2013-03-27, Committee on People with Disabilities, Minutes

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ADA rules, with respect to service animals. So basically the Department of Transportation never changed their ADA rules regarding service animals to the recommended Department of Justice’s change. With Department of Justice, it’s restricted to dogs and public entities and private entities must make modifications for miniature horses. Report from Alisa Mitchener. A. Mitchener stated that Snorkel Days now will start at Hilo at Richardson’s on May 24 and continue through October on the fourth Friday of every month. We have been conducting Snorkel Days at Kahalu‘u Beach in Kona which is co-sponsored by Deep and Beyond. In Mobi Mat Days, the County has provided beach access equipment only. Those dates will be announced later. So that’s the difference between Snorkel Days and our regular Mobi Mat Days sponsored by the County, which is just beach access equipment. There is a new piece of equipment now called a mobi chair and we were able to try it out. It’s like a tricycle shaped, two thick tires in the back, one in the front, similar to our hippocampe. The County doesn’t have those bought. Deep and Beyond was able to purchase one for their own group. Hippocampe beach chair will still be important because some of the participants will remain in the mobi chair in the water, and then our chairs will be used back and forth to the waters edge. We need to reevaluate and make recommendations on beach access ideas and hippocampe loan procedures as in other counties. You can sign a waiver and have access to the wheelchair. It puts the responsibility on the families, on the individuals and caregivers. Open House programs are in Pahoa, Puueo, Yano Hall and Kona. A drumming social was just started. It will be held at Mohouli Park. The next events will be May 3, August 30 and October 25, from 2:30 to 5:30. Some drums are provided but other folks bring their drums too. An in-service training was conducted for recreation staff, which covered the ADA compliance procedures that are offered to renters of their facilities. I also provided a slide show on our open house program so I could encourage our Recreation Directors to try that at their facility. I’ve also worked with the Recreation Directors on fire, safety and evacuation programming which might tie in to your Emergency Preparedness piece on your agenda. We’re also involved with Parks and Recreation rule changes. K. KernJ. Souza – is asking if your videos and your power points have close captioning or some kind of captioning? Alisa stated that she is doing it for staff so it’s not a public kind of thing. But if she were to bring it to committee, the way it was worked in the past was there were no captions or music or anything like that, but I did ask the interpreter to 5