2010-12-01 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 4 Tom showed the Committee on People with Disabilities website,a community site and open forum. He described how useful this tool is for posting educational materials and increasing communication. He said this site represents the ears, eyes, and voice of a lot of people that cannot make it to the meetings or travel to events, and yet need to be included in the dialog. However, they have not solved access for people with visual or hearing impairments. Brian DeLima said that people on the site could join in on “Forum” under issues recommended for discussion by the committee.One could load the Mobi mat presentation, and when things happen one could disseminate information. Advocates could post information, concerns, and ideas on line. Links can be added,i.e.,which has a link to the County website Committee agendas and minutes. R. Wagner-Wright said he was concerned. He cannot use this site because it is not accessible. He did not say that we should not use this but it is aconcern that it could pose a potential civil rights lawsuit. T. Callos said somebody is probably working on it and to go to the creator site to ask who is dealing with access for people with visual impairments. B. DeLima said the County is not paying for this site. It is Paige De Lima’s personal site. There has to be reasonable accommodations.Videos on a website need to be explained. The purpose is to facilitate communication. This is not the only way to communicate.Letters and phone calls are still used to include everyone. P. DeLima said we can find out how to make it accessible. Inclusion is very important. E. Hanoa said it needs to start at the beginning. You must keep in mind that it is going to be used by people with visual impairments as you design it. R. Wagner-Wright said the law is very clear which he was not against the use of this. Just concerned about accommodating people by putting simple code on the