2008-11-07 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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D. PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT – A. MITCHENER A. Mitchener provided her report on the Aquatics Division, Recreation Division, community networking, and beach access. Report attached. M. Gleason reported that MCPD members should have received an update of the transition plan from the Department of Parks and Recreation with the last packet. E. ADA TRAINING FOR EMPLOYERS – M. GLEASON M. Gleason reported that there was a good turnout of employers at the Workforce Solutions Workshop held on October 16, 2008 in the Aupuni Center conference room. T. Spinola-Campbell provided ADA training for the workshop and hopefully more ADA training will be given for employers. NEW BUSINESS A. TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT M. Gleason reported that MCPD members’ terms are co-terminus with the current Mayor. Therefore, members need to reapply if she/he would like to serve on the committee since there will be a new Mayor. An Application for Hawaii County Boards and Commissions was circulated to MCPD members. J. Souza expressed his concerns that MCPD members’ commitment is weak. A lot of members have been absent and not attending meetings. He feels that people in the community need MCPD’s help. Last month, the meeting was cancelled and several people wanted to attend the meeting so they got mad at him. He suggested that people who apply to serve on the committee must commit. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NON-AGENDA ISSUES None. ANNOUNCEMENTS L. Tobosa announced that she has been appointed to serve on the Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) on Oahu.They are working on the state plan for independent living. R. Wagner-Wright is also a spokesperson for the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and he shared the latest assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired. The NFB is issuing free white canes to anybody who is certified as vision impaired or blind. Secondly, there is a new reader machine called the Victor Reader Stream which is a powerful hand held digital talking book player. People who are visually impaired and accepted into the program, can download any book, magazine, and newspaper from the NLS and keep it forever without copyright issues. Lastly, R. Wagner-Wright shared a new innovation compiled by Nokia, NFB, and the Kerswell company. Blind people can use the Nokia N85 which has the Kerswell Reader software embedded into the phone to take a picture of any text document. The phone than reads the text to the visually impaired user. Finally, R. Wagner-Wright offered his assistance and services for free to anyone. 3