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Home My WebLink About2012-2-1, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes MAYOR’S COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES c/o Hawai‘i County Office of Aging, 1055 Kino‘ole Street,Suite 101, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 MINUTES Wednesday, February 1, 2012 The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at 10:00 a.m. in the Aging and Disability Resource Center Training Room, 1055 Kino‘ole Street, Suite 101, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720, with Chair Paige De Lima presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT: Paige De Lima, Chair; Wesley Tanigawa, Vice Chair; Jean Navarro, Laura Tobosa, Pauline Aughe, Janice Mancini, Jessica Arruda, Edeltraud Hanoa, James Souza, Dr. Ron Wagner-Wright, Chris Cholas. EXCUSED: Jesslie Hook, Dareth Pung-Boteilho. OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS: Alysa Mitchener, P&R; Renee Schoen, Corporation Counsel; Alan Parker, HCOA; Sandra Arriola, HCOA; Sam Nagasawa, Aloha Independent Living Hawai‘i; Mar Ortaleza, Full Life; Sharon Toriano and Teri Spinola-Campbell, HR; Ilihia Gionsin, Mayor’s Office. CALL TO ORDER: The Chair called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m. Everyone introduced themselves. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 19, 2011 MEETING: L. TobosaE. Hanoa moved to accept the minutes; seconded. All were in favor; none opposed. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Agenda Items): There were no statements from the public. The ChairChris Cholas introduced and welcomed as the newest member to the Committee. Chris has been on the Big Island since 1997. He worked with the Center for Independent Living, Disability Rights Center in Honolulu and is an active member of the Disability Rights Hawai‘i non-profit group. He was sworn in by Alan Parker. NEW BUSINESS: Discussion regarding Committee’s goals for 2012 R. Schoen explained that the Chair wanted time to discuss everyone’s general ideas regarding goals and strategies for the coming year. It was decided that the discussion could continue in more detail with the ad hoc committees, and that one person from each committee would meet with the Chair to discuss new goals. Some of the goals discussed were: 1. Transportation J. Navarro spoke about the Cornell University’s Social Security Benefits Educator Training that she attended. With all the cuts to SSI and SSDI people have been given a “ticket to work.” There are only a few employment networks where these people can go for employment services. The biggest barrier for them not being able to go to work is transportation. 2. Publicity for ADA Day P. Aughe stated that more publicity is needed for the July 26, ADA Awareness Day, which is the anniversary of when the Americans with Disabilities Act become effective. 3. Housing C. Cholas had concerns about housing. New homes should all have accessibility and visit ability features. A lot of the problems can be solved if you get more universal design standards. 4. Publicity and Public Awareness J. Navarro is hoping that in 2012, the committee could do more to promote itself and suggested a report like a press release for media. P. Aughe suggested more publicity including radio and public access. Dr. Ron would like Education Committee to consider doing some public awareness on the actual ADA Federal Guidelines and the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes 374 Guidelines for Service Animals so people would know what is a service dog, and what is not a service dog. 5. Training P. Aughe feels that one of the goals is to train all County employees across the board on just how to get a better flow in the offices and how they interact with disabled people. They spoke about incidents they had at different agencies and establishments on the island. 2 Also discussed were pamphlets regarding rules on guide dogs. BREAK: 11:00 – 11:20 Introduction of County of Hawai‘i Website Accessibility: Mayor William P. Kenoi – Guest Speaker A. Parker introduced the Mayor by stating he was able to get $200,000 grant to do much of the interior work for the ADRC facility through the help of Mayor Kenoi. The Mayor provided contact information and guidance as to steps A. Parker needed to take to enable funding through Senator Inouye’s office. A. Parker added that the only time he has ever gotten scolded by the mayor was when he didn’t move fast enough in getting this committee up and running. The Mayor has been very supportive of this facility and what we do, not only the aging programs and services, but for the disabilities community as well. The Mayor stated that this Aging and Disability Resource Center’s vision and actual implementation, took a lot of collaboration, partnership and determination to make it happen. He thanked Paige for the persistence, determination and relentlessness she has for the disability community. It’s always for someone else, never for herself. The Mayor thanked the Committee for their hard work and for volunteering their time. The Chair stated that it was upon the advice of the committee that the Mayor’s Bert Tsuchiya Office implemented an accessible website. , Director of I.T. and Sheila Cadaoas were introduced. Sheila was instrumental in overseeing the IlihiaGionsin process of migrating all the files to the website. spoke about the two websites – hawaiicounty.gov which is the overall county website; and hawaiicountymayor.com, and the changes that were made to them to make it accessible by assistive technology. He thanked those that helped, including Sharon Toriano and Teri Spinola-Campbell from HR, Paige and the Committee, Ian Mitchener, Alisa’s son. Dr. Ron gave a demonstration from his laptop which was made accessible by assistive technology. County of Hawai‘i, ADA Recreational Specialist, Alisa Mitchener and Pauline Aughe – Video Presentation A. Mitchener spoke about the year that the committee had together and the things that went on – ADA Day, ADA awareness in recreation, improving access to communication and services, speakers from ARC of Kona, presentations for county staff by Dr. Ron. In order for the committee to get to know each other better, Pauline produced a video presentation of interviews of committee members which was shown. J. Souza had some issues regarding no captioning. 3 A. MitchenerChair and the both stated that this is one of the reasons for the J. Souza interpreter, and suggested that the video be stopped. said to go ahead J. Souza with it. After the video ended, stated that if deaf people were to be shown this, it would start a riot because people don’t think of what deaf people go through, and they are sick and tired of having this happen to them again and again. So, where’s our accessibility? If I didn’t have an interpreter here, what would we do? A. Mitchener stated that it was her assumption that they were providing access to this through the interpreter for today. This was just for our committee to stimulate conversation, to understand and meet each person, and to see how they would answer these questions spontaneously so we could get to know them. The idea is to see how each of us would answer those questions for ourselves and to come back and keep the conversation going. It’s good that you voice the importance of captioning because that ties in with technology. It ties in with making a web accessible because video is a part of on-line communication now. And we need to understand that captions are part of video. So we’ll work best to make it useful. Is that okay? J. Souza stated that he now understands what the committee was doing. Year End Report of Ad Hoc Committees The Chair stated that the year end reports for all ad hoc committees are printed up and everyone should have one. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None There are no Unfinished Business. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 12 noon. Respectfully submitted, Sandra Arriola 4