in all of the County's meeting spaces for people who rely upon line captioning (text) or online video interpreters; B. A more equitable paratransit schedule; C. Subsidized bus passes for people with disabilities; D. Continue ADA awareness training to all County employees Ms. Bell felt the language should include verbalization for the vision-impaired. Ms. Glass moved to amend Item A to include the words "communication access" and to include accommodations for those who are visually impaired or blind. Dr. Lucy seconded the motion. Dr. Lucy suggested they have a committee put together the wording that would not only encompass the Mayor's suggestions but would include visualization and current technology. Dr. Lucy said she would be happy to work with that committee. Ms. Pilkington said that auxiliary aids are alternate formats for people who are impaired and include remote captioning, remote interpreting and ASL interpreters in person, to name a few. As the Committee develops the goal they need to remember it is effective communication with the provision of auxiliary aids through the most modern technology. Chair Nuland-Ames asked for a ruling from legal counsel as to requirements under the Sunshine Law to form a subcommittee. Attorney Guyot said the formulation of a subcommittee would need to be done through an agenda item (to define the scope of the investigation and each member's authority. The findings and recommendations of the subcommittee would be presented at a subsequent meeting of the board with deliberation and decision-making occurring at the next agendaed meeting.) Chair Nuland-Ames said it would be January before they could form a subcommittee and then March before there would be a report on their findings. Ms. Glass suggested they change the present goals to a format the Committee could accept then form a subcommittee for the implementation of the goals. MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 3 Action: Ms. Glass moved to amend Item A of the goals to read: Provide more effective communication access to include Wi-Fi/Hi-Fi in all of the County's meeting spaces using the most modern technology and to take into account verbalization methods. Ms. Bell seconded the motion. Motion carried 10:0. Action: Ms. Glass moved to add Item E to read: Increase public awareness of MACFEA's activities and efforts to ensure more public participation. Dr. Lucy seconded the motion. Motion carried 10:0. Ms. Glass suggested they consider adding a goal which would monitor legislation for service animals and the use of the multiuse path in particular and activities involving service animals on Kaua'i. Ms. Pilkington said she would bring the Committee up to date at the next meeting on changes in the law pertaining to service animals and certification was no longer required. Action: Ms. Glass moved to add Item F to read: Monitor certification and information concerning legislation and activities involving service animals on Kaua'i. Ms. Bell seconded the motion. Dr. Lucy was not in favor of a goal limited to service animals but felt there should be general updates on all ADA issues. Ms. Valdez agreed that updated information on ADA changes in general would be beneficial to the Committee members. Ms. Rojas also agreed that the goals should be more in general since they were people with disabilities and they serve people with different disabilities. Motion failed 0:10 (nays) o Rice Street Crosswalk Report - Ms. Rojas Because Ms. Rojas needed to leave the meeting, the Rice Street Crosswalk Report was taken out of order. Ms. Rojas said that she had been trying to make contact with the Public Works Division but had not heard back from anyone regarding the crosswalk across from the Round Building. Ms. Rojas said she would continue trying to make contact and would report back to the Committee in January. Ms. Rojas exited the meeting at 1 :02 p.m. Chair Nuland-Ames asked if there was another motion to add an Item F to the goals. MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 4 Action: Ms. Glass moved to add Item F to read: The ADA coordinator will report changes which have occurred to ADA providing updates and information on their impacts on Kauai. Ms. English seconded the motion. Motion carried 9:0. Action: Ms. Glass moved to accept Items A through F as amended as the Goals for Fiscal Year 2011/2012. Ms. Bell seconded the motion. Motion carried 9:0. o Kamalani Camping Area Update from the ADA Coordinator Ms. Pilkington noted there was not a lot to report at this time. The administrative rules for the camping site are waiting to be adopted by the County Council. Once they have been adopted, there will be 15 camping sites, including 3 which are accessible camping sites. Reports o DCAB reports for August, September, October and November, 2011 — Dr. Lucy Dr. Lucy said the DCAB committee meeting scheduled for this morning was cancelled at the very last second. The regular board meeting is scheduled for Thursday. The reports circulated look very accurate and there was nothing new to add. o Report on Access Barrier concerns from the ADA Coordinator Ms. Pilkington said there was nothing new to report at this time. The County has completed the settlement agreement with the Department of Justice. The County continues to work on the original transition plan which will always need to be updated because there will always be new access barriers to address. Ms. Glass said they would like to know what some of those barriers are and that they are being addressed such as the standards for bus stop shelters. Ms. Pilkington said that the Transportation Department has a plan that is part of the Mayor's Holo Holo project to shelter all of the bus stops. Bus stops are affected by the lay of the land as well as those stops that are shared between the State and the DOE. The Complete Streets project also addresses accessible bus stops. o Updates /Announcements Ms. Bell said the Federation of the Blind is attempting to amend the federal labor act to remove the section that provided employers to pay a person for a job at a lesser rate than the going standard minimum wage for those who are disabled. We feel that if the person can do the job, regardless of any disability, they ought to be paid the same rate. Another interesting thing is the stop lights in a lot of the other countries make noise but not on Kaua'i or in the United States. The new electric cars make no noise which makes it quite dangerous for a blind person at a very busy intersection. Toyota and MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 5 General Motors have agreed, with pressure from the blind, to make those cars so they can at least be heard. Also, there are a lot of applications used in post-graduate education and the universities have not made these accessible to the blind since we cannot see the screens, so we are after those universities. Another interesting item is it costs one dollar more for a company to make an ATM accessible to the blind but they weren't doing it until we went after them. Ms. Bell exited the meeting at 1 :13 p.m. Ms. English announced that the Hawai'i Disability Rights Center has an interim acting Executive Director, Louis Erteschik, who is an attorney. Ms. Manriquez said the State Traumatic Brain Injury Association of Hawai'i will be hosting a conference next year on March 8 and 9. Due to logistics, Ms. Manriquez will not be able to participate in the planning but will receive minutes of all the meetings and can update the MACFEA members. Ms. Eiben said she would be participating in the Special Olympics bowling tournament to be held December 3 on O'ahu. Dr. Lucy pointed out that it is not the certification of the training program that makes a good service animal but the continual reinforcement and work that the owner puts in on a daily basis with their dog. Many times Dr. Lucy said she does not need to take her service dog with her but she does because of that need for continual reinforcement. Also, Dr. Lucy said she and Ms. Pilkington have been working with the County's Transportation Department to help the bus drivers, in particular, understand the difference between a service dog, a comfort dog which is not a service dog according to law, and a pet. The drivers are not allowed to ask about a disability so we work with them to learn how to find out and to not make an issue of it. We tell them how, even a certified service animal, can be evicted from the bus if they misbehave. Ms. Valdez reported that she is facilitating a support group for those with neuromuscular diseases and they will be meeting in this same room on December 3. Chair Nuland-Ames said she would like to have a discussion at the January meeting about possibly changing the time of the meeting. Every meeting, members have to leave before the meeting is over because they rely on paratransit transportation. Action: Ms. Glass moved to adjourn the meeting at 1 :23 p.m. Ms. Manriquez seconded the motion. Motion carried 8:0 Respectfully submitted by: Barbara Davis, Staff Support ( ) Approved as circulated ( ) Approved as amended MACFEA- November 15, 2011 Page 6