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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-12-01 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES MINUTES Wednesday,December 1, 2010, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mayor’s Office Patio 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 PRESENT :Paige De Lima; Wesley Tanigawa, Laura Tobosa, Jeani Navarro, James Dias Souza, Edeltraud Hanoa, Dr. Ron Wagner-Wright with guide dog “McGarret” EXCUSED :Dareth Pung-Boteilho, Alan Parker; Deidre Sumic ABSENT: Jesslie Hook, Howard Marks, Gretchen Lawson GUESTS and OTHERS PRESENT :Alisa Mitchener, Recreation Specialist – Department of Parks & Recreation; Ku Mei Kern, Interpreter; Elwood “Woody” Kita, ADRC Coordinator; Teri Spinola-Campbell, ADA Coordinator (Equal Opportunity Officer); Gerald Takase, Corporation Counsel; Luana Ancheta-Kauwe, I&A Clerk (Hawaii County Office of Aging); Tom Callos; Brian De Lima; Chris Cholas; Karen DeSoto; Bob Pike, Corporation Counsel; Brittney Imade, Corporation Counsel Intern Mayor Billy Kenoi introduced his staff. He said everyone deserves the same opportunities to enjoy our community. Live with Aloha, dignity, and respect. He thanked all who attended. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 2:09 p.m. Committee members, staff, and guests were introduced. APPROVAL OF LAST MINUTES P. DeLima called for the approval of the last minutes. There are no minutes of the August 10, 2010 meeting due to the lack of quorum. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ISSUES None. CORRESPONDENCE None. Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 2 NEW BUSINESS A.Discussion on taking of minutes for committee meetings. W. Tanigawa asked who should take the minutes or if someone could assist Luana to take the minutes. R. Wagner-Wright clarified the question to see if it was feasible for Luana to do all the administrative and secretarial duties . . . could others help Luana with the minutes or if the secretary of each sub-committee or team takes their own minutes and give them to Luana for distribution at the next meeting. G. Takase, Corporation Counsel clarified: The Adhoc committees should take notes. Luana should be the one taking the Committee minutes and distributing Committee information. This obligation falls with the County Office of Aging due to deadlines, etc. Dr. Ron proposed that Luana would do the main committee minutes. The Adhoc teams would designate a secretary to take notes and forward them to Luana for distribution. P. De Lima called for a vote. P. De Lima seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. B.Establishment of Adhoc Teams (Previous Committee Teams: Education/Public Awareness; Recreation; Transportation; Emergency Preparedness). Previous Committee teams: Education/Public awareness; Recreation; Transportation; and Emergency Preparedness were listed. ADA Day 2011 was added by P. De Lima and Employment Services were added by J. Navaro as Adhoc Committees. R. Wagner-Wright made a motion to create the Adhoc committees as listed with the two new ones. W. Tanigawa seconded the motion. A. Mitchener asked to clarify that the Employment Services team should relate to County matters, as the purpose of the Committee was to advise the Mayor. Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 3 J. Navarro confirmed that she wished to open some doors. P. De Lima called for a vote. The motion passed unanimously. P. De Lima said everyone should think about the teams they might be interested in. A. Mitchener offered that every Adhoc team needs to be spearheaded by a committee member. C.Mobi Mats (Presentation on, and report of activities –Parks & Recreation). Alisa Mitchener said she would be happy to work with the Adhoc Recreation team. She implements the transition plan for accessible Parks and Recreation Programming. Beach access is included in the plan. A. Mitchener read text and Mobi Mat Project provided brief audio description during a slideshow of the . Mobi Mats are heavy duty woven polyester mats; temporary pathways rolled out for wheelchair access along the sand. Project photos showed participants swimming and bonding with their friends and caregivers, increasing their swim skills, using “Hippocampe” flotation devices and the beach wheelchair. They enjoyed a great summer of socializing and relaxing at the beach. Volunteer teams from the Office of Social Ministry installed the Mobi Mats once a week for the summer season. A County plan for ADA improvements at Richardsons Beach is in the design phase and includes accessible restrooms, showers, and an accessible route from the parking lot to the sand. D.Website/Face Book Presentation Tom Callos, Executive Director for Penn Hawaii Youth Foundation presented information on the NING platform used by BJ Penn for his website. NING stores ideas and brings people together. It records videos from i-phones. A player can play the videos concurrently from i-phone without interruption. It could produce a show that does not require editing because it uploads directly from an i-phone to the site and it airs within minutes. It could be a completely private site where you need to join as a member, or viewers could only see the front page, or it could be a completely public site. Tom does not represent or sell this service; he was offering this for “information only”. 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 Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 5 website so that when a blind person runs a mouse over an image, the image is described to the person. If there is video on it, there must be acode in that video and need to have audio description. The front end user is responsible for buying software that will convert text to speech. R. Wagner-Wright said if I am not able to use this website then I cannot take part in it. J. Souza felt the same as Dr. Wagner-Wright. This website is not accessible for deaf people. He felt left out. A. Mitchener asked about a new act that passed this summer by President Obama involving video and communication accessibility. T. Spinola-Campbell said she just got back from a National Conference with the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. John Wodatch (head of the Disability Rights Division, Department of Justice) said they are going to be aggressively pursuing public entities whose websites are not ADA compliant. There are concerns that it may be difficult to separate P. De Lima’s website from a County program. Previous links from a County Webpage to another non-profit agency website were severed because their website was not accessible. There are ways to test websites for accessibility, put “alt tags”on pictures, and easy ways to caption videos. T. Spinola-Campbell also reminded the Committee that there is an agreement that materials presented during the meeting need to be accessible to everyone attending the meeting. T. Callos said this online technology has evolved so rapidly, whether it is perfectly suitable now or not, it is a tool that the Committee should be familiar with. It will not be as it is six months from now. List the things needed to make it better. B. De Lima suggested finding the cost of ADA compliant software so all County Departments could become ADA compliant. “You Tube” has the captioning for videos. The Committee could look into the acquisition of software. T. Spinola-Campbell said she purchased some for Data Systems; there are different web designers in different departments that develop a plan for bringing old web pages into compliance on a scheduled basis. Our County IT department may be able to be of some assistance. Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 6 P. DeLima said she took a leap and jumped in to share information. She knows there are a lot of things to improve accessibility,and needs help. P. De Lima’s intent was to get it done and make it better together, and she never wants to leave anybody out. She said she’s learning as she goes and wants to get it done. P. De Lima called a break at 3:12p.m. for Ku Mei Kern, Interpreter for James Dias Souza. The meeting resumed at 3:29 p.m. E.ADA Day July 26, 2011 P. De Lima said the ADA Day is now an Adhoc team and asked T. Spinola- Campbell for some background. T. Spinola-Campbell said it is the anniversary of the signing of the ADA (on July 26, 1990). Last year there was a celebration and art show at the Mall. Does the Committee want the County to sponsor something to celebrate the day? W. Tanigawa said that may be the ADRC could have an open house to expose other agencies to the community. Someone from the public asked if there were plans to put Mobi Mats at other beaches. It is suggested putting the mats out at 4 or 5 beaches for ADA day. A. Mitchener said P&R has eight mats for use at Kahalu’u Beach in Kona, Spencer’s Beach Park (which has beautiful ADA access improvements), Richardson’s in Hilo, and possibly Bayfront near the canoes. The Mobi Mats are not for just any beach.These beaches were chosen for availability of lifeguards, natural conditions, safety, and access issues. Mitchener said groups in Hilo and Kona are planning and scheduling beach events now. There are a lot of considerations such as tides, built in support for safety issues, transportation, lifeguards, etc. F.The BJ Penn Anti Bullying Campaign was not mentioned. Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 7 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NON-AGENDA ISSUES Chris Cholas introduced the idea of building visitable homes and wants to meet with the update the building code to create better access to homes and Committee to offices. licensing of R. Wagner-Wright requested the Committee recommend to the Mayor the dogs and ID of Assistance dogs through the Humane Society. T. Spinola-Campbell commented that the rules regarding dog licensing are under the rules of the Director of Finance. Finance gave the licensing to Humane Society. Someone wanted their dog license to note that it was for a signal, guide, or service dog. He complained that he needed to produce a certification from a nationally recognized training school, but he had individually trained the dog. He complained that the process isinaccessible to him. The Humane Society would be able to do a voluntary notation. Under the ADA you cannot require anybody to produce certification regarding a service dog. T. Spinola-Campbell continued that the County Code has a very liberal definition that says “any dog that benefits a handicapped person is allowed”. Also the Department of Justice says that a State or County can have a law that recognizes an emotional support animal. The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission often takes a different view from the Department of Justice. County Code to reflect person A. Mitchener requested a review toward changing the first language. “Rosa’s Law” She described , a recent federal law revising language to be respectful by removing the “R”word for “retardation”and replacing it with “intellectual disabilities”. Person first language could be up for discussion at the next meeting. A.R. Wagner-Wright announced that books and materials for people that are visually impaired or “reading challenged” are available for free at the United Community Church on the corner of Kinoole and Mohouli. Included are children’s books, Braille, large print books, and cassettes. Committee on People with Disabilities December 1, 2010 Page 8 ANNOUNCEMENTS R. Wagner-Wright also announced a new non-profit service animal training center in Hilo.They do no train comfort animals. He said a guide dog foundation in Honolulu is moving into mobility services and is giving out dollar bill readers to qualified people. B.T. Spinola-Campbell announced training on December 9, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Aupuni Center Conference Room on the new ADA Amendments Act regulations: ADA Title II and Service Dog Updates for county employees. Open to members of the Committee. The Humane Society and Mary Buckley, a wellknown dog trainer, will attend. C.A. Mitchener announced the State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities meeting on December 16, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Wailoa State Park. They are seeking community input for priorities for the next 5-year State Plan. Please fill out aone page survey. D.Set the Date and Time of the Next Meeting: February 16, 2011 at the Aging and Disability Resource Center. The time to be announced. ADJOURNMENT Edeltraud Hanoa move to adjourn. Laura Tobosa seconded. Meeting was adjourned at 4:00p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Luana Ancheta-Kauwe