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Mayor’s
Disability Council
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D R A F T
Mayor’s Disability Council
Minutes
16 February 2001
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Willie
L. Brown, Jr.
Mayor
Sergio
Alunan
Co-Chair
Vincent
Behan
Jim
Brune
Claudia
Center
Ed
Evans
Viola
Jackson
Michael
Kwok
August
Longo
Frank
Marone
Damien
Pickering
Walter
Park
Council
Secretary
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1 ROLL CALL
Mayor’s Disability Council Members Present: Sergio
Alunan, Vincent Behan, Jim Brune, Ed Evans and Damien Pickering.
Absent: Michael Kwok, August Longo and Frank Marone.
Mayor’s Office on Disability: Walter Park, Director;
Richard Skaff, Deputy Director; Susan Mizner, Assistant Director; and Jada Jackson,
Assistant to the Director.
Co-Chair Vincent Behan, called the meeting to order at 1:13
p.m.
2 APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA.
The agenda was approved.
3 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES.
The minutes were approved.
4 PUBLIC COMMENT.
· Bob Planthold announced that the Grand Jury of the
Superior Court is seeking applicants for next year’s body. The Grand Jury is
appointed by the Courts to monitor City Government. An application is on file
at the Main Library. To request a copy of the 1999-2000 Grand Jury report call
551-3605.
· Joe Speaks, staff of Walk San Francisco, discussed
his agency’s interest in the issue of sidewalk obstructions and will inform
the Mayor’s Disability Council of upcoming meetings.
· Mary Skyer, staff of the Independent Living Resource
Center of San Francisco, pointed out that the additional tv monitor is helpful.
Ms. Skyer expressed her dismay that there was no quorum at 1:00 pm.
· Marti Goddard, the Access Services Director at the
Public Library, announced an event sponsored by Disability Advocates of Minorities
Organization (DAMO). The event will take place Saturday, February 17th
at 2:00 pm in the Public Library.
5 REPORT FROM THE CO-CHAIR.
Vincent Behan, Co-Chair, reported on the following:
· There is a lack of improvement with vehicles parked
on sidewalks. Mr. Behan urged people to call the Department of Parking and Traffic,
at 553-1631, when cars are seen parked on sidewalks.
6 REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR.
Walter Park, Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability
gave a report on the following:
· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been working
on the Self-Evaluation Plan. Departments and community members were asked to
review a survey and give their input. This survey is a programmatic description
of what services are actually being offered in departments and the accessibility
of those services. This survey will be sent out to City departments in March.
· The Transition Plan on the Self-Evaluation is in
the stage of collecting and verifying data from the site visits. The information
from these sites are being reviewed to identify the budget implications and
what the transition will be on sites which are inaccessible or partially inaccessible.
· Mr. Park attended a meeting of the Laguna Honda Independent
Living Task Force. An important development is that there will be a Transition
Unit for people who are 90 days away from transitioning out of Laguna Honda
Hospital. Another important development is the mentoring program for the patients
who are moving toward independent living and the training for the staff who
are working with these patients.
· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been continuing
its work regarding the Airport’s parking rate change in the short term lots
for people with disabilities. The Airport did not provide notice that the parking
rates were changing, so anyone who would like for the Mayor’s Office on Disability
to assist them in receiving a refund can call the office at 554-6789.
Susan Mizner, Assistant Director of Programmatic Accessibility
gave a brief report:
· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been working
with some of the housing providers and the Mayor’s Office on Housing to educate
them on the obstacles that the first come, first served approach in taking applications,
created for people with disabilities. A two-page list of recommendations have
been sent to all of the housing providers that contract with the City. This
list will be the standard by which the Mayor’s Office on Housing will evaluate
how the housing providers accept applications. Some of the recommendations are:
¬ Provide an open application
window of at least two weeks.
¬ Choose applications
using a lottery, which gives everyone an equal chance of getting chosen for
the housing.
¬ Provide notice that
there is help available for assistance in filling out the application or for
explaining the process.
¬ Provide receipts
as verification of submitting an application.
· The Human Rights Commission is having a hearing on
February 28th to evaluate the standards it should use in certifying
minority and women business-owned businesses. The Commission is having this
hearing because a woman with a disability has been unable to meet the local
business requirements because of her disability. The Human Rights Commission
would like to hear input from the disability community addressing these three
questions:
¬ Would certifying
businesses located outside the City, owned by disabled individuals, whose
disabilities interfere with their ability to commute to a business in the
City, fundamentally alter the local business enterprise program?
¬ Should the Minority
Business Enterprise, Women Business Enterprise and Local Business Enterprise
Program be expanded to include disabled business owners as a separate category
for a bid preferences or discounts in the program and if so, how?
¬ Are there measures
short of recommending a new preference or discount category that would make
these minority, women and local business owned enterprises more accessible
to business owners with disabilities?
Richard Skaff, Deputy Director of Physical Accessibility
of the Mayor’s Office on Disability gave a brief report:
· The Mayor’s Office on Disability
completed a test on two emergency evacuation chairs that are used to evacuate
people with disabilities out of high rise and low rise buildings. Staff from
the Fire Department and the Department of Emergency Services participated in
this test and suggested the most appropriate piece of equipment that should
be used.
· The Planning Department
has created a new zoning policy that will help individuals with disabilities
when there’s a zoning issue Susan Mizner has been working with the Planning
Department and the City Attorney’s office to develop improved access in the
planning system for people with disabilities.
7 COMMITTEE REPORTS.
REPORT FROM THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE:
Richard Rothman, Chair of the Employment Committee, gave
a summary of the activities of the Employment Committee:
· Items on the agenda for
the next meeting include continuing discussions on reasonable accommodations
and the City medical questionnaire. Staff from "New Ways to Work",
which is a program that brings youth into an internship in City Government,
will discuss this program. Goals for the Employment Committee for the year 2001
will be discussed.
· There has been active communication
between Vocational Rehabilitation and the Office of Emergency Services. Vocational
Rehabilitation has recommended some people with disabilities for placement as
Emergency Communication Dispatchers. If people are interested in the dispatcher
jobs, call The Office of Emergency Services at 558-3800. The phone number for
Vocational Rehabilitation is 904-7100.
· The Employment Committee
meets the third Tuesday of every month in City Hall, Room 421 at 4:00 p.m.
REPORT FROM THE PHYSICAL ACCESS COMMITTEE.
Richard Skaff, staff of the Physical Access Committee, gave
a brief report:
· There was a site review
on a proposed ground surface material at Rincon Park, which is located on the
Embarcadero at Folsom Street. The test path was made of concrete blocks with
grass between as the proposed path of travel. It was determined that this surface
material would not be adequate in providing an accessible path of travel.
8 NEW DEPARTMENT OF AGING AND ADULT SERVICES.
Walter Park introduced Sandra Nathan, Executive Director
of the new Department of Aging and Adult Services. Mr. Park commended the staff
of the Department of Aging and Adult Services for being the first department
to provide the Council with all materials in advance in alternate formats.
Sandra Nathan gave a brief overview of the Department of
Aging and Adult Services:
· Throughout the State of
California, there is a movement toward the integration of services to seniors
and adults into a single organizational structure. The drive behind this movement
is the recognition for the need for improved service access, an anticipated
increase in the aging population, and a more cost-effective use of services.
· In July 2000, the Mayor’s
Budget Office approved the creation of the Department of Aging and Adult Services,
which currently consists of three divisions: The Commission on the Aging, the
Public Administrator/Guardian Department and the Mental Health Conservatorship.
· Ms. Nathan created three
working groups to analyze existing service structures and to make recommendations
for integrating their service systems. Those working groups are Program, Fiscal/Administration
and Technology. These groups are comprised of staff from the three divisions,
providers, consumers and labor representatives. To date, administrative functions
such as payroll, accounting and budgeting have been integrated into one unit
as recommended.
· The vision of the Department
of Aging and Adult Services is to provide innovative, creative and high quality
services that will enable older and functionally impaired individuals to remain
as independent as possible in their homes and communities. Services will be
culturally appropriate and consumer responsive. These services will be integrated
into a comprehensive system of care that will offer one-stop shopping for consumers.
· The mission of the Department
of Aging and Adult Services is to assist older and functionally impaired adults
and their families to maximize self-sufficiency, safety, health and independence,
so that they can remain living in the community for as long as possible and
maintain the highest quality of life. The Department coordinates an integrated,
comprehensive range of social, mental health and long term care services that
fosters independence and self-reliance in the least restrictive environment
and protects the rights of those who are no longer able to advocate for themselves.
· Some of the goals of the
Department of Aging and Adult Services are to consolidate county agencies that
are in the business of providing support to the disability community, create
a consumer responsive service delivery system, make services more accessible
and affordable to consumers with multiple needs and to provide advocacy for
seniors, disabled adults, veterans and families.
· Ms. Nathan pointed out
that some of the benefits of integration are easy access to multiple programs
and services, administrative savings, and increased impact on local services.
· Some of the opportunities
for the Department of Aging and Adult Services is to have one planning process
with the Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services for
acute and long term care services, joint advocacy in encouraging the testing
of other service integration models to maximize and build upon the current local
planning process and joint advocacy with the Board of Supervisors to ensure
ongoing commitment.
· The Department of Aging
and Adult Services received a $1.7 million grant from the California Department
of Aging. Through this grant the Department is establishing SF-Get Care, a web-based
information system that will centralize the Department’s database and will be
used to address the need and demand for home and community-based services.
· The Department of Aging
and Adult Services would like to receive recommendations of individuals to serve
on the Commission of Aging and Adult Services.
Vincent Behan asked if there would be a centralized intake
system that would allow for a person to fill out one application that could
be used for all the City programs.
Ms. Nathan pointed out that this program offers one centralized
intake system and then makes a referral for appropriate case management and
assessment.
Sergio Alunan asked for the timeline on when In-Home Support
Services (IHSS) would be combined with the Commission of Aging and Adult Services.
Ms. Nathan responded that at the present time the Department
is consolidating and integrating Adult Protective Services effective July 1,
2001 and that In-Home Support Services will be incorporated later in the year.
Ms. Nathan pointed out that the Hospital Council awarded the Department of Aging
and Adult Services funding for a full-time Discharge Planning Coordinator, who
will be responsible for coordinating all the activities with In-Home Support
Services.
9 RECOMMENDATION FROM PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS COMMITTEE.
The following language was recommended by the Programmatic
Access Committee to be used as notice to all City contractors of their obligations
under disability rights laws. The Mayor’s Disability Council amended and approved
the following language:
In the context of disability, non-discrimination includes,
but is not limited to:
1. Providing notice to the public of their rights under
the Americans with Disabilities Act:
2. Providing reasonable modifications in policies, practices
and procedures "in a timely manner";
3. Providing materials in alternative formats and having
auxiliary aids and services available in order to ensure communication access
"in a timely manner";
4. Ensuring that your service areas and bathrooms are architecturally
accessible to people with disabilities (or that programmatic solutions to architectural
barriers are provided, such as an equally accessible alternate location to meet
with people).
10 TRAINING ON DISABILITY RIGHTS LAWS: PART ONE, OVERVIEW.
Walter Park explained that this training is the first of
six to eight training’s being done in response to numerous requests by members
of the Mayor’s Disability Council. Mr. Park acknowledged the many City Departmental
ADA Coordinators who were in attendance for this training. Mr. Park read the
first slide of the presentation, which is from an ordinance from the City of
Chicago that was adopted in 1911:
"It is hereby prohibited for any person, who is diseased,
maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting
object, to expose himself to public view."
Mr. Park introduced Marilyn Golden, staff of the Disability
Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), who performs training’s on the Americans
with Disabilities Act and other disability civil rights laws.
Marilyn Golden gave a brief overview of DREDF. DREDF is
a national law and policy center on people’s rights with disabilities. DREDF
has been involved over the last 20 years in the development and defense of all
the federal disability civil rights laws and policies. DREDF has a toll-free
hot line, which is available to answer questions on the American’s with Disabilities
Act, the phone number is (800) 466-4232.
Training notes are attached.
11 MEMBER REQUEST FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS.
Ed Evans made the following requests for future agenda items:
· Ed Lee, the new director
of the Department of Public Works, to be invited to discuss the new changes
he has planned for the Department.
· Staff from the City department
that issues permits for parades and street fairs to discuss accessibility issues.
· The topic of creating a
disability class for the Bay-to-Breakers race for people using wheelchairs and
prosthetic devices.
12 CORRESPONDENCE.
Walter Park stated that there was one letter received from
a member of the public to the Council, which was a request for assistance for
a relative. This correspondence was referred to Jose Caedo, Client Assistant
of the Mayor’s Office on Disability, and was forwarded to some Council members.
13 COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Jim Brune thanked the Mayor’s Office on Disability for the
additional TV monitor with captioning.
Walter Park thanked the ADA Coordinators, who were in attendance
at the meeting.
14 PUBLIC COMMENT.
Alison Lum introduced herself to the Mayor’s Disability
Council and expressed her interest in applying for a seat on the Council.
Ms. Lum stated that she would be bringing issues related to low-income and
no-income issues in the disability communities.
15 ADJOURNMENT.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:42 p.m.
Training Notes
February 2001, Mayor’s Disability Council Meeting
· Prior to the 1970’s, segregation
and exclusion were legally sanctioned. In addition to the fact that it was legal
to discriminate, the burden of dealing with the consequences of disability rested
on the individual. Attempts were made to medically and vocationally rehabilitate,
but disability was a medical issue, not a social issue and society had no responsibility
to remove barriers to equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination
primarily on the basis of race, religion, national origin and sex. This does
not include disability. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination
in three basic areas: programs and activities receiving federal funds, employment
and public accommodations.
· Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 protected people with disabilities from discrimination only in programs
and activities receiving federal funds.
· Section 501 prohibited
discrimination against Federal employees with disabilities.
· Section 503 prohibited
discrimination against people with disabilities in employment by any employer
who contracts with the Federal Government. This law for the first time recognized
that all people with disabilities belong to a class, regardless of what disability
they have. Section 503 covered anybody who contracted with the Federal Government
to the amount of $2500.00. Everyone in this class had in common the experience
of discrimination. Discrimination was recognized as the root cause of isolation,
segregation and second-class citizenship. Therefore this marked a significant
shift in what it meant to deal with the consequences of disability from the
individual to society. Section 503 is the only disability law that involves
affirmative action, whereas the other laws are only nondiscrimination laws.
The Education for all Handicapped Children’s Act was passed in 1975, which has
been renamed "The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act." This
law mandated a free public education for every disabled child in the least restrictive
environment appropriate for the child and also required schools to provide related
services to children in the educational setting. This is probably the least
well implemented civil right, but it has made a lot of strides in the last five
years.
· In 1977, the promise of
Section 504 became a reality, when the first massive coordinated effort of the
disability rights movement succeeded in obtaining strong regulations by which
to enforce Section 504. In San Francisco, people with disabilities held demonstrations
at the Federal Building for almost a month in protest to the failure of the
Federal Administration to put out these regulations. This act of civil disobedience
was the focal point that led to the signing of the regulations, which are in
Section 504. In 1980 the victory of Section 504 regulations became threatened
by what was then the new presidential administration. It was revealed that the
administration’s intention was to deregulate Section 504. Again, there was a
massive coordination of the disability movement and it succeeded in preventing
the deregulation.
· In the late 80’s two laws
were passed. The Civil Rights Restoration Act, which reinstated some laws related
to Section 504, was passed. Congress also passed the Fair Housing Amendments
Act, which was a landmark mandate that demonstrated that Congress recognized
that ensuring nondiscrimination for people with disabilities required physical
changes. The Fair Housing Amendments Act is a series of amendments to the Fair
Housing Act of 1968. The main thrust of the amendments was to strengthen the
original law, to add protection for people with disabilities and families with
children.
· All of the national disability
organizations, labor unions, other civil rights groups and women’s groups worked
on the passage of the ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 protects
people with disabilities from discrimination in five basic areas: employment,
public accommodations, activities of state and local government, transportation
and telecommunications. The ADA had so many parts to it that it went through
five Congressional Committees. The provision of the telecommunications relay
service, established a central operator bank to provide a service that enables
hearing impaired people who use TTY to communicate with people who don’t have
TTY’s. The implementation of the telecommunications section of the ADA meant
that people who used TTY’s in California were then free to call people elsewhere
in the country and be called by them. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is
not specifically a civil rights law but increases the providing of people with
disabilities of civil rights, particularly people with communication-related
disabilities such as people with visual impairments, hearing impairments, speech
disabilities, cognitive disabilities and other disabilities as well. This Act
requires that written materials are provided in Braille, large print, taped,
disk and other formats for people with visual impairments. It is required that
interpreters, assistive listening devices, captions and other services are provided
for people with hearing impairments. Each individual with a communication disability
is required to receive whatever auxiliary aids that are needed to achieve effective
communication. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 225 required telecommunications
equipment to be accessible if it was readily achievable for the manufacturers
to do so. There will be more of a campaign to encourage people to make complaints
with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over electronic and telecommunications
commitment that they buy, that doesn’t have the accessibility features that
are needed. There may be enforcement actions the FCC can bring if it receives
complaints. The reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act added Section 508
to the Rehabilitation Act. This section is still being implemented and requires
that telecommunications equipment purchased by the Federal Government be accessible.
Manufacturers are doing more in anticipation of Section 508 than they were doing
under the Telecommunications Act because they want the Federal Government to
become one of their purchasers. None of the laws have required captioning of
TV programs and movies, but the US Access Board’s latest revision of the ADA
Accessibility Guidelines elicited comments about movie captioning.
· The Americans with Disabilities
Act, as well as Section 504 are the main laws covering surface transportation
and transportation on the ground. The three types of transportation that are
required to provide accessible service for people with disabilities are fixed-route
buses (i.e. the City bus), paratransit and rail transit (i.e. Muni and BART).
· The Air Carrier Access
Act of 1986 was implemented by Congress to remove any discriminatory practices
from the nation’s airlines. This Act has been a difficult law to work with because
it doesn’t have as strong an enforcement requirement as the other disability
laws. Over the years many passengers report significant improvements in service,
but many people who use motorized wheelchairs still have problems with airline
services.
· There are many requirements
of city services. The service animal rules are a subset of the general rules
under the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring cities, counties, states
and other local governments to modify policies, practices and procedures to
avoid discriminating against people with disabilities. One example of the modification
of policy is a modification of a no pet’s policy to allow service animals. Other
requirements include the requirement not to impose eligibility criteria that
would screen out people with disabilities in a way that ends up having a discriminatory
effect. For example, if a city library had a policy that a driver’s license
was required as identification in order to get a library card. Since there are
some classes of people with disabilities who cannot get a driver’s license,
this policy would be in effect discriminating against them to require a driver’s
license for identification. Another very critical basis of access to city services
has to do with structural accessibility. All new or altered facilities have
to be accessible. Existing facilities have to also be accessible even if it
requires relocating a service to another accessible facility in order to provide
accessibility.
· The American’s with Disabilities
Act is the primary law focusing on privately funded services or public accommodations.
These type of services includes banks, restaurants, gyms, gas stations and many
other types of facilities. These public accommodations are required to remove
structural barriers to provide physical access when the removal of the barriers
is readily achievable, which is defined as easily accomplishable and able to
be carried out without much difficulty or expense. This requirement is flexible
based on the size, wealth and relative ability of the public accommodation.
Also, communications access has to be provided, unless it would impose an undue
burden.
· The ADA imposes protections
for applicants and employees with disabilities on any employer with 25 employees
or more and California State Law goes to five employees or more. There are an
array of employment protections such as employers must make reasonable accommodations
to applicants and employees with disabilities unless those accommodations would
pose an undue hardship on the employer. This includes architectural improvements,
communications improvements, modifications of schedules and the provision of
equipment and devices if needed to enable nondiscrimination and equal employment
opportunity. Another very important aspect of the employment protections is
that any questions about disability that an employer may want to ask an applicant
may not be asked before a job offer is made.
· The definition of disability
as defined in most of the disability civil rights laws is a person with a physical
or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
Also included in this definition is a person who has a record of having a substantially
limiting impairment or disability and a person regarded as having a disability
such as a person with significant facial scarring from a bad burn. The federal
definition under the ADA has been limited to a person with a disability whose
disability is mitigated by some measure such as a prosthetic device, the use
of medication or therapy and because of this measure this person no longer has
a disability that poses a substantial limitation on a major life activity, then
this person is not considered to have a disability.
· Disability rights laws
require that a person has to be discriminated against because of their disability
in order for their rights to have been violated. Often time’s people are having
a problem that has nothing to do with their disability and feel that the American’s
with Disabilities Act is being violated.