Dearborn Commission on Disability Concerns

Ford Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave, Wetrooms
March 15, 2007, 3-6 PM

Commissioners:
Cathy McAdam
Gary Filiak
Dale Swanson
Sonya Tishler
Nancy Bower
Mary Hodak
John McFarlin

Guests:
Carla O'Neal
Heidi White
John Nagy

1. Call to Order: 3:08PM

2. Roll Call: Cheryl Kreger, Mona Ramouni, Linda Swagler – excused. Bill Tennant absent.

3. Additions/changes to agenda: public comments before welcome

4. Approval of January Minutes: Nancy Bower moved to accept, Sonya seconded. Unanimous approval.

5. Welcome visitors.

First Baptist Church members posted signs indicating accessibility. Crosswalks will be put in in the spring. They questioned if you passed by our facility would you know if was barrier-free? Also discussed website accessibility. Commission suggested signage/ disability logo. Commissioner Filiak will visit and suggest possible changes if needed. Commissioner McAdam offered to check website. The commission participates in local events where we could put out a flyer.

Carla O'Neil – a lifelong resident was unaware until recently that the commission existed. Would like to help us get the word out that we exist better and offered to help with Communications Committee. Questions regarding chronic pain issues and facial disfigurement and the ADA. Commissioner McAdam suggested several good fits regarding committee participation.

John Nagy – here to observe to see what the Dearborn commission does as the Dearborn Heights Commission has only been working for a few years.

6. Chair Report: Commissioner McAdam

Chair report 3/15/07

1. See executive committee report that follows.
2. One of our tasks is to identify continued areas where barriers exist and suggest use of “transition” funds to make the city fully compliant with the ADA. Many of these tasks are than passed on to the ADA coordinator to address on our behalf. Last March we presented a list of items addressed to date, and I would like to see an ongoing tracking of such items to be sure we stay on task. I take responsibility for having missed the follow up on the power doors first suggested formally by the commission in 2003 and hope this list will keep such necessary items in focus. I have asked the ADA coordinator to continue to maintain and update this list

Power door update from Commissioner Filiak. Parts are ordered and installation imminent. (Commissioner Swanson had not yet arrived- who would later inform s the doors had been installed.) Susan will have a revised DPW power door recommendation prepared for May meeting.

3. I would like to get back to inviting guests to attend our meetings, either city contacts, or community leaders to continue to build and maintain working relationships. Who would you like to invite for May?

Guests suggested to invite: Chamber of Commerce – May, Hegira – July.

4. Just a reminder, committee members do not need to be residents of Dearborn and we are open to expanding our committee participation. The commission should be informed when you wish to invite a new member onto a committee. I don’t think we ever formalized this process and I wanted to ask your thoughts on this.

It was decided to have no formal process, but Committee chairs should get contact info for new committee members to Commissioner McAdam – who will pass them onto Susan.

5. It is time for our annual bylaw review at our May meeting.

Chair McAdam said volunteers to review by-laws will be taken from absent commissioners from this meeting.

Executive Committee Minutes February 20, 2007, 4:00 P.M.
Present: Commisioners: McAdam, Kreger, Filiak, & Susan Fitzmaurice

The meeting was called to order

1. We discussed a speaker for the April 19th Leadership Conference. Cathy McAdam and Cheryl agreed to follow up on the availability of speakers for the day.

2. A discussion centered around the content and format of the Conference Day. Included was to be the following:
A theme to encourage distributed leadership and each and every Commissioner recognizing the importance of their contributions to the entire effort. Each person was to begin to recognize their own capacity for leadership and stereotypes of leadership models were to be dispelled. A broadened definition of leadership was to be emphasized.
The Conference Day was to be interactive, not only lecture style.
The chair and vice chair will meet with the speaker to firm up the details of the day and develop a contract.
It is agreed that Dr. Artis be contacted for the speaker.

It was reiterated that the inservice not open to public. 1-5 PM was decided upon as the best time. Would like everyone there if possible. John Artis has agreed to present. It will be very interactive.

3.The importance in following up on charting and completion of specific tasks related to the transition plan was discussed with the ADA coordinator.

7. Vice Chair Report: Commissioner Kreger absent - will address strategic plan at May's meeting.

Commissioner McAdam noted that there were mostly minor changes. TTY will be part of communication because it is mostly about getting the word out. Alternative format is also now about training on equipment, and getting the word out. Visitability is now part of Access.

8. Executive Update: Susan Fitzmaurice.

-Jack O'Reilly has become the new mayor and we can look forward to working closely with him relevant to disability concerns in the future. As ADA Coordinator of the City, I did attend his state of the city address before his election where he mentioned his commitment to disability issues twice and the award the city received for its accessibility. I spoke to him afterwards where he reiterated his commitment to disability issues once again.

-As the ADA Coordinator and a friend, I attended the funeral of Tony Filippis, Sr. It was very well attended by many familiar faces. I had a conversation with some of the wheelchair basketball players who had been at DAD who are very interested in returning this coming year. They would like to do more with the commission if we had anything they could do. They would like to start recreational activities to be offered by the PAC for kids with disabilities. Mary Ann Woodruff who is still a part of the Tony Filippis Foundation expressed her continued commitment to our activities. R. Sue Dodea discussed how Mi PVA would like to become more involved with DAD since there will be no Abilities Expo this year. (she also mentioned that Mary Vitini a newly hired person at Oakwood in charge of marketing has a strong commitment to disability issues through family ties and we need to make our acquaintance.)

-There is in process a bidding process for the power doors for the city hall that ends March 16 as required when city capitol funds are used. There is also in process a bidding process for new equipments for 2 playgrounds.

There was a discussion of the DPW door that was to be fitted with a power door. It was discussed that DPW offices are going thru major changes and which door should be made accessible is not obvious. A recommendation will be presented at the May meeting.

-Nothing has been heard yet regarding status of community block grants funds we applied for to create a senior activity park in honor of Peg Watson and library equipment to create an accessible work station at Ford Centennial Library.

Received just prior to the meeting the notice of approval for the Life Trail grant. The next step will be to form a committee to discuss actual placement location.

-The braille embossing equipment should be delivered and in place and usable sometime in April. Cathy and I will both be trained to use it.

-The meeting on April 19th will be in the PAC, but not in the wetrooms.

-I have two publications this month. One is a book review in the Journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy – the other is about the American response to the treatment of the little girl known as Ashley X for a UK news magazine called Disability Now. I have two tentative conference presentations coming up related to Ashley X.

9. Public Comment – no additional comments

10. Access committee: Commissioner Tishler

ACCESS COMMITTEE REPORT March 15, 2007

The Access Committee did a very limited check on polling sites for the Mayoral election in February. I had asked all Commissioners to check their site if they could. John reported everything was working well at Howard school site. Cathy checked her site when she attempted to vote on the machine but the results were not favorable. The machine at my site, McDonald, had not been used and the voter turnout was extremely light. Mary checked St. Joseph’s sites and felt the workers had everything in place. Only concern was that the V.A.T. system was too open and not at all private so she made a simple suggestion and they were very cordial and compliant to making it private. This site as well had low voter turnout. These are the only reports that I have at this time so I am working with the “Assumption” that everything is pretty much status quo from the November elections report and I do not believe that this election had enough impact for us to judge anything with any real certainty.

At this point in time I believe the important thing will be to work with the City Clerk’s office to get more input on the problems and how more training may or may not assist the poll workers.

There is a general election on the calendar for November 6, 2007 so we will definitely be involved more with the Clerk’s office prior to that date to get more input on the problems and how more training may or may not assist the poll workers. We will also follow up with the ADA coordinator at the schools to coordinate city compliance re full access to polling sites. We will make contact with the Clerk’s office well ahead of that time to schedule a meeting with them to discuss all of the issues.

It was discussed that pollworkers are becoming more aware. There are still significant problems with voting machines this time. Commissioner McAdam in talking to Kathy Buda suggested a more extensive training for poll chairs. Asked if Dearborn Heights had had any problems and none reported.

Next step is to develop a list of what needs to be done by city for voter access.

11. Break ------ Prefer Clubroom 7 for meeting April 19th

Heidi White arrived during break. She discussed her involvement with the Dearborn Elks Club and their activities. She has now joined the Access committee.

12. Communication committee: Commissioner Swanson
Communications Committee Minutes February 21, 2007
1. Contact neighborhood groups to get the word out for Pathway to Possibilities. We want to get into their newsletters in August or September.
2. Dale can handle the vendors.
3. Neighborhood groups and local newspapers, local media. Mona will do neighborhood groups, either email or phone numbers. Mona can follow up with the contacts in March after the education committee gives their report.
4. Cathy will get a list of publications for people with disabilities.
5. We can also use some email lists.
6. Linda will contact two organizations to invite to DDAD. Dale wants any additions to the list of possible vendors by the middle of March.
7. The theme for this year could be technology. This could be products for anyone with disabilities, including those who are have learning disabilities, or elderly people who might need aide in daily life. We need someone who can talk about the power of technology for work or leisure. But would it attract enough seniors?
8. We need a banner that says "What's New with YOU?" It must have the city and Commission logos. Dale has someone in mind to help with the banner. We have until the end of March.
9. The theme could be Make the World Accessible. We can use arts and crafts, travel, sports, etc. We could perhaps do a workshop on travel.
10. Dale will look for someone who will talk on travel.
11. Cathy will look for a keynote speaker.
12. Dale will contact Marsha Koet to see if we can get seniors involved up front.

Commissioner Swanson reported that DAD is “in the works”. Letters have not gone out yet – awaiting suggestion/ confirmation of keynote speaker. Ira Sokol – assistive technology specialist – tentative keynote. Theme for 2007: Make the world more accessible. Do a keynote for Ford employees – technology & employment -plus 2 workshops: 1 for kids and parents, and other for seniors - gadgets in the home.

Commissioner McAdam will confirm speaker by next week or start to look elsewhere. Commissioner Hodak will contact Marsha Koet regarding increasing senior attendance.

13. Strategic plan: Most of this would just involve changing dates.
Dale will email it to everyone and will get a response from committee members that way. We will no longer do awards. The Arabic focus group will fit on number 2.

It was noted that the changes made to the strategic plan have not yet been approved.

14. CDTV We have been asked to help publicize the CDTV captioning to get the word out that there is captioning and also for the Audible signals. We could create some sort of flyer to hand out.
1.CDTV is not currently doing captioning due to loss of personnel. They hope to be doing so by April 15, 2007.

It was suggested that a reminder be provided to CDTV to add captioning symbol to close captioned events once a new person is hired.

15. Public Awareness Committee: Commissioner Bower

Public Awareness / Education Committee Meeting
Thursday, February 15, 2007 - Dearborn School Administration Offices

Present: Mary & Nancy
1. Viewing of tape of "The 10 Commandments of Communicating With
People With Disabilities"
a. All members present had seen the tape and thought it very useful for sharing with Service Clubs if they are interested. Discussed length of film of 26 minutes as a possible problem.

2. Discussion of the wording of a Banner for Senior Events to inspire contact.
a. Several suggestions were made. Consensus was to suggest; "What's New With You?" with large print 'You' and Question mark in blue and whitecolors and the Commission and City logos in the corners. Nancy will inform the Chair of the suggestion for eventual printing.

It was decided Dale will get design done. Susan will get it printed. We have money in budget to pay for a banner.

3. Re-visiting the Strategic Plan ...Changes?
a. Members reviewed the current plan and determined that no changes were indicated.

4. Results of Mary's contact with Neighborhood Associations / Joe Beydoun
a. The Neighborhood Association Presidents were meeting on February 7, 2007 and Mary secured an invitation from President, Sal Gencarelli to have the Committee placed on the agenda. Mary and Nancy attended the meeting and gave an overview of the work of the Commission, along with handing out information.
b. Follow-up Thank you letters were sent by Mary with an offer to speak at any individual Neighborhood Meeting.
c. Service Clubs were also discussed - Mary will make a contact with a colleague in a Service Club and current listings will be obtained.

5. Training with City employees on depression and suicide.
a. Bill has secured one speaker and is attempting to contact some others for a possible panel presentation.

Commission discussion of city training relating to mental health & suicide issues. Several suggestions regarding possible types of panel members – hospice, funeral homes, and schools.

6. Next Meeting will be determined at the March 15, 2007 meeting.

16. Update focus group: Commissioner Ramouni absent
It was noted that the Arabic Focus group is now part of Communications committee. It will be more involved with outreach rather than assessing problems in community.

17. Commissioner reports

John McFarlin now retired from Ford Motor. Wants to be more involved with voting access issues. Discussion of TTY training with ADA representatives from each department.

Mary Hodak discussed depression workshop. Will look at Angela Hospice and funeral directors to be a participant on the panel. Needs volunteers to sign up for Project Healthy Living and Senior Expo. Commissioner McAdam will go to Senior Expo.

Gary Filiak discussed Dearborn Specials meeting. St. Patrick's Day dance had over 300 come. Will also go to Guardian Lutheran Church disability awareness day.

Cathy McAdam will read Braille and let kids see Ginger at Dearborn schools. She also was videotaped for a presentation on screen reader computer access.

18. Adjournment : 5:18 Motion made by Commissioner Swanson, seconded, by Commissioner Bower, unanimous approval.

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