Disability Commission Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Everyone, my name is Andrea. The open meeting law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is recorded. Therefore, please be aware that an audio and visual recording of this meeting is being made by Boston City TV, a part of the City of Boston Office of Cable Communications, and is being broadcast on Xfinity Channel 26, RCN Channel 13, and Fios Channel 962, as well as live streamed on YouTube, where a recording will remain. With that, I turn the meeting over to our chair, Zahri.

Thank you very much, Andrea. And welcome, everyone. My name is Zahri Amir-El-Sedi, and I'm the chair of the council, and I'm very happy to be here. I'm a woman with short brown hair, I am a virtual user and a resident of South Boston. And with that, I'll send it over to, let's see, I'm not able to see my video. Carl, is he there?

Yes, Carl is here. He's on mute. When he comes off mute, Zari, would you like me to identify folks since I have a bigger screen?

Yes, I'm sorry, I'm having trouble. No worries at all.

You said Carl, right? Yes. Okay, great. My name is Carl Richardson. I am from Brighton. I identify as a deafblind individual. I have salt and pepper hair. I'm wearing a dark polo shirt. I'm kind of a better looking version of Nathan Lane.

I can actually see everyone now. Olivia?

Hi, my name is Olivia Richard. I am a resident of Brighton. I'm a wheelchair user, and I am a middle-aged white female with a shaved head and glasses, and I'm wearing a gray T-shirt tonight.

Thank you, Olivia.

Sam? Wow, you shaved your head? Wow.

Yeah. Hi, guys. I'm Sam Pastor. I live in Dorchester. I'm a 29-year-old male, wheelchair user, and I live in Dorchester.

Thank you very much, Sam.

Tara, can you hear me? Hi, everyone. I'm Tara Southard. I live in the JP Roxbury line. I am a little person who is a wheelchair user. I'm wearing glasses and a green t-shirt tonight.

Thank you.

is a member of the public.

Oh, I'm sorry. Let's see, Paul.

Hi, my name's Paul Karen. I live in the West End. I serve as a mental health advocacy with family members and close friends I have mental disabilities. I'm a white Caucasian male with salt and pepper hair and also work at the city of Boston Planning Department as a supervisor. And it's an honor and a privilege to be on the advisory board. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Paul. Jerry?

Hi, everyone. I'm Jerry Boyd. I'm a resident of West Roxbury, a proud resident, and to represent the constituents of West Roxbury. And I am also a wheelchair user, also a middle-aged white male with salt and pepper hair, more salt than pepper at this point. And I'm wearing a Bruce Springsteen t-shirt.

Thank you so much, Jerry. Am I missing anyone?

I'm looking. Alan is here. Yes.

My screen is broken. My name is Alan Mack. I serve on Boston's Advisory Council for Ending Homelessness, as well as the Board of Advisors for Artists for Humanity. I am a current wheelchair user, resident of South Boston. I have four braids in my hair as well as a hat on, and I'm African American.

Thank you so much, Alan, and welcome. Anyone else? Am I missing?

That's all the members of the board. Commissioner Makasha is here from our department, though.

Oh, yes, of course, Commissioner. My apologies. Go ahead.

Oh, no worries. Hi, everybody. I'm Kristen McCosh. I'm the Disability Commissioner and ADA Title II Coordinator. I am a middle-aged woman with blonde hair, and I'm sitting in front of a picture of Boston City Hall. Welcome.

Thank you very much. Oh, so we have a full agenda today. Before we get started, does anybody Have anything that they want to bring up before we jump into the agenda? No? Okay. I'm going to share the agenda on the chat.

I will do so. A link to the agenda can now be found in the chat. It's to the boston.gov page, so it will be available to anyone. For those who cannot... Andrea, we can't hear you. Oh, no. Okay. Apologies. Thank you, Lauren. Hi, everyone. This is Andrea from the Disability Commission. The link to the agenda is now in the chat. It's a boston.gov link, so should be available to anyone who can click on it. A quick overview for those who may not be able to access it. We have called the meeting to order and done introductions. Next, we will have approval of the minutes. then a presentation about Boston Parks and Recreation, a report from our chair, a report from commissioner. The agenda does list an architectural access report. Unfortunately, Patricia is not able to attend tonight. Board member share outs, old business, new business, and then public input.

All right. Thank you very much, Andrea. Can people hear me okay? Yes, okay. Great. So, yeah, a couple, first of all, can I, can someone...

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

Thank you very much. I'm lost for words tonight. So, anyone second that?

This is Jerry L. Seconds.

Thank you so much, Jerry. All right, so next we are going to move.

We have to take the vote. We have to vote on that, sorry.

I am so sorry. I'm sick today, so I apologize. So do we get a vote for passing the minutes?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Any abstain or nays? I always have it, so the motion is passed. Passing the minutes. Great. All right, so tonight we're going to have a presentation by Michael McNerney. regarding the accessibility of Boston parks and accessible park features, feature maps. So, Michele, are you here?

The department is here. Unfortunately, apologies from the commission. We put the wrong name, but welcome Lauren and Chad.

Okay.

And we have Jilly as well.

Yeah. Hi, folks.

Lauren, would you like me to share screen or will you share?

Either way, if you have it and easy access, that would be great. Absolutely.

Would you all like to introduce yourself while I pull that up?

Actually, Andrea, sorry, can I screen share?

100%. Great.

I'm all set up over here. And sorry, we'll definitely do intros, but can folks tell me if they can see my screen well? It's loading. Yep, it's good. Yep, you got it. Great. All right, Lauren, take it away.

Hi, everybody. My name is Lauren Bryant. I work for the Boston Parks Department getting to renovate parks and playgrounds whenever we are working on those. So if you see a park under construction, someone like myself has been working on that. I have been doing a lot of work with the Disability Commission over the years to increase access and inclusion in our parks. And I'm excited to share this website with you guys. And I will pass it over to Chad.

Yeah, hi folks, Chad Fisher, he, him. I'm a young man and I work at the Parks Department and I'm wearing polka dots today. Super excited to be here and really excited to talk to what seems to be a really nice and friendly group. And then I'll introduce Jilly.

Hi, I'm a student at Tufts University doing a summer fellowship with the Disability Commission and Parks and Rec, working on moving this project forward this summer.

And this is our pictures.

And I did not describe myself. I am a middle-aged white woman with curly light brown hair and glasses. and wearing my Boston Parks polo shirt representing parks tonight. And the other people that are on this slide are a few others that are working with us. And it's Chris Morowski, which is, he's a constituent services specialist, and Nina Goldbranson, who was a former intern that worked with us when we got this project started. We thought it might help to give you guys a little bit of a history of how this came about. And there was a day when Andrea and I were hanging out at some parks doing site visits and said, look at all these amazing things Boston Parks is putting into the park system. that are accessible, that are inclusive, that are going above and beyond, but how do people in the city know about it? How do they know where to find these things? And if they need a specific item, whether it's a molded bucket seat for a playground or a companion pad next to a bench, how do people know to find it? And so we started thinking about cataloging all of these. And so that started back in 2022. And then in 2023, we had a joint intern between Andrea and I who went out and did a lot of inventorying of our parks. and i think we ended up with about 90 parks that nina had done at that point and so then in 2024 with all that data we launched our first website which we got a lot of good feedback on and then in 2025 we thought how do we keep this going so part of our process when we redesign a park is to to update our assets in our database that tells us what we own. So what we did is we said, let's take and have them also inventory these same accessibility features so that every time we have a new park that we're renovating, that information also helps propagate our website. And so then we got Chad involved, who has just taken this project to a whole other level, Rockstar. And he is really working with the data. And he'll tell you a little bit more about that in a minute. But he's really just made this so much better, more friendly for screen readers. And so now, in addition to all that we inventory before and the ongoing projects, we've got Jilly and she's going to tell you a bit about what she's going to do, too. And this summer, she's going to be helping us continue this project. And then in the future, we're going to work on fixing any issues that come up. We're going to work on continue inventorying, whether that be through new capital projects, or more fellows and interns. And also, we're going to use this data on what parks have to also be able to see what those parks don't have so that we can use accessibility funding that we have to increase the accessibility in these parks we've already inventoried. So that way, we can just keep making our parks better and better, plus getting the information out there for the public.

Yeah. Awesome.

Turn it over to Chad, then.

Yeah, this is Chad here again. I'll give you kind of a really quick snapshot of how we collect our data and inventory. Some of the things we show in our website, but Jilly will definitely tell us more about that. Some things to note about our accessible park features, as Lauren mentioned, is that we have periodic fellows who help us inventory parks that are not currently undergoing renovations. And then parks that are going under renovations. We get the data from our designers and from our project managers. We definitely encourage folks to use the website and let us know if there are parks that are important to them that we have not inventory and you can do that by emailing disability at boston.gov And we also want to emphasize that this is not a compliance report, but really focused on user experience. So we try to use words that are simple, not jargony, and help people understand what they'll experience when they get there, as opposed to relying on infield surveying and topographic measurements and other more complex methods of inventorying things. So I will be giving people a demo in a second, but just kind of an intro to what's going on on the boston.gov website. On the website, you'll find that we have definitions for different pieces and elements that we're inventorying. I'll show some of that when I do the demo. But we have definitions for different park-wide accessible elements, accessible play elements, sensory-friendly elements, and what things we mean when we say stair-free exists. There's also pictures attached to each of these definitions to help people understand what they're looking at what they'll be getting into. We also, as Lauren mentioned, really made some great progress this year with a screen readable table, as well as our interactive map. So maps are great. And I am one of the first people to also tell you that maps do not solve every problem. Maps can be really hard for accessibility. And so we did a lot of kind of technical things behind the scenes to make our data into a table and then tested a few different versions of the table to see which ones were most screen reader appropriate and usable, and came up with a table I'll show in a second. And that table is filter row by neighborhood, and our map also has some filters and other things going on. So why don't I switch over to a demo, and folks should let me know if they're no longer seeing. Oh, great. So everyone should be seeing the website. So this is a City of Boston website with a page from the Disabilities Commission titled Accessible and Sensory-Friendly Features at Boston Parks. As you scroll down, you'll see that there is some information about the page, including that the page is a work in progress and that we are diligently working to inventory and finish this ever-changing set of data and inventory. we definitely welcome folks to reach out to disability at boston.gov if they have questions or desires for specific parks and we also have included a link that allows you to search for every current park capital project and we encourage the community to attend these meetings and to comment on any active projects as i mentioned there's a definitions section these are expandable drawers. So when you click on it, it will expand and tell you more information. This should work for screen readers and other people with assistive technologies. And as I mentioned, you can click on see picture to see what a picture of one of these might look like. So some of the accessible elements that we've included in our inventory include companion seating at tables and benches for wheelchairs, stair free access to spray play and splash pads. wheelchair accessible drinking fountains, shaded seating, and other inclusive features. So definitely encourage people to look through these definitions and explore the page. As I mentioned, there is a interactive map. And shown here, you can see in purple things that have not been inventoried yet, and in green things that have been inventoried. A good example is Malcolm X Park, which I believe Lauren worked on where we did a lot of work to make sure that A lot of the elements in this park or stair free accessible and inclusive. So you can see stair free access to things like the playground, the basketball court and the tennis court. As well as accessible play elements like molded bucket seats wheelchair usable merry go rounds transfer stations and a wheelchair accessible slide. There are also sensory play features and shade types. Something we've been really excited to add to our map is the ability to turn on accessible entrances and click on specific entrances and see the GPS address that you should put into your phone or other device to get to that specific entrance. There are also some filters at the bottom for looking at specific elements you may want. Like I want stair-free access to, for example, a playground. And you'll see that the web map updates to show which parks have those specific features. Another exciting thing, as I mentioned, is our table, which we tested a few different versions to make sure that it would be usable by different people. And so you can click on specific neighborhoods at the top of this, for example, Roxbury, and see the same information that was on the map, but in a more condensed format. So Malcolm X Park, you can see the address you should put in to get there, the things that you can get to without using stairs, accessible elements at the playground, and other inclusive features of the park. You can also see that if a park has not been inventoried, we mark that as with Madison Park High School athletic fields up here, where we say to be inventoried. So it's a very, I'd say, dense and information-heavy website. So we definitely encourage people to go use it and let us know what you think of it. I am going to pass it on to Jilly to talk more about her fellowship this summer.

Yeah, so hi, I'm Jilly. I already mentioned this, but I'm a student at Tufts University studying environmental policy. And this summer, I'm working with Parks and Rec and the Disability Commission through the Tisch Summer Fellowship, which is an internship program funded through the Tisch College of Civic Life to create opportunities for community-based professional development. And so this summer I'm doing a lot of park visits and a lot of inventorying, going to place to place and figuring out what inclusive elements exist and where they are. And then also, as Chad showed you, pulling those coordinates for the accessible entrances. And so all that information gets uploaded basically at the end of the week. So each week I do a bunch of parks and then I put it all into the website. and so every week this summer hopefully there will be more parks with more accessible features and so then i have some photos of the things i'm kind of looking for at the parks so peters park there's ground level play that has a space that a wheelchair user could pull in and join their friends to have like a little meal at a table, I guess. And then there's also this play panel that has sensory rollers on it that wheelchair users can roll under. And then at St. James Street Park, which I was actually at today, I was able to grab this photo of an accessible game table, which has chessboard in the middle. And these exist in a lot of different formats. Some are wider like this, some are smaller. And then stair-free entrances at the parks all look very different. But this one is at Temple Street Park, I believe. And it's just flat brick all the way through. So yeah, this summer I'm just doing a lot of looking around for all of these things and kind of seeing what's out there at the parks, which is fun. Bye.

Yeah, and we're really excited to have Julie. She asks a ton of great questions and helps us think about a lot of things we haven't thought of. Definitely our eyes and ears out in the field and really excited for the summer. I'll pass it back to Lauren. Lauren, you're on mute.

Thank you. I was also asked to speak about Copley Square redesign, and there's so much we could talk about here, but I want to make sure that we really wanted to focus on some of the upgrades that were specifically about accessibility. So for those that have spent much time at Copley before it was renovated, part of what we saw is that there's a lot of brick, a lot of older brick that made it really difficult for wheelchair users and those with any mobility challenge, actually, to be able to maneuver in the park. We also saw that a lot of the trees were in bad condition, so that we were losing shade. We also saw that the drinking fountains weren't accessible, and also a lot of the events that took place, because there weren't very many flat paved surfaces that the events could take place on, whether it's farmer's market or the marathon or first night did a lot of damage to the grass. And so not only was it difficult for people to come to those events that might have mobility challenges, it also made using those spaces after those events very challenging because of the damage that was done to the the grass so with the redesign what we looked at was making sure there was an event space that was paved that was accessible so that anyone who wanted to be able to attend those events in the farmers market had enough space so that even when we have a big farmers market people can all use that space we wanted to protect the trees so that we could protect that existing shade And so one of the things that we did was we built a raised deck around the grove of trees that was there. But again, that's a concern and we don't want to limit access. So what we did is we in those teal lines are the sloped walkways that we can access that raised grove so everyone can get to the raised grove. And what we also looked a lot at is where everyone was entering. And so we really tried hard when we designed it to make those sloped walkways be the main way you would get in. It wasn't a side path. That's the main access, the main way somebody's coming in off of Boylston, the main way somebody's coming in. From the Plaza, so we really looked at trying to make it inclusive as well as just compliant. The tables and chairs are movable, which allows for wheelchair use at those. The other thing, if you remember, there wasn't a lot of paved access up to the edge of the fountain. And so what we did is we did pave up to the fountain. We have. A sloped walk that gets down to the fountain so that everyone can get down to that edge of the fountain together, not just having to stand in the grass or up against an edge that isn't easy to get to. Benches have companion seating, which is, you know, our new standard in the Boston Parks Department. The main routes, all of the accessible routes were paved with concrete as opposed to bricks and pavers because we know that can be dangerous. I think that may be it. So I wanted to just share that with you guys and hopefully Andrea, that's what you were hoping I would get at.

Yes, this is Andrea. Absolutely. As the board knows, we'll be on this newly redesigned park for ADA Day. And so we're really excited to show off the features, including access to the grass. There's a curb cut to get on the grass, should you wish to get on the grass. So it's very exciting.

Yeah. We're super excited to have talked about all this. And this is Chad. Closing out the presentation, happy to take any questions or feedback from the group.

Thank you Chad, Lauren, and Ginny for doing such a wonderful presentation. And I'm looking forward to exploring all the new features and go to some of these parts that I've never been to. So one of, first of all, and I also want to thank you Chad and Colleen for putting a link to the project. in the chat so people, if they wanna have more information, they can access that. I'm just gonna start off with a question. And the question is, do you guys have a mechanism by which the community can request correction or give feedback? And if in case they encounter any barriers or issues?

Yeah, I'm happy to take this. This is Chad from the Parks Department. I think the simplest thing for us and for everyone would just be to email disability at boston.gov and we work pretty closely with the Disability Commission and that'll definitely make its way down to me and happy to help fix whatever problems people see.

This is Andrea. I'll say yes to that. And if you're noticing an issue in a park that's smaller, maybe easy to fix, like a broken trash can, overflowing trash can, one day you all will be sick of me saying call 311. Use 311. So simple things like that that you see in parks. Call 311. But anything, you can always call us and email us.

I see Carl has a question.

Yeah. I live across the state from Rogers Park in Brighton. And I recently saw signs up that you're looking into redesigning and to reach out to folks to see If we have any concerns, and I'm just wondering what accessibility features, if you're already in the planning phase, and if so, what accessibility features you're thinking about adding to Rogers Park, if you already know.

I'm happy to take that one. So we don't know yet. That's part of the first thing that we do in our projects is we try to get the word out early that we're going to do these meetings. And we go into those meetings without any preconceived ideas. So we want to talk to the community about what they want their park to be. But in terms of accessibility, when we redesign a park, ADA is a baseline for us, right? So, you know, in terms of that question about accessibility, that's a baseline. In terms of, you know, additional inclusive elements, that's something that we work really hard to put in. And I think what we look at is what does the community want the park to be? And then we make sure that we make it as inclusive as possible. And one of my jobs at the Parks Department is every design that we do I review it internally to check it to see, are we doing as much as we can do? Can we add some more sensory things? Can we add a few more elements? And so that's sort of, you know, we don't have anything specific yet, but hopefully whoever comes to that community meeting will help us decide what we want to have in that park. And then we'll make it as accessible and inclusive as we can.

Great. Do you happen to know the date of the community meeting by any chance or no?

I don't, but if Andrea can connect you and I, I'm happy to get you in touch with the project manager who's doing that one.

And then I may be in touch because I think I have some ideas. So great, thank you.

That's great. We love ideas. Thank you.

Yeah, and this is Chad just chiming in to say I put the link to the project page in the chat. You can find contact info on there too, but yeah, as Lauren said, we're all happy to connect you.

I'll email it to you, Carl. It looks like there was a community meeting on May 12th, and there are both slides and meeting minutes from that meeting. The second meeting is not scheduled yet. Lauren, generally about how long between meeting one and two?

Between one and two, it's usually probably about a month and a half to two months. Okay.

So it's coming up?

Mm-hmm.

All right, great. I'll make sure I go to the second meeting.

Perfect. That's great.

Jerry?

I'm sorry, did you say me, sorry?

Yes, yes.

Yeah, thank you. This is Jerry. Thank you for your presentation. This is great and great resources. I think you put this in the chat, but I just want to confirm and have it. you know, a space to voice it for the larger group if they don't have access to the chat. But if we come across a park that we, you know, that we think maybe could use, you know, could use some updating or, you know, at least an assessment, email disabilities at boston.gov. Is that the proper avenue?

Yes, it is. Yeah, that's more in here from Boston Parks. Thanks for asking that Jerry. Yeah, we want to have if you park hasn't been done. Even if you see it out in the field or if you're looking at the website and your park isn't done yet, there is a place on there that will tell you that you can request your park being inventory. At disabilities email address and then if there's a specific request, you can put that in there too.

By done, we mean inventoried. If you want it to be inventoried, email us. If you want it to be renovated, is it parks at boston.gov, Lauren? Is that your general? Yes, it is.

I'm sure there's a list years in advance along of parks that are getting renovated or in need of renovation. Is that correct?

There are, but that doesn't mean that things don't change throughout the budget season every year, right? And it also could be, like I was talking about earlier, where if there are smaller upgrades that we can make outside of a larger capital project, that's really good to hear too.

Okay. Great. Yeah. Because my son and I go to one particular park and And it doesn't look like, you know, we've been going there since he's little. And it doesn't look like it's been renovated since we've been going there anyway. And he's no longer little. I won't tell you how old he is now, but he's no longer little.

Would you tell us which park it is?

Sure. It's Draper Park next to Draper Pool in West Roxbury. Okay. There's a small little play area and there's a basketball court and then there's a whole field and everything attached to it as well. And that goes into my next question. Is there on the parks website or whatever where we can get updates on current parks getting renovated? Because there is one also in West Roxbury, Billings Field, and I'd love to I'd love to see more about the renovations going on. I probably missed all the meetings. I don't know how far down the pike that project is, but I'd love more information.

yeah absolutely so i just put into the chat the website that is for every boston park that is under design and construction and so you can look on there so you could look in west roxbury you could look at billings in particular and in terms of the community meetings for billings it's not my project but i do know the community meetings are over and they're working on the construction right now but there's a lot of good information on the website that has the and the meeting minutes from those meetings too. And that project manager could answer any questions for you.

Great, thanks so much.

Absolutely.

The team conditioner has a question.

Yes, thanks, Ari. Two things I just want to comment on. First, I want to mention that I want to give a shout out to Andrea for kicking off this project a few years ago, and also to my staff, because we recently won an award for this work. It was the Department of Innovation and Technology for the city. They had their first innovation expo, which is kind of like a science fair type thing. So different departments could showcase work they've done that's innovative. And so we decided to showcase the park snap app and it won one of the four awards so really proud of my staff the work they've done chris morawski also has done a lot on it as lauren mentioned earlier so congrats to my staff and it's a wonderful app we're really excited about it second thing i wanted to mention is that there is another big project happening in a boston park that people can be excited about it is in the boston common work is underway correct me if i'm wrong lauren to build a ramp in the boston common to connect the common to the state house so right now there's currently just a set of stairs by the shaw memorial but when this project is wrapped up there will be a ramp So now if you're on the Freedom Trail or if you're on that side of the Common, you don't have to come all the way to the front of the Common on Tremont Street and go up Park Street Hill. You can literally just go up a ramp to the Boston Common. Can you give any details on that, Laura, and even just a few?

Yeah, it's very exciting. We've been doing a lot of work on that with both the Landmarks Commission, Disability Commission, to make sure that it fits appropriately aesthetically into the common. But also, as you guys may be aware, there are some big, historic, beautiful trees there. So also doing a lot of work with some arborists to make sure that we're not doing anything to potentially harm those existing trees. And I know that we are working on finalizing that design now, but I don't know what the construction timeline is. He happens to be the same project manager as Billings. And on that website, if you go to the Shaw, there's a link to get updates on the project. So anyone that has questions could reach out to that project manager.

This is Carl, and I'm very excited to hear that because I happen to be the ADA coordinator for the Stay House. And one of the complaints I get on a regular basis is that there's no vertical access. from if people come all the way up and then realize they have to turn, so I'm very excited. Can I share this with leadership within the Stay House? Or the information I can share with them? Absolutely. Because they'll be very excited. Or can you and I talk to each other offline or something? I don't know. I just would like to share this with leadership.

Andrea put in the link to the Shaw Memorial Project on there, so that would be.

Andrea, if you could email that to me, because I'm not sure it's even linked.

That would be a great thing to share with the leadership, and the project manager's name is on there, and they could absolutely get you some more information, too.

All right, thank you. Because once she hears about it, she's going to want to talk to people. Absolutely. All right, thank you.

And Lauren, I think that it would be great to also share this with a lot of community organizations. such as BCIL and DPC. I'm sure they're going to love that direct access to the status. So I'm looking forward to this. This is great.

That's so good.

Great. Does anyone else have any questions?

This is Andrea. I just want to note a question from the public that was put in the chat and answered in the chat, which is about accessible restrooms in parks. And so thank you, Lauren, for jumping in to say that the map does include that as a feature to catalog. That said, it is very rare to find a bathroom in a park, mostly because there aren't buildings in most of the parks. but there may be some portable restrooms and we're still working on how to share some of that information so that if there is a bathroom you know about it, you know if it's accessible, but it's not the most common feature for sure.

Thanks, Andrea. I have one last question. Are there any plans to identify quieter or more sensory areas within the parks and then how do you define these areas?

I'm happy to take that one. This is Lauren Bryant. That is a great question and that was one of the things I wanted to also end with is If there are things that you think we should be inventorying that you think people in the disability community would really benefit from having listed, we've been identifying some too. And I think that's a great one. And so what we can do whenever we have added something to this inventory, we've been working with Andrea and her team. on what is that definition, because we like to put that on there so people understand what we're sharing is there. But I think that's a really good one. The other thing that we've been talking about recently is adding in whether a playground is fully fenced, because we know with elopers that that makes a huge difference. please share that with us too. So anything like that, like could you also map these things, please tell us because we want to make this as user friendly as possible. But yeah, that's a really good suggestion.

Thank you. Absolutely. Your hand is still raised, but do you have another question before we move?

I think it's still raised from before. OK. All right.

Thank you so much. Do you have anything else, Lauren?

have one other thing just to share because i did reach out to the project manager for shaw to get an estimate on timing and he got back to me so it's going to depend on the lead time of the granite because we are using granite so that it'll fit in with the characteristic of the common and so we're not going to start the construction until we know when the granite's going to be here so it's not torn up too long but he says that depending on the granite it will be some time between this fall and next summer is the ballpark window.

Thank you so much. Thank you. This was a great report and we look forward to all the project initiatives and I can't wait to visit some of the parks. So thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is my report, and it's going to be super short because I don't have much to report, but let me just share my screen. Can you see the screen?

Yes, your screen is being shared. All right, thanks.

So basically I wanted to just highlight some of the things that are happening this month as far as just awareness funds and looking at the, you know, I think last month I talked about intersectionality between disability and other marginalized groups and this month I want to just highlight that June celebrates the LGBTQ plus individuals five month. And I just wanted to mention that LGBTQ plus individuals often experience unique barriers in healthcare employment, housing, and community participation. So if we can support the community and participate in some of the activities that are happening around the city this month, please feel free to do so. Also in June we celebrate And this really highlights the disability rights and civil rights movement, which share a commitment of equity and full participation. And people with disabilities from historically marginalized communities often experience compounded barriers. So again, to kind of just celebrate and identify that people from their community should also be celebrated and that the civil rights movement should be highlighted during this month. Deaf-Blind Awareness Month really promoting communication access. Last month was worldwide accessibility and so this month I just want to highlight that for this community, especially accessing personal awareness and experiences of individuals who are deafblind should be raised and people should become more aware of how to best communicate and open doors and make sure that everything is fully accessible for this community. Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, again highlighting dementia awareness. Caregiver support, and accessible health care. And finally, PTSD Awareness Month, which is recognizing trauma-related disabilities and, again, importance of mental health support. And that's really basically my report, but if anyone has any questions or want to add to any of these months or know of any events that are happening, please raise your hand and feel free to jump in.

Hi. Hello, everybody. This is Wes Ireland. And I'm actually using sign language for this meeting. Sorry I arrived a little bit late. I'll just do a visual description of myself. I'm a white man wearing a light blue shirt with polka dots. And you're hearing a woman's voice. That's one of my sound language interpreters. And I just have one comment about the DeafBlind Awareness Month. I'm happy that you brought this up, Zari, because it was brought to my attention, I think last month or maybe even two months ago, that deafblind individuals need to have a day at the state house where we recognize them. But that was actually canceled because there was not enough communication access providers for their event. And so a lot of deafblind folks got really upset about that because it had to be canceled. There was some kind of a protest that happened at the state house and unfortunate that was kind of unfortunate that that resulted. So I just want to let people know that this happened as a result of lack of services. And I don't know if anybody else wanted to add anything more on that or comment. Do we have any other comment on this situation.

with, this is Ari, where was the event and what? Do you know what kind of services were not available? What was the reason?

Yes, it was supposed to be, they were supposed to be coming to the State House, and they were supposed to be having a communication, they're supposed to have communication access providers, but there were an insufficient number of providers. So they had to cancel the event at the State House for this group of folks. So yeah, a lot of the DeafBlind people were really not happy about this.

Carl, not to put you on the spot, but do you know anything about it?

I know quite a bit about it, and I'm trying to figure out what I can say. What I will say is we needed 28 interpreters for that day, because everybody needed two interpreters each. We needed six platform interpreters, plus the 14 deafblind. Actually, we needed 34 interpreters, because we had six platform interpreters, and then we had 14 deafblind individuals that needed two interpreters each, whether they were doing tactile, pro-tactile, close-up, vision. And then we also had a wage and means hearing that we needed six interpreters for. So we needed about 40 interpreters for that day, and I only had 22. And I didn't know which five or six deafblind individuals. We, as a committee, which included Helen Keller, the Carroll Center, the DeafBlind Community, the FDAP network, DeafBlind Contact Center, We as a committee didn't know which deafblind people were not, we couldn't say no, certain individuals were not going to get access. So we decided to temporarily postpone it until the committee was in a better place and could do a better job. And I think they had a planning meeting today, actually, and are going to try to host DeafBlind Day in October. So the fact of the matter is, it's hard to get 20, 30 interpreters on site, in person. And we worked very hard to do it, but we just couldn't do it. And the other issue was that many DeafBlind people had preferred interpreters And many of those preferred interpreters were not available, and some of the deafblind folks refused to work with other people that I had available. So I couldn't, we couldn't, excuse me, because it wasn't my decision alone, we couldn't A, we didn't have enough interpreters, and B, unless the deafblind community was going to be a little more flexible on who would work with them, we just couldn't provide the necessary communication access for that day. However, it's been rescheduled, and I can assure you that the committee is working very hard to try to, it was never canceled permanently. It was just postponed until the community could get the full access that they deserve.

Okay.

Well, I think we all know that interpreters are challenging sometimes to get. And I hope that When events like this come up, that we can at least think about maybe alternative ways to make an event accessible. But I do appreciate the fact that people have preferences of who they want to work with. And sometimes that in itself can be a barrier. But Wes or others, if you have any kind of suggestions for a crowd or All of us really here, please let us know because, you know, I think interpreters in general are challenging to find, but then it becomes a specialized interpreter that it becomes more difficult. So happy to have this conversation further, maybe for another time.

Yeah, I'll also jump in and say, Wes, thank you. I appreciate you raising that. And Carl, I can also appreciate your position because we've been in that in the city, not in exactly the same position, but there have been different times we've tried to provide events and they've needed a lot of support with interpreters and they've been difficult to find. So I'm really glad that the event wasn't canceled and that it was still being discussed and planned. So hopefully, It does happen in the fall and we're happy to support it whatever way we can. So thank you for raising that list because we definitely don't want to see it let go and not come back. So appreciate everybody's commitment and caring about this community. Thank you all.

All right. Does anyone else have any other questions or before we move on to the Commissioner's report. I don't see any hands raised. So, Commissioner, the floor is yours. Thank you, Zari.

Okay, Andrew will pull up my slides. I have a little bit of noise in my background. Is it distracting?

Okay.

So welcome to June, everybody. Welcome to summer. It seems like every year we go right from winter to summer. It seems like it happened this year as well, right to the 90s over the last week or two. So it's weather I love, but I know it's hot for some people. But anyway, here we are. We'll go to the next slide. Okay, so I will start my report off with some updates from the city of Boston, I believe. We'll go to the next slide. Yep. Okay, so just some general community events I wanted to let people know about. The mayor's neighborhood coffee hours are in full swing. The mayor does this every year to get out into the neighborhoods. She considers it sort of a state of the neighborhoods. We have the state of the city, state of the state, state of the union, and this is kind of a mini state of the neighborhoods. They're open to all residents, even if it's not in your neighborhood, you're welcome to go. You can meet Mayor Wu, City Department staff. There's always free coffee and donuts, and the Parks Department gives away plants. 2026, next one is on June 18th, which is later this week, tomorrow actually, at Mission Hill. So you can raise concerns directly to City staff. They can open 311 cases on the spot, and they try to resolve issues in real time. One change this year with the coffee hours is that they are not all going to be actually in the morning. Some will be in the afternoons and evenings, and they actually aren't all in the parks either. Some of them are going to be at PCYF centers. So stay tuned to the City of Austin website for more information. Open Streets this year, it's going to be a little bit of a scaled-down series of Open Streets just because we have so much going on in the city this year with FIFA and Tall Ships in Boston 250. So they're actually only doing four Open Streets events. They are family-friendly, pedestrian-focused events that stop car traffic on the streets so people can walk in the streets, people set up tables, and it's just a great way to explore the neighborhoods. There are four of them running from 10.30 to 3 p.m. And they are starting in August. And then there'll be one in September and two in October. I didn't get to write down here Open Newberry, but there's also a scaled down version of Open Newberry Streets this year. Usually it's open for like several months, but this year it's just gonna be a couple of weeks. And you can look that up on boston.gov as well. Okay, we'll go to the next slide. Then I wanted to give some updates on my department. So for those of you who weren't able to make the Disability Community Forum last month, we posted the video. There's a link to it in my report. And we also got a lot of questions submitted previously to the event and at the event that we didn't have time to answer. So as we do every year, we're working on a Q&A doc, which we will answer everybody's questions and post it. We should be having it done by the end of this month, but watch for that to be announced soon. The ABLE Lab, I've told you about this. This is a new initiative that my office started this year. It's called Accessible Boston Leadership and Empowerment, and it's happening throughout the month of June. We had a lab event last night, and our last one is next week. So it was a series of six trainings on civic engagement, advocacy, and empowerment for 15 Boston residents. We tried to find residents who weren't already involved in the advocacy community but were interested in disability issues. So we looked for people from underrepresented neighborhoods and communities of color because we want to make sure everybody has a seat at the table. So we were able to work intensely with 15 residents. and talked to them about registering to vote and testifying at a hearing and how to use the website, how to find information about parks like we do at these meetings, how to come to these meetings. And one of our participants is here, Reshma. I saw her earlier. Two. Two? Okay. I didn't get to see everybody, but that's great. So it was a very successful initiative, and like I said, it wraps up next week, and I can give a more detailed report at a future meeting. ADA 2026 is coming up on July 15th from 12 noon to 2 p.m. It will be held at Copley Square Park this year only because FIFA is at City Hall Plaza. And we're really excited to try out Copley Square Park because of all the access that Lauren talked about. It will be a little bit smaller. We don't have quite as much space as we do on City Hall Plaza. So we won't have quite as many vendor tables, but we've done a really good job trying to squeeze everybody in. So again, we'll have hot bag t-shirts, we'll have food, we'll have music. Mayor Wu will be speaking, and we'll be honoring a disability revolutionary in honor of Boston 250. So we welcome everybody to come and spread the word. You can find out more on the link. You can also pre-register if you'd like to come. And that just helps us prepare for how many people will be attending. We always like people to pre-register. It's not required, but it helps us plan.

What's the date again?

It's Wednesday, July 15th from 12 to 2. And then one thing I wanted to mention, an initiative of my office, just because we get a lot of emails and calls about this and questions, so I just wanted to make sure that board members were aware of this program. It's a newer program that we began last year with the Boston Streets Cabinet, and it's about the accessible parking spaces. We call them OSAPs, on-street accessible parking spaces, also known as quote-unquote handicap spaces or HPTV spaces. These are the parking spaces that are designated on the street with the two signs that have the wheelchair symbol on them. So beginning last year, we started a new program that requires a disability play-doh placard and a resident parking permit sticker to park in that spot. It's only in neighborhoods that already have resident parking, and it's only by request of a resident, if a resident requests it. And the resident requesting it has to have a valid reason. So say someone lives in East Boston close to the airport. The thing is with resident parking, those neighborhoods are designated that way because there's a lot of demand in those areas like near the T or near the airport or near a beach. So the city has created resident parking so that it preserves parking spaces for the people who live there. So the only spaces in resident parking that don't require a permit are accessible spaces. So we get calls from residents who say, you know, people come and park in my accessible space every weekend and go to the beach and then I can't park all weekend. So we did start this program because we want to make sure that even the accessible spaces are available for neighborhood residents. So it's not every space, but I do want to ask people, I didn't include a flyer, which you can click on. It describes it very clearly, but the big message is just to make sure you look at the signs when you're, if you're parking in them, if you haven't played off that card to say that they don't require a resident parking permit as well. And if you do see one of these signs and you don't have a permit and you get a ticket, it's not a ticket for a placard violation, it's only a ticket for a resident parking violation. So it's not as big of a fine and it's not a total offense. It's just a resident parking. Yes.

Commissioner McCosh. So let's say I have a Brighton resident parking sticker. Yep. And a placard. But I don't, I've never requested an accessible parking spot because I don't need one. But let's say we're looking for parking in Brighton one day and we have the resident parking and the placard. How are you going to verify that I'm not the one that that person's for, that park was for? Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, the spots are never designated to individuals. Anybody with a placard can park in any wheelchair space. The only difference with this is in some neighborhoods that have resident-only parking, people who have applied for a space in part of the house, they can also request a resident parking designation for that space. That means only people who live in the neighborhood can park in that space with a placard. It doesn't mean that just that person can.

But somebody in the neighborhood. Got it.

Okay, thank you. And that's only being done to preserve some of the accessible spaces also. And it's not every space. So people can still visit, just look for a space that doesn't have the resident parking sticker on it. And if you look at the flyer, that will explain it much more clearly. Les?

I am actually happy that you brought this up for this topic tonight. I had recommended last month because the situation had happened and I realized that some people may be confused with those two signs because it says HP and then it says below resident parking only. Is it possible to have a sign that shows both? That it's disability parking and residents? Something like that, yes. Something that's clearly more visible and easily identified as with the dual requirements?

That's a really good point, Wes, because Because if you see a block that just says resident parking, and then you see an accessible space, that doesn't mean that space requires a permit. Both requirements have to be on the same sign, just like you said. And this is an example of the sign. So just because it says resident parking on one sign, and there is then what we call an OSAP sign, a wheelchair HPV sign, that doesn't mean that only residents can park in that HPV space. Both requirements have to be on the same side. And we're also trying to educate ETD parking control officers and Boston police officers because they're not familiar with it yet. But it is codified in the Boston Street rules and regulations. So there is a regulation we can point to. It's on the flyer. And it is valid to enforce it. Again, the fine is only... permit parking violation resident parking violation it's not a placard violation as long as they have a placard or a plate but the north end is a great example because it's a very densely visited tourist area so many residents who live there probably never have access to their spaces so if they want to apply for a resident only that would mean only north end residents could park there

Okay, so I do believe that there are some people that aren't familiar with this new program, and you shared that there is a flyer. Is there, does each sign have this symbol or signage that you're showing here? The signs that require, go ahead, Andrea.

Yeah, thanks. This is Andrea. So There are signs like this out in the city right now, Wes. But we're not changing every single HP DV sign to become one of these, so both are still going to exist out in the world. I don't know if we have any of these in the North End right now. Like Commissioner said, the initial pilot was the airport.

Yeah, I haven't seen any.

Yeah, I don't think they're any there and they're they're likely won't there won't be probably until people request them specifically. Um, that's where East Boston was the 1st neighborhood to get these because. You can park like a block away from the airport stop. you know, for the blue line that has a shuttle and not pay anything if you're from New Hampshire with a placard. The rest of the street is for East Boston residents, but this one space was for anyone with a placard and you'd park for free for a week. So the first places we put them were those kinds of locations in East Boston, but they are likely to come to the north end because, as Commissioner said, we know there's a lot of tourist attractions there. But it'll be a slow rollout and it's never going to be every single sign in the neighborhoods that look like this.

And that's part of the reason I'm bringing this to the board, because I'd love for you to help us spread the word, because a lot of people don't know about this program yet. It is fairly new, and there are fairly few signs that have been posted. But we're starting to get calls about them. People are starting to get tickets. So we definitely want to spread the word. And this flyer will explain it also. Email this out to your networks. You know, take a look at it. Email it to your friends if you know people with placards or spaces. Just so if they want to request one, they can, or if they park in the city frequently, they can do it. And just so you know, it will likely never be in a strict commercial area like South Station or Well, I shouldn't say never, but there's a block of accessible spaces in front of Copley Library. There's a block in front of South Station. There's a block on Washington Street, downtown, Harrison Ave. So those places probably wouldn't get them. They are only really for the spaces that residents have applied for and can tell us a valid reason why they're requesting this change. And on that note, I also want to mention the second bullet on my slide report is that we have published a map. And I don't know if the board knows what to see, but we also published a map of accessible parking spaces in the city. But this map is only for commercial areas and neighborhood main streets. It does not list any resident addresses. Like I've applied for a sign in front of my house, my address is not on this map. Because again, the goal of the neighborhood spaces is to preserve the spaces for neighborhood residents. So the spaces that go on this map are the ones like in downtown, in the seaport, in the financial district, some in the north end, some in, you know, other neighborhoods that are south end and back bay that have some commercial areas as well. But we do try to leave, like, the neighborhood spaces off because we really don't want to publish a list of addresses of all the people with disabilities in the city. So this is really just the commercial areas. But this is available on our website as well.

I have a quick question. Are the visitors with disabilities accommodated when they're visiting these neighborhoods? It will only stop available just for residents.

Yep. They won't be able to park in those spaces. They can park in visitor parking, which is like two hours, and they don't have a time limit. They can park in metered parking spaces, and they can park in the other accessible spaces that don't have a resident requirement. So like Andrew said, it's never going to be that all the accessible spaces have this. That just wouldn't happen. So there's still plenty of accessible spaces that don't have this restriction. because we want to leave it open for visitors. But not every area of the city has resident permanent parking. It's really only the areas that are very densely crowded and have other amenities that a lot of people want to get to. So I mean, that's the actual reason for permanent parking is to preserve the spaces for residents. So there's no reason why residents with disabilities should be left out of that protection.

Thank you for the sharing. I have a couple of questions. One about the ABLE Lab, if I may. I saw Rajma's feedback too, but I was wondering if the graduates from the ABLE Lab have the opportunity to go on for ongoing mentorship and perhaps even have some leadership roles within the government.

Yeah, part of the things they learned about are joining a board or commission, coming to our advisory board, getting involved in different activities like we have a SPARK Council, S-P-A-R-K, that's how I pronounce it with my Boston accent, and that's for like young Bostonians. There are so many opportunities to get involved. One of our participants learned about outdoor yoga, so he and his partner went to yoga. So lots of civic engagement opportunities as well as just taking advantage of what Boston offers. So the next meeting is, the last meeting is next week. So we'll talk about next steps after that, but we certainly welcome them to get involved in any ways they choose to afterwards. And at the end of each session, we've given them action steps. So some of the action steps were to like attend a community meeting or sign up for a listening session or come to our advisory board. So I see some people here tonight and we hope some of them will also come to ADA Day. So hopefully you'll get to meet some of them.

Yeah.

Okay, all right, I can finish up my slides if that's okay?

Yeah, of course.

All right, and then a couple of engagement opportunities for the board to attend yourselves or pass on to the community. There are two City Council hearings that have been filed. One is the hearing order on the Disability Commission Annual Report, and this was filed by Councillor Flynn. There's no date set yet, but I will keep you updated. And Councillor Flynn is a big advocate for our work. One of his passions is access for people with disabilities and older adults. So he wants to hear more about our work and he's filed a hearing order to talk about it. So I would love it if board members may attend this hearing and we can brainstorm about issues you want to bring up. Maybe different people we want to invite to a hearing to talk about different issues that are important to you. And this is something that we can like loop our ABLE graduates in on as well. And then another hearing order was filed on driverless vehicles. They are the same as autonomous vehicles. I'm not sure of the different lingo. I don't know why that is, but the hearing order actually says driverless vehicles. And all the blue text is a link, so you can click to read the orders directly. And again, there's no date for that. I have not been invited to testify at that one, but I plan to attend, and I can let everybody know when that is as well. and the city is planning to bring together a working group to look at issues with this new technology and accessibility and then what committee would that filed under i don't know do you know andrew let me check And Carl, I know you've been patiently waiting. Carl's going to be on a working group. But I've been told that it's not scrapped. It's just delayed.

Yeah, and I owe you some paperwork, too. So we'll get there.

OK.

It's going to take me a while to answer, so continue.

Two other things I want to let you know about. One of our community advocates organizes Saturday morning walks in Franklin Park. He's a young disabled advocate, and he has a program called Family and Friends Living Healthy, Walking in the Right Direction. So the walks take place every Saturday at 9 a.m. June 6th through September 23rd at the Franklin Park Golf Course Clubhouse. So anybody is welcome to join in. And then another thing we want to do is make a push to renew compliance with the Sydney of Boston captions ordinance. I was out and about over the weekend and I saw a bunch of restaurants that had captions on. I was really excited. But we know with all the events happening this year, especially, the summer is always busy, but this year is like a summer on steroids. So we want to make sure all our international visitors and other visitors can understand the communication that's happening in businesses and restaurants. So we are going to be making a moving push. Colleen has an outreach plan we're working on, but also want to ask you to help us spread the word. We have business cards that we can mail out to people and, you know, you can refer people to our website. There's a lot of information on that about how people can comply. So please help us spread the word. Okay, I just have one or two other slides. Okay, summer events that I mentioned. Spread the word about these as well. FIFA World Cup events. In case you don't know, City Hall Plaza is the main hub for FanFest. We're all trying to get our work done with these really loud, exuberant fans on the plaza. for the next uh week so it will be it's on uh it's on city hall plaza right now through next friday um it is a limited capacity and pre-registration is required but if anybody's interested in attending there is an accessible viewing area for people with disabilities if anybody really has a hankering to go please just email me and i can see if i can find out sometimes the city gets passes for different groups so i can see if we can find any for people with disabilities if anyone's interested Boston 250, Independence Day activities on July 4th. Every other city has a parade. Usually it's a small parade that just goes from City Hall Plaza to Faneuil Hall. But this year, because of the 250th anniversary, it's going to be a longer parade starting in Copley Square. It's going to march along Boylston Street to City Hall. And the city was looking for representation from different groups, different revolutionaries who have contributed to this country. So we invited the Boston Breakers and the Commonwealth Closers, power sports teams to march with us. So they will be having a group of about 10 people marching in the parade. So it would be great if everybody wants to come out and watch. The parade ends at the old State House with the reading of the Declaration of Independence. And then we will have an accessible viewing area there as well.

You mean the old State House, right?

Yield status, yes. And then for a week in July, the tall ships will be here. I put in a link to that. And then I also reiterated the ADA day information here in case anyone wants to just send a slide out to their networks. Okay, and... I have one more slide. And Patricia wasn't available tonight to give an architectural access update. So I'm just going to be very brief. And I'm only mentioning these two things because they've been in the news lately. And I just want to let you know that we're aware of them and that we do work on these issues. So I'm sure a lot of you saw BHA elevators have been an issue for a while, especially in certain developments. So the BHA, Boston Housing Authority, has ongoing challenges maintaining functional elevators in many of its buildings. Many of its buildings are very old. They have crumbling infrastructure. It's difficult and expensive to get parts for repairs, and they are under serious budgetary constraints. Because of that, they've made long-term capital plans for upgrading some elevators, but also probably just shuttering some buildings and building new developments, because it's really just throwing good money after bad money. If the buildings are too far gone, it's really not worth repairing some of them. So in those cases, they are working on reasonable accommodations to get people who need accessible units that don't have elevators into more accessible units. So residents can always request reasonable accommodations. That being said, they were called to a hearing from the AAB, which levied a fine. It was several hundred thousand dollars, but instead of paying the fine, BHA has to use that to upgrade their elevator facilities. So that is all in the process of happening. And I'm mentioning this just to let you know that we are aware of these issues with BHA. I'm not the ADA Title II coordinator directly for BHA because they're a quasi-government agency, but we do work very closely with them. Our architects provide guidance, technical assistance. We are like a liaison between them and the AAV because we work very closely with the AAV. We help them with their plans, with the variance applications. We let them know what we think may fly and what they definitely have to fix. So we try to be good partners and supportive for them, but we know that they're facing a lot of challenges. So just wanted to let the board know that we know about these issues and we're working on them to hopefully make the best outcome possible. Also in the news recently, White Stadium. So our office has been involved since the beginning reviewing plans throughout the planning process and the construction process. So we've given input on things like accessible seating, railings for the stadium seating, bathrooms, paths of travel, whether they were going to be paved or gravel, transportation, shuttle vehicles. One good thing that we were able to give input on was that they're going to have a bathroom with an adult changing station, adult changing table, so that's helpful. And the bathrooms will be open on days when there aren't games as well. So right now there's no current city facility that has a public restroom with an adult changing table, so we're excited about that. And as many of you probably know, the TAPA plan was recently released, and that's the Transportation Access Plan Agreement. So this includes site plans detailing shuttle drop-offs, pickup zones, dedicated bike parking areas, and also parameters about driving and parking in the neighborhood during games. So many of the decisions that matter most to residents still lie ahead. I know there was a community meeting last week and the city will take into account the feedback that was given at that meeting. All this to say that we are involved and we advocate for access throughout the stadium and in the planning, but some of the decisions are relegated to different departments that we don't necessarily have a direct oversight of. So we advocate for all the access we can. Some of the things won't be in our purview to oversee, but that being said, the city always wants input and we always want to encourage people with disabilities to get there. Again, I know these are kind of hot button topics. I just didn't want to gloss over them. I don't have a lot more updates to say, but we can provide more information in future meetings on both of these issues. So I'll stop there and open it for questions.

Thank you. I have a question. I know you said in your report, thank you for your report, Commissioner. And you're right, the summer is jam-packed in the city. I know you mentioned in your report, or you put a link in your report to the Sail Boston website. Do you know if there are any... any particular viewing areas for accessible viewing areas or any accessibility accommodations for folks with disabilities around that event?

I haven't clicked on it myself yet, but I usually go to a lot of events. I like the Tall Ships, and they have had them in the past. I know I usually go to Castle Island, and they do have accessible viewing areas that I've seen in the past. But I would suggest you check their website, and they may have a link to accessibility questions. And if you don't see it, you could always email them directly. I don't have much contact there, but if I get a chance, I will look on it and see what I can find out, too.

Great. Thanks a lot.

Juan Carlos.

Thank you, Sally. This is Juan Carlos Ramirez. I couldn't be here for the beginning of the presentations. I just wanted to make a comment. Thank you so much for all the information about parking. The other thing about the FIFA World Cup, I had the opportunity to experience it over the weekend. It was amazing. The volunteers were really accommodating. I really didn't have to ask too many places to find a spot. So I think the city has done a tremendous work. I know people from overseas who are also using it, and they are delighted with the service. So I just wanted to share that from my perspective, that I think a lot of our games don't really work well with having one person. So congratulations to everyone who was involved in making this a pleasure game. Thank you.

Well, Carlos, did you put a fan fest, or did you go to a game?

I went to the farm face, to the city wall, yes.

Oh, great.

Great experience. Definitely can recommend it.

That's good to know. My team worked hard to get that accessible viewing area put in place.

Yes, yes, yes. And I think everyone was very, very grateful for it, especially on such a hot day. That place was really helpful. So I recommend. I know a lot of my friends from our soccer teams have already attended, and they are sharing their experience as well. So thank you, everyone, for the hard work on that.

Thank you.

Does anybody else have any questions for the Commission?

Are we still broadcasting?

Yeah, you used to start. Oh, so here, since the Commission already gave on our architectural access, we'll move on to board member shout-outs. Does anyone have anything that they would like to I know.

So this is Carl? Yes. So I just found out today. So as many of you know, there are regional ADA centers all spread out across the country. Ours is the New England ADA Center, which is run by IACD. And the government did not put out an RFR to fund the 10 regional ADA centers. So it looks like if they don't get funding soon, they might be closing down. Just reach out to your... Congressman or your senator, Marquis, why can't I remember the name of the other one? Warren. Warren, thank you. Or your local or your federal congressman, in my case, Diana Presley, and let them know that, you know, you're disappointed that this is important to you.

Sorry, we didn't hear your comment. This is the interpreter.

I have any anything that they're writing. Follow up on his request.

I'm also having difficulty here breaking in and out.

Can you hear me now?

I can now. Yeah.

Okay. I was asking if you have anything in writing so that we can read more about.

Let me see if I can get it. I'll reach out to the company. Thank you. And if so, I'll send it to Andrea and Andrea can then disseminate it to the committee. Does that work, Andrea?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. I'll work on that tomorrow. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Does anyone else have anything you'd like to share?

I think Alan had his hand up earlier. I don't see it now.

Yes. I wanted to invite the board to participate or rather possibly partner with the advisory council that I'm on for ending homelessness with a screening for a film called Beyond the Bridge concerning homelessness and I was a speaker for the film last year with Joyce Tavon with Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance and Senator Feeney just concerning the intersection of disability and homelessness. And I thought it would be a great opportunity for the Disability Advisory Board to work with the Advisory Council just concerning both those causes.

Thank you.

Yeah, shoot me an email, Alan, and I'll make sure it gets to the board. This is Andrea.

Andrea, were you able to figure out who filed or what committee that's under for the driverless car?

Yes, it looks like it was not given to a committee. It was tabled.

Okay, and who filed it, do you know?

Culpepper.

Thank you.

Sorry, I'm just responding to or clarifying with Carl. Carl, that was the city council, not the state. I just didn't want you to be confused. I wasn't confused.

I just came out with the wrong word.

Too many governments.

Great. Yeah, no problem. Thanks.

We have too many kinds of government, too many titles. I joke. I love government.

all right if there's no more shout outs i'm going to move on to old business uh first autonomous vehicle policy that's a minute paul do you have any updates so this is carl i was supposed to have a document ready for you guys for this month to review i apologize i've i've had some um

personal things to deal with, meaning the healthcare of my mom, so that's been taking most of my energy, and I hope to have it, well, will, I will commit to having it ready for the August meeting.

Thank you, Carl. And then next, voting between signing the letter

Yep, this is Andrea. So we had put that on the agenda with the hope that I would have the names of some other 8J commissions who have joined your letter. I do not have any yet. So unfortunately, it's a non-update update. As a reminder, if anyone knows any... So in Boston, you're called the advisory board. Those of you may recall from a few years ago when we dug into the legalese, your board is created pursuant to something called 8J, which technically calls you a commission. But we're a commission. We had it first. The department did. So all that to say, if you know anyone else in other municipalities in Massachusetts who are on their 8J commission, Commission on Disability or Advisory Board on Disability. They have lots of different titles. Who is interested in the AutoMark conversation, please feel free to send them my way. And hopefully by August, I will have some municipalities for you.

Andrew, I gave you a name of a person in Worcester. Were you able to reach out to them or no?

I have not initiated contact with them specifically yet, no.

Okay, thank you. I'll try to get to some other commissions because I know a bunch of advocates that are working on to that, so I'll reach out to them and see what I can find for you.

Great, thank you so much. Okay.

You're breaking up a bit, Zari. Did you ask if anyone has new business? Yes, public comments. Oh, public comments, okay. Any new business?

There is no new business on the end. This is Andrea. Apologies, Rashmi. I haven't sent you a request to unmute yet. I don't have the agenda in front of me. Sorry, there's nothing on the agenda for new business, right?

No.

OK. Jerry, would you like to propose new business?

No, I just want to make sure we didn't We didn't skip over that if anybody has new business that they wanted to bring up.

gotcha perfect um so for public input uh thank you members of the public for joining um public comment is limited to two minutes per person please wait for the board chair to recognize you to indicate that you have a question or comment please use the raise hand function wave at your camera if your camera is on mention in the chat that you have a question or put your question in the chat and you will be recognized and given your public input time. So since Ari has recognized Reshma, thank you for your patience. I will send you your request to unmute.

Hi, I'm here. I'm sorry. Hi, I'm here. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, great. Okay, thank you for opening the meeting to public input. So I have a question regarding the accessible park. I was wondering if, you know, like some personal experience when I was a child, I would find it hard to understand another parent either due to the background noise or children who were being very loud, you know, in a park. In such cases, I felt that having something like a blackboard or a whiteboard to convey important spoken information in a written format would be helpful. So I was wondering if the parks will have this kind of facility when we are talking about accessibility.

Thank you. Thank you, Reshma. Your question will definitely be shared with Lauren. One thing I can note is that it's increasingly common at playgrounds, not necessarily in all parks, but in playgrounds to have communication boards with pictures. That type of communication boards that will show a tree or... Slide Lauren is working on establishing what the. Standard ones should be in every city of Boston playground and which ones will be, you know, how many spaces they'll leave open to specialize it to that park. Right? So, some parks have. Slides and some don't so we're not going to put a slide on every park. Maybe. So I do know that those communication boards are going to be increasingly installed, but I will let her know your, I will share your comment with her about whiteboards or blackboards. I don't see anyone else. Do you, Andrea? This is Andrea. I don't see any Zoom hands, hands on camera, or chats.

OK. Well, so if no one else has any questions, I believe you've come to Paul's favorite part of the meeting. Paul, would you like to do the honors?

How did you know?

Oh, I know you well.

Yes, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

Anyone like to second?

This is Paul. I second. Oh, Paul.

OK. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Happy Fourth of July and Juneteenth, everybody.

Aye.

Yes.

Enjoy the long weekend.

And just remember, there's no meeting in July. We'll see you in August. August.

Good night, everyone.