2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998
Carol Patterson
Damian Pickering
Sergio Alunan
Jim Brune
Vincent Behan
Ed Evans
Michael Kwok
August Longo
Allison Lum
Frank Marone
Leroy Moore
Walter Park
Council Secretary
Mayor’s Disability Council
Minutes
19 October 2001
1 ROLL CALL
Mayor’s Disability Council Members Present: Vincent Behan, Jim Brune, Ed Evans, Allison Lum, Frank Marone, Leroy Moore, Carol Patterson and Damian Pickering.
Absent: Sergio Alunan, Michael Kwok and August Longo.
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, Damian Pickering called the meeting to order at 1:06 p.m.
2 APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA.
The agenda was approved with the following amendments:
Item #3 approval of the minutes of September’s meeting was postponed.
Item #10 possible action item on Resolution regarding AB1421 was continued pending administrative meetings.
3 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES.
Not adopted.
4 PUBLIC COMMENT.
· Bob Planthold stated that the Civil Grand Jury has made some recommendations that the Mayor’s Office on Disability and the Mayor’s Disability Council may not be aware of that can be adverse to people with sensory or mobility impairments. The Grand Jury has called for an action by the state legislature to allow jurisdictions to provide for parking on sidewalks and to eliminate some current bus zones, so that people can park at the curbside. Eliminating bus zones can make the deployment of bus lifts more difficult.
5 REPORT FROM THE CO-CHAIR.
Co-chair Carol Patterson announced that she attended a Board of Supervisor’s Committee meeting and testified in support of additional funding for police crisis intervention training.
6 REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR
Walter Park, Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability (MOD) gave a report on the following:
· MOD along with other city departments has been working together to address some of the issues regarding emergency response and have initiated the purchase of evacuation chairs for City Hall. MOD is looking to provide evacuation chairs for other City buildings as well.
· MOD has spent a lot of time doing a "needs analysis" of access in the public-right-of-way, including curb ramps. The Pedestrian Safety Working Group completed its report and sent it to the Board. The Board did not move to provide bond funding for curb ramps within the next year. It is not known how curb ramps are going to be funded.
· A major activity of MOD was working with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition on their report. Mr. Park stated that he was pleased with the report and congratulated the authors of the report. It is very important to look at the community, whose needs have not been looked at in an organized way in the past.
· MOD has posted a list of names of the City and County Departmental ADA Coordinators, including their phone and TTY numbers, on the website. To reach this site, go to www.sfgov.org/sfmod/adacoordinators.htm. This list is current as of October 1st, 2001 and will be updated every three months. Mr. Park thanked MOD staff for making this list current.
· MOD sponsored a special forum on involuntary mental health services. Mr. Park congratulated Susan Mizner for helping to organize this forum. There were well reasoned and detailed presentations from both sides.
· During the month of October, captioning on Citywatch was secured until June 30, 2002. Captioning will be available for all broadcasts that are originated by the City and County on CityWatch. Mr. Park thanked the staff of CityWatch and DTIS for helping to make this possible.
· Mr. Park gave a brief summary of some of the activities of the Mayor:
The Mayor spoke at the Sixth Annual Career Fair for persons with disabilities, sponsored by the San Francisco Mayor’s Committee for Employment of Person’s with Disabilities (MCEPD). There were over 500 people with disabilities at the job fair with a good number of employers, who were looking to hire people with disabilities.
The Mayor inaugurated 711 Service, which is the new California Relay system. The FCC mandated that every state create 711 access state relay systems. Now anyone in the country can dial 711 and have an immediate link. The Mayor inaugurated this service by placing a call from San Francisco to Marlee Maitlin, the deaf actress, in Los Angeles.
The Mayor has a trip scheduled to China and one of his activities is to distribute 1,700 wheelchairs to disability organizations and to individuals with disabilities in China. Mr. Park thanked the Mayo, the Wheelchair Foundation and its founder Ken Behring, who made this massive undertaking possible.
7 COMMITTEE REPORTS.
REPORT FROM THE PHYSICAL ACCESS COMMITTEE
Ed Evans, Chair of the Physical Access Committee gave a brief report on this committee’s activities:
· Reports were received from Recreation and Park department and the Department of Parking and Traffic. The Committee received a resolution on crosswalk design by the California Council of the Blind and voted to present a resolution to the Mayor’s Disability Council.
· The Committee is going to be working on a number of issues proposed including traffic calming systems and the design of curb cuts.
· The Physical Access Committee meets the third Wednesday of each month at the War Memorial Building located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, 4th Floor Conference Room at 3:30 P.M.
8 EMERGENCY SUPPORT AND DONATIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
IN NEW YORK CITY THROUGH NEW YORK DISABILITY ORGANIZATIONS.
Walter Park stated that the tragic events of September 11th are having a drastic effect on disability organizations that provide services to people with disabilities. Many of the usual services are not rendered because water, electricity or telephone service is not available. These types of circumstances have made it so that some people are literally unable to come in and out of their buildings. Many of the Independent Living Resource Centers are very active in providing In-Home Supportive Services and services for deaf people during this state of emergency.
To provide assistance to people with disabilities in New York affected by the events of 9-11-01, contributions can be made to:
· Center for Independence of the Disabled New York, CIDNY Emergency Fund, 841 Broadway, Suite 205; New York, NY 10003; (212) 674-2300. (This center for independent living serves "Ground Zero" and has been providing extraordinary in-home support services, interpretive services for people who are deaf, etc.)
· Harlem Independent Living Center 5 - 15 West 125th Street; New York, NY 10027; (212) 369-2371
· Progressive CIL, 831 Parkway Avenue, Suite B-2; Ewing, NJ 08618; (609) 530-1234 (Colleen Fraser, Executive Director, was killed on September 11th in the attacks and donations can be made in her memory to Progressive CIL.)
9 POSSIBLE ACTION ITEM REGARDING THE CALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF THE BLIND RESOLUTION #2001A-8.
Ed Evans made a motion that the Mayor’s Disability Council adopt Resolution #01-005. The Visibility of Marked Pedestrian Crossings.
David Jackson stated that the California Council of the Blind is asking, that when San Francisco resurfaces streets, crosswalk crossing should be immediately painted with white crosswalk lines and yellow lines where there are school crossings.
Frank Marone asked if a sentence could be deleted in the motion that discusses certain type of sidewalk crossings. Ed Evans declined Mr. Marone’s recommendation.
Damian Pickering wanted to know the impact of this motion on current city policy in regards to historical or commemorative crosswalks that currently exist.
Richard Skaff stated presently certain districts have specific designs and that in the past there was never really any input from the disability community on the effects of the different types of designs and surfaces to people with disabilities. The MDC Physical Access Committee wanted to start with this resolution and then work with departments as the Department of Parking and Traffic to create a design policy for general implementation and specific design conditions.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Bob Planthold, Co-chair of the Working Group on Pedestrian Safety and Street Resurfacing, encouraged the Council to pass this motion.
The motion was adopted, 7-1, with Mr. Marone dissenting.
10 POSSIBLE ACTION ITEM REGARDING AB1421.
To be discussed at a future meeting.
11 CIVIL GRAND JURY REPORT AND MAYOR’S OFFICE ON DISABILITY RESPONSE.
To be discussed at a future meeting.
12 PRESENTATION BY THE AUTHORS OF THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT.
Councilor Jim Brune gave a presentation summarizing the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Needs Assessment Report:
· There is no one type of deafness and no one way to cope with the daily challenges that a deaf or hard of hearing person faces. Hearing loss can occur from birth to the onset of old age. The effect of hearing loss can vary dependent upon the individual, other physical, emotional, social strengths, emotional needs and environment. The amount of hearing loss can also impact the benefits of hearing aids, technology or the use of the phone. Some technology can help some individuals and not benefit others. Some people view their hearing loss as a disability, while others feel that their deafness is a cultural identity incorporating language and community. For parents, there are many choices to make regarding education, communication modalities, linguistic development, family dynamics and socialization.
· According to 1997 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, their survey of income program participation, there are 2.2% of the American population that have severe hearing loss. Applying that percentage to San Francisco, 17,088 residents have severe hearing loss. This percentage is based on the total population of San Francisco being 776,733 residents as reported by the 2000 census.
· The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition is comprised of a network of city and community based agencies and service providers, who address the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community. The Coalition recognized that there had been no formal study of the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
· The objective of this assessment project is to gather data and information about the experiences of deaf and hard of hearing people, their families and their ability to obtain services from the city of San Francisco and its agencies. The Coalition wanted to get a sense of accessibility of city and community-based services that are funded by the City for individuals of the deaf and hard of hearing community. This assessment not only determines what the needs are within this community, but also recognizes the strengths of services that already exist and the need for continuing these services or possibly expanding them.
· Information was gathered by interviewing focus groups and conducting TTY interviews. These focus groups were lead by a deaf individual and when necessary voice interpreters were used. By using focus groups, the Coalition was able to approach and reach out to a variety of individuals within the deaf and hard of hearing community, which included individuals born deaf or born in foreign countries, parents, deaf community leaders, and hard of hearing individuals. A core group of questions was created and asked of each participant; additional questions were tailored for each specific group. These questions included:
What are the strengths of services and access to services within San Francisco?
What are gaps or areas for improvement needed for deaf and hard of hearing people within San Francisco?
What would you like to see improved or changed?
· The first findings of the report are from two groups - 1) consumers and 2) professionals or service providers. The purpose of identifying this distinction between the two groups was to find out the groups’ separate needs and strengths. The focus group for consumers were interviewed concerning three issues - sign language interpreters, employment issues and general access issues, which includes audiological services, access for parents, access issues and lack of assistive listening devices. The major areas that professionals and service providers were interviewed about were social service provider group areas, disability access coordinators, sign language interpreters, public school access, audiological service providers and access to civil service employment opportunities.
· A summary of the consumer group findings is as follows:
There are concerns over the issue of language and interpreting services. Since there is a lack of sign language interpreters, many deaf individuals couldn’t have the commitment that sign language interpreters would be provided for medical appointments. Also, when agencies were not aware of the ADA, they did not have funding for sign language interpreters and would ask the deaf individual to bring their own interpreter.
Under employment issues, consumer testimonies indicated that regardless of employers’ awareness of the ADA and their provision of a reasonable accommodation, access was either nonexistent or inconsistent. The lack of interpreters at meetings for deaf and hard of hearing employees meant they missed out on important information regarding their employment.
Consumers felt that there is a lack of affordability for hearing aids and a need for consulting services that deal with hearing loss.
Parents identified two strengths - the availability of sign language classes for parents and parent support groups. Some of the needs identified by parents were better coordination for services and neutral information from professionals that they met with and better coordination between agencies providing services.
In terms of phone access issues. There was no clear agreement on preference for direct TTY communication versus the use of relay service operators. However, the lack of TTY access in large city agencies, facilities and hospitals is a problem. Also, for those individuals in prison, there is no access to a TTY machine in comparison to the hearing inmates who have access to public phones. There was a lack of assisted listening devices within public facilities and events. Often signs are not posted regarding special access services for deaf and hard of hearing people.
There is issue with the lack of cultural sensitivity, which is the willingness to accommodate deaf or hard of hearing individuals and to understand their unique communication needs.
· Some of the professional and service provider findings are as follows:
Social services strengths identified include interpreting funds available through community mental health and substance abuse programs and that three agencies provide for child protective services social workers.
There was the need for more sign language interpreter services, phone accessibility, more education and training related to deaf sensitivity within various city departments and access to service activities, such as better translation of documents for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
ADA Coordinators and other representatives from various city departments identified the strengths under the area of disability access coordinator as follows: the deaf services at the San Francisco Public Library have staff available to provide services through the use of direct communication to individuals that come to use those services; San Francisco General Hospital has a Task Force that educates staff on the needs of hearing-impaired patients and the hospital also has TTY’s that are available for inpatients and clients; the Office of Emergency Communications operators are trained to learn how to recognize TTY calls that come into the 911 system, and the San Francisco Police Department was very involved in establishing a paging system that has interpreters on call for sites such as the Police department and General Hospital after hours. The needs identified by these access coordinators were to retrofit older buses to include visual signs indicating approaching stops.
Classroom teachers stated that there is a need for communication access both within the classroom and for after school programs. Also a major area of concern was deaf and hard of hearing program coordination supervision.
Audiological services have a lack of outreach and supervision for people who are learning English, there is a lack of being able to get interpreters for audiological evaluations and there is a need for improvement of community education about hearing loss and deafness when discussing how to identify hearing loss for children and where to go once the identification is made.
Rule 115 is a step in the right direction in terms of the need for accommodating deaf and hard of hearing individuals access civil service employment opportunities, but there are limitations to the use of this process. Currently, the Mayor’s Office on Disability is working with other departments to make changes to Rule 115.
· A mini-survey was done to get a sense of the adequacy of TTY answering services within the various city departments. Two lists were obtained of 44 TTY phone numbers for city departments. One list came from the Mayor’s Office on Disability and the other from the blue pages of the phone book. Out of 44 TTY numbers, 9 were answered consistently with adequate service response in two rounds of test TTY calls and 10 were not answered at all during either of the two test calls. This finding shows the serious lack of access through TTY communication with city departments. It shows the need for more awareness and training to emphasize that TTY calls are a priority within city departments.
· One of the major limitations of this project was that the African-American deaf and hard of hearing participants are not represented as well as other ethnic groups within both the consumer and service provider groups.
· It is to be noted that medical technology is changing rapidly. California Children’s Services is mandated by state law requiring that hearing screening tests are provided for all newborn infants and that hospitals reserve funding for this service.
Rob Roth, CEO for the Deaf Counseling and Referral Agency (DCARA) stated that DCARA has two offices: one program that handles employment development for deaf and hard of hearing people and the other program is the deaf gay and lesbian center, which provides peer counseling and advocacy in a variety of settings. Mr. Roth pointed out that there are three basic components to ensure that deaf and deaf-blind people and hard of hearing people receive services: 1) community-based organization, nonprofit services, 2) public services provided by the City and County of San Francisco, and 3) city funding for CBO’s nonprofit organizations. Mr. Roth stated that it is mandated that city offices are accessible, but many services aren’t. Mr. Roth recommends that disability access coordinators are trained and monitored.
Barbara Bell, Clinical Social Worker at the Hearing Society of the Bay Area, discussed two testimonies from clients showing that there is a major need for funding and education. One client was from a foreign country and had four hearing children. She joined a deaf support group that helped her get out of a domestic violence situation and helped her to raise and discipline her children. This particular program ended due to lack of funded. The other client was also from another country and had attempted suicide. While at the hospital, doctors did not provide her with an interpreter but discussed her situation with her family.
Martin Greenberg, a deaf and legally blind individual, feels that communication can be improved between Muni drivers and deaf-blind people by having better lighting on the buses. Mr. Greenberg stated that it is often frustrating for him to deal with 911, because often times his calls are answered by an answering machine.
Mary Skyer pointed out that people in the deaf and hard of hearing community are very diverse and each person may have different needs. Ms. Skyer feels that ongoing training is needed for the disability access coordinators and that the Mayor’s Office on Disability needs to create a new position. The person in this position would hold the position of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coordinator and would gather information and implement new policies relating to this community.
Nancy Moser, Director of UCSF Center on Deafness, applauded the Mayor’s Disability Council for all of the accessible technology available in the hearing room. Ms. Moser stated that there is a need for improving communication access in San Francisco.
Mary Parker stated that she had a difficult time accessing services such as being provided an interpreter at shelter group meetings, at hospital appointments and during a surgery.
Nancy McCormick-Kovacich, applauded BART and Muni for adding more text displays. Ms. Kovecich also shared her experiences with lack of accessible services including being told by school officials that she is to bring her own interpreter to school meetings and conferences, because interpreters are only provided for deaf students.
Nancy Grant, staff of the Hearing Society of the Bay Area, urges the Mayor’s Office on Disability to create a full-time staff position for a person who can communicate effectively and easily with deaf and hard of hearing consumers. This staff person would be a central point of contact for linking these consumers with the City.
Marti Goddard stated that it is very important to have a City employee whose work focus would be improving communication access and other services for consumers who are dead or hard of hearing. This would make a very great contribution to the safety and quality of life for many individuals in San Francisco. This person would be responsible for services for the deaf and hard of hearing community and in developing many accessible programs for consumers.
Allison Lum commented that the Mayor’s Disability Council should discuss the idea of possibly changing the 72 hours notice required for meetings. Increasing the hours of notice would give more time for the scheduling of interpreting services. Ms. Lum requested a list of speakers and phone numbers of the different agencies so that she could follow up later.
Leroy Moore pointed out that there is a high percentage of abuse to deaf women and mentioned that there is an organization in Hayward that deals with this issue.
Ed Evans stated that he has noticed that many substance abuse agencies do not have TTY numbers and feel that funding should be made available for this. Mr. Evans stated that all public facilities should have TTY equipped public pay phones.
Damian Pickering urged the Mayor’s Office on Disability to create the position of a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coordinator in their office.
Joe Porten discussed that there is an independent medical review and grievances report being completed and focuses no attention to the area of disability concerns.
Ronda Bonati, President of Self-Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. (SHHH) read the organization’s mission statement. Meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month from 10:00 a.m. - Noon at the Sequoias located at 1400 Geary Blvd., Level A. For more information call 705-0550.
Susan Rutherford, Executive Director of Deaf Media stated that the needs assessment report is extraordinary and that the issues discussed today are the same issues that were present in 1978. Ms. Rutherford stated that she would mail in her extended comments.
Dana Testa, UCSF pharmacology student, stated that there are not many health care services being provided for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. There is a state law that requires pharmacists to consult with deaf patients when they pick up new or recently changed prescriptions, but many pharmacists are not doing this. Ms. Testa feels that there is a lack of education related to health care issues and screening services.
Sergeant Mike Sullivan stated that as an ADA Coordinator, it is really important to him to have a contact in the Mayor’s Office on Disability that could be a central figure between the deaf and hard of hearing community and the City.
Dennis Waterhouse stated that BART and hotels should have more TTY’s installed.
13 MEMBER REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Jim Brune recommended that the subject of taking a break during the MDC meetings could be discussed. Mr. Brune pointed out that as a deaf person it is often times very difficult to watch an interpreter for 3 hours straight without a break.
Leroy Moore asked that representatives from different state organizations discuss their statewide conferences on disabled people of color and how it can affect San Francisco.
Carol Patterson would like to have a training on the Olmstead decision, which basically states that people with disabilities should have the choice to receive services either in the community or in an institution.
Damian Pickering recommended having a review of general disaster preparedness to analyze the potential impact on people with disabilities pertaining to heightened security measures and looking at implementing new safety measures with a view towards disability awareness.
14 CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence was forwarded to the Council members.
15 PUBLIC COMMENT.
No public comment.
16 COUNCILOR’S COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Leroy Moore announced that the annual regional conference on Asian and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities was taking place.
Mr. Moore announced that Disability Advocates of Minorities Organizations (DAMO) is starting a new campaign called "Breaking the Silence", which will offer workshops and training on community organizing, advocacy and arts for communities of color. DAMO holds monthly meetings, the last Saturday of each month from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the Mission Council, located at 820 Valencia Street. For additional information, contact Mr. Moore at 586-2047 or e-mail him at [email protected].
Carol Patterson announced that councilors Sergio Alunan and Michael Kwok were not present at the MDC meeting because they were attending the Asian Pacific Islanders conference.
Damian Pickering announced that the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind is participating in helping to get information out regarding energy conservation, including tips to consumers. The Lighthouse is distributing applications for the CARE Program, which provides a 20% discount on utility bills to qualifying low-income households. For blind and visually impaired people, the Lighthouse provides assistance in completing the application. For more information or to receive an application call 431-1481 ext. 288.
Ed Evans encouraged members of the public, who are concerned with physical access issues to attend the MDC Physical Access committee meetings. For more information call the Mayor’s Office on Disability at 554-6789.
17 ADJOURNMENT.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.