Disability Commission Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Everyone. 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 nine six two, as well as live streamed on YouTube where the recording will remain, after tonight's meeting. With that, I turn it over to board chair, Jerry Boyd.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the August meeting of the Disability Commission Advisory Board. Happy to be here this evening. Thanks everyone for for taking the time. I do know that we probably have board members and members of the public who are enjoying their their early August and their their summer. So but, really appreciate everyone's time who's able to make the meeting tonight. And let's start with introductions. Paulette, do you wanna introduce yourself?

Good evening, everyone. This is Paulette Durrett. I live in the Manhattan section of Boston. I'm a older black female. I have on a red shirt and eyeglasses.

Great. Thank you. And, Paul, do you wanna introduce yourself? Yes. My name is

Paul Karen. I serve on the executive committee of the disability advisory board and also a supervisor in the Boston planning department. I'm a white male with short hair and I represent the West End Of Boston area. Thank you. Great. Thank you,

Paul. Olivia, you like to introduce yourself, please?

Yes. My name's Olivia Richard. I am the vice chair and of the advisory board, and I hail from Brighton. I am a middle aged white female with short hair and glasses wearing a blue t shirt.

Great. Tyrone, would you like to introduce yourself, please?

Sure. My name is Carl Richardson. I'm a middle aged Caucasian male with salt and pepper hair wearing a maroon polo shirt. I I identify as a deaf blind individual, and I live in the Brighton Center neighborhood.

Great. And sorry for the lack of clarity. I I actually went for Tara to go next, but it's okay, Carl.

No you said Carl. I'm sorry.

Yeah. And it was probably my my speech or No.

It's my hearing, but it doesn't matter. Thank you.

Yeah. It doesn't doesn't matter as long as we all get to introduce ourselves. Tara, go ahead, please.

Hi, everyone. I'm Tara Sutter. I'm wearing a blue shirt with glasses. I live on the JP Roxbury line, and I am the secretary of the advisory board.

Great. And Zari, would you like to go next, please?

Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Zari Amirasemi. I am resident of South Boston. I'm a female with short, grayish, brownish hair, And I have a physical disability. I'm a wheelchair user. And that's it. I'm member of the board.

Great. And I didn't actually identify where where I'm from. My name is Jerry Boyd. I am I am proud to serve as chair of the advisory board. I am a middle aged white male with salt and pepper hair. I have kind of a, I guess, phone green polo shirt on, and I am proud to live in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. So thank you everyone for, those introductions. Commissioner, would you like to introduce yourself now? I'll wait till you report.

Hey. Hi. Thanks, Jerry. Hi, everybody. I'm Kristen Makosh. I'm the disability commissioner and EVA title two coordinator for the city of Boston. I am a white female wearing glasses and a white shirt, and I have a background of city hall on my screen. I also use a wheelchair.

Great. And I believe we have a forum now. Can you just confirm that for me, Andrea, please?

Yes. I can. Confirmed.

Okay. So because next on the agenda is the approval of the July minutes. Do I hear a motion to approve?

I just call and make a motion to approve the minutes as proposed.

And do I have a second, please? I'll second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, either say aye or just raise your hand.

Aye. Aye.

Great. I believe the motion passes unanimously, which is always awesome. And next, we will have a presentation from the MBTA's office of system wide accessibility with Laura Brelsford. And I see Laura is on online as well as several members of of your team. So so take it away, Laura. Thanks for being here this evening.

Well, thanks so much, Cherry, and thanks everyone for the invitation to come and speak. Today, it's great to see so many of you. For those who I haven't had a chance to meet before, I'm Laura Bouncer. I served as assistant general manager for system wide accessibility at BMBTA. I'm joined tonight by two members of my team, Nicole and And Nicole and Glenda, if you'd like to just take a second to introduce yourselves, that would be that would be great.

Yes. Hi. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah.

So my name is Nicole Tyrone. I'm the manager of accessible mobility coordination and training development for system wide accessibility, and thank you so much for extending the invite to this meeting tonight.

Hi there, everyone. My name is Blunta Campbell. I manage the internal access monitoring program. So that's our secret shopper program, very unique program, part of system wide accessibility. I started out as a moderator myself in 2018 and now have the managing position in 2022. It's very nice to meet you all and and hear from you all, so thank you for having me.

Awesome. Thanks, guys. By far, the way, the best thing about working for the team is going to work with my team every day. So I'm really glad Glenda and Nicole were able to join this evening. Alright.

Let me pull up some slides here. So computer science and Gendria suggest that I walk through some highlights of major projects happening throughout the system, particularly those that may be interest to to those of us who live and are traveling around Boston. So tonight's presentation is really a look at those things we're most excited about that are in the pipeline covering a a bunch of different modes of our system. And we'll leave enough time at the end for for any questions and feedback that folks may have. Alright.

So starting off in the world of bus separations, Here on the screen, we've got an image of two folks getting ready to board a bus with the ramp deployed. One of them is an individual who's blind and using a white cane, and another is a young woman pushing a child to gain their their stroller. So one of one of the projects we wanted to highlight here is first, let me back up. I I think everyone's aware, BMPTA has done a lot of work over the years to improve surgeons in general through developing better policies, trainings, and doing a lot of work to make sure that operators are fully held accountable. And we're really proud today to be able to say that our bus service is some of the most reliable and accessible out there in the in the country.

But one area where we know there's room for improvement is on the bus stop side of things. So one effort that's been underway for a few years is a plan to upgrade the least accessible bus stops in our network. Over the last four years, we've upgraded over 400 stop ups. A number of them are in the city of Austin, and we've got an additional 40 planned for this year. In addition, one thing we're really excited about is we just received 15 bill $15,000,000 in fair share of funding.

So that's funding from the millionaire's tax to introduce more bus stop shelters and other amenities across another 100 stops. And anywhere we're introducing big amenities like a shelter, We're going in and making sure that those stops are fully fully accessible, not only the stops themselves, but the paths of travel to the stops. Most of the stops that we serve are located on the property of city the city or town that the stop's located in. So often, we are coordinating with the city during this work on behalf of the city because we recognize what a benefit is benefit it is to our riders. And so just to look at some of the amenities you'll see rolling out by over over the next few months and years.

We've standardized our shelter designs to the full size shelter you see there in the center of the screen that comes with coverage on all sides and a bench for bus stops where we don't have a lot of sidewalk width. We have a narrow shelter, which is illustrated there on the left that works for sidewalks that are between seven and nine feet long. In addition, anywhere we cannot find a shelter So anywhere that our sidewalks are more narrow than seven feet, we are installing benches. And we've settled on a a relatively new bunk bench together that was identified after lots of user testing to make sure we were picking a bench that works for the widest array of people possible. And you see that on the right side of your screen.

The other thing we are very excited about is we've redesigned our best up signs so that they are much larger and much easier for everyone to see. So you'll see these larger format screens popping up across the system. One other effort that we are particularly excited about is just within the last year, we received approval from the legislature to move forward with the plan to sort of automatically issuing tickets to drivers who are illegally parked in bus lanes and bus stops. So for the first time ever, we're gonna be able to use camera technology that's located on our buses to take photos of license plates of vehicles that are blocking bus stops and issue tickets, to the driver to see if they were in fact violating the bus stop law. So this has is a system that's rolled out in a number of other major cities and has resulted in a huge drop in violators.

As, many folks that are here, this is one of the biggest frustrations that those of us who are dependent on bus service experience where you're waiting at a stop and the bus operator cannot get to the curb because there's a car parked in the stop. We're really hoping that the traffic of this effort reduces things significantly. So there is for everyone's awareness, there is a hearing coming up later this month just to let everyone know what's gonna be happening. If you're interested in attending, we've got all that information on our website. In the photo here on the screen is of a a FedEx truck parked in one of our dedicated helpless lamps, quite helipose.

Alright. Shifting over to hot topics within station. The accessibility this is a photo of a recently renovated station, actually, out in Chelsea, where we've now got full high level platforms and redundant accessible paths of travel. So given the audience tonight, I figured it would make sense to focus on the green line. We are also doing a ton of work on our commuter rail, although none of the stations in that pipeline are located within the city.

So, I think the green light will likely be of most interest tonight. I should note, although they're not located in Boston, we did just at the beginning of this year upgrade for inaccessible stops on the Break B branch that allow riders to get on and off our trolleys accessibly. But we're but what we're most thrilled to share is that, really, over the next two years, but certainly over the next five years, all of the inaccessible stops on the c and b branches are going to be resolved. And towards the end of that five year mark, all of the e branch inaccessible stations are gonna be resolved, which this is thanks to years of coordination with both with both Boston and Brookline. It's taken a lot of coordination because we've essentially had to take her off the traveling on both Klamath and Beacon Street so that we can widen those stops, many of which are only about two to three feet wide today.

So c branch is gonna go out first. We're likely gonna start construction this October, but the b branch is gonna follow right behind. And although this station is very different than the others I just mentioned, but I think everyone's aware that Symphony Station is about to move into construction. We're just figuring out some of the timelines as we speak, but we're gonna end up with an absolutely beautiful accessible station with redundant elevators against fully accessible platforms. And on the right here is a a rendering of what a portion of that station will look like when it's completed with the head of the substrate level.

Alright. So if you look at all that green line work taken together, here we are today in 2025. Believe it or not, we still have 25 inaccessible green light stations. But thanks to all the work I just mentioned, by the time we get to 2030, we're projecting that there will only be two inaccessible green light stations left, and those exude Heinz and Pollo Stump, which I'm happy to talk more about later if anyone's interested. Alright.

So can I be remiss if I did not mention the new green line trolleys as I was talking about all of these green line improvements? So our new green line type 10 car is well on its way to becoming a reality. In fact, we're gonna be getting the first pilot car this coming spring. And so we'll all be able to actually get on and take some rides on the new pilot car on this side next year. The car is a 100% Vauxhall with a much more modernized passenger information system, Eventually, thanks to the fact that this will be a fully low floor vehicle, we'll eventually be able to go back and further renovate green light stations to raise the platforms so that there's level boarding very similar to what we have on the the red, orange, and blue lines to the and on the left here is a photo of the mock up that was in town last September.

Alright. So I I this is a fairly new graph for our team that I try to show off whatever you can, but I did wanna just throw this in here because when you when you take a look at all of the work that's happening on the green light over the next five years and then take a look at all of the work that's happening on the commuter rail to address some of the accessible stations. It's pretty exciting. So this is a line graph that shows that back in 1990 when the ADA was first passed, we only had 21 only 21% of our stations were accessible. But fast forward to today, 83% are accessible, which certainly is a is a lot better.

But the thing we're most pumped about is that within just the next five years, that number is gonna jump up to 93. I do want to acknowledge that there's a big difference between 93% and a 100%, so we're not getting ready to take a breath yet. We know that even when we get to that point in time, we have some huge barriers to remove, and that includes stations like Heinz and Boyle Fibb, also Boedon on the blue line, And then certainly, as those of you who use the subway regularly know, we've got a lot of stations that are usable today, but there's they're far from ideal. Whether it's the size of the elevators at Chinatown or Davis Square or the fact that that ramping structure at JFK is so long, we know that eventually, wanna go back and make major major changes to those fixations. And then we've got all sorts of what I would describe as smaller issues but still very real ones, like the fact that we still have very noticeable vertical gaps throughout the southwest corner on the orange line and our long term goals of going to level boarding on the ground.

I'm in Bar 35 Station accessibility. I just wanna zoom in on elevators specifically, and there's a image of one of our newest elevators at Winchester Center Station. And this this is a chart depicting our elevator uptime, something that we've been very, very proud of. Although, I want to acknowledge here that we had a major drop in reliability back in 2022 largely due to some residual supply chain challenges coming out of COVID, but that we are back up to what we consider to be our benchmark of ninety nine point four and working really hard to maintain that and or beat that going going forward. But one of the ways that we improve our time is making sure that we're modernizing units and while we're at it, trying to build in redundancy wherever we can.

So one project that I know is of particular interest to this script, we talked about it a couple years ago, is currently at Jackson Square. We are under construction to fully modernize the existing unit and to re and to construct a brand new elevator so that by the 2027, we'll have two fully new elevators there to serve the station. While we're there, we're also doing some really major majorly creative things to address the vertical gaps that I just mentioned. So that's gonna be a big, big step for us as well. We're doing something similar in Central Square, but I'm gonna skip that and focus in on the other big Boston project is the enormous undertaking of making the connection between the red and orange lines at Downtown Crossing totally accessible.

It's finally happening. We are expecting to have the notice to proceed with construction by the end of this year, meaning that crews would start mobilizing, likely in late spring, next summer, and this will be a long project given how we can't take Downtown Crossing out of service. So it will be a bit of a chaotic experience out there, but we're gonna make sure all of that phasing, all works for everybody. But at the end of this, we're finally gonna have an accessible connection, which has been a very long time coming. And on the screen here is a photo of the rendering for the new new unit that will be located at Jackson Square.

Alright. So one really, really cool thing two cool things that happened over the last year related to elevators. We certainly know that no matter how many new elevators we have and no matter how well maintained they are, they're still gonna go out of service every once in a while, and we all need to know when that is so we can plan accordingly. Two things that have happened out of our technology department. First is that there have been a bunch of new large format digital screens deployed into our pre fair lobby areas.

These screens also have an audio feature, so they're fully accessible. And on these screens, you can get all sorts of service information, including elevator uptime and elevator outage information. In addition to that, earlier this year, we released our first official MBT Go app for both Apple and Android users. So if you're not using it, definitely check it out. It provides all sorts of information from when your train is arriving to where your bus stop's located to if an elevator is out of service, and the team is gonna be adding in all sorts of fun new and interesting functionality over the coming months and years.

And on the screen, we've got a photo of somebody using that app along with the screenshot of the app. Alright. Here's where I pause to just sort of acknowledge that we we know that good accessibility is a lot more than raised platforms and elevators. And so with that in mind, there's a lot of initiatives underway to make sure that we're centering our customers in all sorts of ways. And on the screen is one of our trans ambassadors helping out all of the trees in our system.

So Nicole introduced herself at the start of the meeting. Nicole has recently joined us. One of her primary roles within her team is helping us build out and design even better, even more trainings for frontline employees, anybody that might might have a role in making the system accessible for for our folks. Just last year, we issued a I developed a training for our operations control center, which was really cool, sort of Lindnerb Center of the MBTA. And, one thing that she and Rob Stampson from our team is working on as we speak is our first ever accessibility training specific for transit police officers.

Just as with our bus and subway trainings, all of these trainings include a lot of first person perspectives from customers with disabilities, which is really essential. And the photo on the screen is one of the trainers from our trainings for instructing a group of new bus operators. Alright. I'm trying to think of the best way to introduce this. This is an initiative that we've been dreaming up essentially for the last fifteen years.

We spare gates that we have in the system today were first introduced in the early two thousands. One piece of feedback the MBTA received right away was, but wait a second. Why why do I have to tap my card to activate the gate when on the highway, on the pike? I've got this EZ Pass technology. Why can't we do an EZ Pass solution for fair gates?

And the answer for eighteen years has been, well, that technology does not exist. And I'm here to say that it's coming. So about five years ago, we started working to build the requirement into another contract for a fair gate company to essentially invent this solution. And so we've been working with the members since to develop this system where if you're wearing a conventional either on a lanyard or or you can post it or adhere it to part of your wheelchair or or clothing, that as you approach the accessible fare gate, the gate opens automatically. We are in the process of testing these gates in the field.

There's about 13 located throughout the system as we speak. It probably will not be until about another year until next summer until these are widely open for public use, but we're feeling really, really good about this, and can't wait until we're ready then to really show this off. But the gift being on your left there is yours truly. Getting to experience it for the first time, I think in that in that moment, had the, the special Charlie card on a lanyard around my neck. Alright.

And then speaking of cool technology, we just also wrapped up some very serious testing of, existential wave finding technology called NaviLens. This is a solution that uses these brightly colored QR codes to provide information, on how to navigate an indoor or outdoor environment. So with this effort, we're trying to solve the challenge of how does somebody who's blind or have low vision navigate complex indoor MBTA stations and or find bus stops. So our technology team just did three months of extensive user testing. They are pulling together their recommendations as we speak, And I I expect that by the end of the summer or in the early fall, we'll be announcing the next phase of this project.

Alright. I also this this year is not a new initiative, but I wanted to make sure we mentioned this because we're joined tonight by Glenda Campbell, who is the senior project coordinator overseeing this effort. But for those that are not aware, Glenda and our team oversee a secret shopper for the program for the MBTA specific specifically focused on accessibility. At any point in time, we've got multiple teams of riders out there closing as customers collecting data on how our operators are doing in terms of complying with all of our rules and training. On average, we monitor over a thousand trips a quarter, and we got all sorts of really, really detailed reports that help us inform decisions and take action as needed.

And I think as we enter this year, we're gonna be thinking about ways that we can ask our monitors to assess other things throughout our system and stations. And this photo here is one of our monitors, although please don't reveal his undercover status being secured by a bus hopper. Alright. As we start to wrap up here, this is a huge effort that we never take for granted and that is ongoing goal of expanding expanding our our outreach outreach and and doing doing better better and and deeper deeper engagements. Engagements.

So we now have a mobility center at the MBTA, which is currently located at a thousand miles south. It's actually gonna be moving to Quincy next year. And at that center, we have that's not only where you go to sign up for the ride if you're interested, but we also have a number of professional trainers that work to make sure riders have confidence in using the system. They also go out and do all sorts of outreach events along with staff from our team. So there's a lot of work happening to just be healthy in the public as much as possible to make sure folks are aware of all the improvements that I've just been mentioning, but also even more importantly, to hear what we're doing and take that feedback back back to the assets.

And on the right is a collage of photos of all sorts of different events that we've posted or been invited to over the last year. Alright. I wanted to end here with with a particularly important topic that, to be honest, we need your help with, and that is all sorts of efforts to improve the way we're communicating and engaging with cities and towns. Not surprisingly, we really need Boston and Cambridge and all the other cities we serve to do certain things in order to make sure that our bus stops and our stations are accessible. Due to the biggest are making sure that snow removal happens reliably and excessively, and making sure that when bike lanes are being designed adjacent to bus stops in particular, that the cities are reaching out to the MBTA to coordinate on design so that we're not inadvertently introducing new barriers.

Me. So this is something we just need to keep working on because we really rely on each other. Alright. My timing is good because I am ready to wrap up here. I really just wanted to say thank you more than anything. This is a photo from the thirty fifth anniversary March and Rally. We had such a great time, and we're really proud to be out there working with all of you to raise awareness about the importance of accessibility. So I will stop here and take any questions.

Thank you, Laura and team. Thank you for your efforts on on making making the team more accessible. It's amazing that in just a few short years, we're we're gonna have, hopefully, 93% accessible systems. So just wanted to open it up for any questions from members of the board. Do you have any questions for Laura and her team?

Jerry, this is Andrea. I see Wes has his hand open, and then I saw Carl unmuted.

Sure. Go ahead, Wes.

Hi. Good evening, everybody. Thank you, Laura, for your presentation. It was it's really exciting to see what's coming, some of these changes that are coming with the MBTA within five years. So congratulations on the hard work that you all have been doing over the past several years.

And I do have a question about the new elevators. I know that you had mentioned that in some areas, the new elevators, I just wanted to clarify about the new elevators. I'm wondering if they're going to have some clear light clear glass so that you can actually make it more visible for people who are actually in the elevator to see what's happening outside the elevator and see people in the elevator. Because if someone's stuck in the elevator, you wanna make sure that people can see that you're stuck and and can actually call for help and ensure that someone will come help you.

Yeah. That is a great question. But and the answer is absolutely Our new elevator standard, which was developed back in 2009, requires that for all new elevators or elevators that are being fully modernized like at Jackson, that there'd be as much glass and transparency as possible. So you'll see a lot of regular units that there is a lot of transparency through that door, that view the elevator door, as well as on all three other sides of the cap. You're absolutely right.

That not only does it allow us to see somebody who may have gotten stuck, it's also just really comforting as a rider. If you're ride you know, if you're waiting for the elevator to arrive at your floor level, you can see whether or not there's anyone in there in advance. And just for a sense of personal security, you you don't know what's on the other side of the door before it opens. So we consider that to be a huge safety safety requirement as well as just a good, better customer experience.

Great. Thank you.

Go ahead, girl.

So hello, Laura. Hello, members of the system wide access team. First of all, I wanna commend you on all the hard work that you guys are doing. I know how hard it is to do accessibility on an old architectural platform, if you will. My question is this. The ride, the paratransit program doesn't necessarily fall under paratransit. Is that correct? I mean, the ride program doesn't necessarily fall under system wide access. Is that correct?

That is correct, Carl. So technically speaking, our team is responsible for what we call the fixed route system, which is everything except pure transit service, but we certainly do work closely with Michelle Styler and her team at RA.

Okay. Thank you.

And, Zari, I see that you have your hand up.

Thank you. And thank you, Laura. This is great. My question is about evacuation plans in case of emergency. We recently saw what had happened in New York, the train transit system. And I kept thinking, wow. If this was in middle of a tunnel, how would someone be taken care of. So is there a I'm sure there's a plan, but but is this something that you could share with us?

Sharp. So emergency response and preparedness is something we've been working on for a long time now. Say roughly ten years ago, we rolled out a training program specifically focused on how to assist folks who may need additional assistance during an emergency, including an evacuation. And since that point in time, we've we've added details to those guidelines and sort of taken those taken pieces of that training and integrated it into training for bus operators, subway operators, and basically every job category at the FPGA. I'm happy at any point to share all the details on that training, but a few things to be aware of.

We emphasize the fact that people with different disabilities are gonna need different types of assistance, and we work to provide guidance on how that might play out in various emergency scenarios. We also at least twice a year, there is a full scale emergency drill that is coordinated between the MBTA, Masstad, and at least one or two local cities and towns. In fact, we're getting ready to do a big trail later this summer, on the blue line. And as part of each of those trails, we invite people with real disabilities to come in and be participants. And my staff also participates to evaluate how the team does during the drill in terms of following all the trainings and guidelines.

Guidelines. As I'm sure many folks here saw on the news just a few weeks ago, there was a very scary situation where we had to take a train in the blue light on the blue light, but out of service right while it was under the Boston Harbor in between Aquarium and Maverick stations because there were some down cables in the tunnel. Over 450 people had to be evacuated. What you might not have heard is that at least a couple people on that train had temporary disabilities, and they were not able to walk through the tunnel on their own. What was wonderful to see after the fact that was that, thanks to all of the training that's been pulled together, the first responders had access to specialized equipment that allowed them to deploy what's called a Nolan Kirk, which basically is a a platform that sits right on top of the track, and they're able to power that platform down down the tunnel without any without any third rail access so that they can assist people who need the help onto the platform and then transport them to the point of exit and then help them out from there.

So it was really great to see in this real life scenario that certainly nobody wanted to happen, that the equipment that we have and the training that we put together actually played out in the appropriate way. So, again, I'd be happy to talk at a later point and sort of more of those details. But, yeah, definitely something we think about a lot.

Thank you.

Tara, I know that you have your hand up.

Hi, Laura. I just wanted to take a minute to thank both you and your team because at the Jackson Square Station train station that one of the ambassadors came up to me a couple weeks ago and had a conversation with me explaining all the changes and stuff that I was gonna be seeing

Okay. So the short answer is we don't have a short term solution for Roxbury. We do have projects underway at Jackson, at Ruggles, and there will likely be one happening at Florence Mills within the next several months. What we've been trying to do at some of these far complicated word line stations is figure out creative ways to solve the vertical gap that doesn't require completely dismantling the entire platform or digging up the entire track bed because in many ways, due to the age of the station, that's what it would take to get it done correctly. So what we're doing at Jackson is we're experimenting with a new platform overlay and making some track adjustments.

We're gonna be doing the same thing at Buckles. And at Farcells, we're trying out a different experiment where we're gonna be installing a different type of track that's a little less high. If that's a success, that's something we may be able to roll out more easily at other stations like Roxbury and Green Street and other stations on the Southwest Corner. But at the moment, we don't have any immediate solutions for Roxbury Crossing.

Great question. Great questions, everyone. Do we have any other questions of for Laura and her team? Andrea, did I miss anybody?

This is Andrea. I don't see any other hands up, but I just wanna say one thing, that I've definitely used is, the contact us form on the TEAS website to mention both when bus drivers don't pull all the way to the curb and when they do a really good job pulling all the way to the curb, because I know complimenting our bus drivers is a a good way to reinforce that positive behavior. Laura, don't know if you wanna say anything about how those, like, contact us forms get routed to your office.

Yeah. That's a great question, Andrea. It's something I I really should include at the end of my presentation. So we definitely if anything in the system does not go well or if something goes really well and you wanted to know truth about it, there's two good ways to let us know. The first is what event my children is not on our website.

If you go to mbta.com at the top of the screen, you'll see a link to, quote, unquote, contact us. And if you navigate to the submit feedback link, there's a form now that that you can fill out. If you if the complaint is anything related to accessibility, my team gets a copy of it. And what we do, Lisa Weber, who many of you know in particular, she will work with the appropriate area, whether it's bus operations or subway operations to make sure there's a full investigation and that appropriate action is taken, and just as importantly that you get a response back. If you don't want to use our website or don't have access to it, another great way is by calling our call center, which is 222-3200.

Basically, it goes to the same database and it's the same process. If it's accessibility related, at least someone got a copy and make sure that it's handled appropriately.

Great. And I see, Wes, you had a do you wanna share your comment? I know you've put something in the chat. Do you wanna share your comment or just direct folks to the chat?

This is Wes. You can go ahead and read if you like.

Oh, you want me to read it? Okay. I actually okay. This is Wes. I actually thought about about that the other day as a bus was turning around a corner that had a visible green light for pedestrian to walk but did not know where to find the form to file a complaint, and that bus driver almost hit me.

That's the end of the comment.

Yeah. So that that's definitely something if if anything on the system happens that you feel should not have or you've got a question about it, we'd always ask you to get on the side of letting us know so that we can follow-up and try to make sure that that that doesn't happen again.

So, Wes, are you saying you don't know where the the the the form is to file a a comment or or a complaint or a a commendation? And Andrea sent in the chat Andrea shared in the chat a link to the contact us area of the MBTA website where you can put your the the specific information, on there. And, again, if you mark an accessibility concern, someone from Laura Lisa and or or the appropriate folks from Laura's office will work with that, the bus operations or whatever mode, the issue was, so that you get a proper response. You see that, sir. Do you see that, do you see that link in the, chat, Wes?

This is Wes. I see it. Yep. Thanks very much. Great. We'll fill it out. Great. And, I'll make sure it gets sent in. Thanks very much.

Awesome. Great. And, I know from personal experience, you can attach, a photo or or any supporting documentation along with your with your issues. So Perfect.

Okay. Thank you.

Well, again, thank you, Laura, and thank you, team. It was great sharing sharing ADA with you guys, and it is amazing to see how many team members team members and and colleagues and coworkers you had participating in the event, and it was I mean, I think it it goes to show how far we've come, you know, that the general manager general manager Ng, you know, was a featured speaker at the event as well. And I I really appreciate that. I think, Getti, just goes to to your hard work and the hard work of your of your team to make accessible Great.

And I can thank you to everybody here for this success and thought about and the work that you and all the other folks who are put at ARTAC and all the other informal means of advocating for accessibility at the z, we would not be here without that. So right back at you.

Sure. So and we'll and we'll keep advocating. You know that. So so that's great. Thank thank you everyone, really.

Alright. Have a great night,

everybody. Bye now. Next on the agenda, I believe, is my report. And I just had again, I wanted to and I'm sure the commissioner's probably gonna gonna touch on this too, but I wanted to say publicly and formally that that I thought the ADA event was a huge success. It was great to be a part of 1,400 other advocates and allies for for people with disabilities.

You know, there was a really, really palpable, energy to the event, and and, it was just really, really, energizing, and heartening to to to be, you know, with the with the community in that way and and and have our voices heard loud and and proud. And, you know, I wanna thank the commissioner and Andrea and and, you know, and everyone on the team that helped coordinate and and make it happen, and also, you know, just everybody at city hall for for, you know, making the the event such a success from the from the city perspective. I know, you know, getting permits and and, you know, helping helping, you know, shut streets down and Tremont Street. Know, you know, it must have taken a tremendous amount of work, so I really, really, you know, wanna, you know, just say thank you thank you for for that. And, you know, here's to many more successful eighty eights in the future.

It's it's always one of a day that I look forward to, but definitely thirty fifth, I I will not forget anytime soon. So thank you very much for that. And with that, we'll move on to the commissioner's report.

Thanks, Jerry. Andrea has my slides, so I think she'll pull them up for me.

She had to walk away. I'm gonna try to find them as quickly as I can.

Oh, okay.

It's giving me a 400 error message. Did you hear that?

Well, I can actually jump in because the first item is ADA 35. So to follow-up on Jerry's comments, I and also Laura's wonderful picture, we had 1,400 people attend from over 60 organizations. And I think I saw all the board members who were in this meeting at the event. I know I saw Paul, Tara. I saw Carl. I saw Jerry. I saw Zari. I think Wes and Paulette, you were there as well. And then other board members who may not be here tonight, Some probably attended. So I really appreciate the turnout and the support from our board.

It was a really positive and uplifting event, especially during these troubled times that we find ourselves in. So we we were really pleasantly surprised to see how many people made it to City Hall Plaza. The picture from Laura shows you all the people just from the team who were there. So there were hundreds and hundreds, if not over a thousand people on the plaza. And then we did the march along Tremont Street all the way to the rally at the Embrace Memorial. So wonderful turnout, wonderful event. Thank you all. Again, there's tons of pictures online. If you click on the link that is on my slide deck, you'll see some more pictures and videos. The next event I wanted to talk about was beach ability.

That is an event that's held every year. Oh, is Andrea? Currently, have a brain. She'll be sharing my slide deck. So I attended the beach Abilities event last Saturday. It was held at Constitution Beach in East Boston. It's hosted by Save the Harbor, Save the Bay, and Triangle is the main person that brings people with disabilities. They're the main group, and they had dozens of people there who tried out sand and water wheelchairs, accessible kayaking, adaptive games. There was food, music, lots of activities. So it was a really fun day.

And DCR provides sand and water wheelchairs across their beaches across the state. They also have a really strong universal access program in state parks as well as beaches, so I would encourage everyone to look on their website. Also, other municipalities around the state have beach wheelchairs that you can get. So if you're interested in one, I would encourage you to contact the local town or look on DCR's website for more information. Colleen is still working on her disability commission library tour at the branches throughout the city. Colleen, I know you're on. Would you wanna give a real quick overview of the events you've had so far and any upcoming ones? I just wanna get a drink of water.

Yes.

Okay. Sorry. So the goal is that we're gonna visit every branch library in 2025. We visited about half. And in September, we have we're anticipating we're gonna have five visits. Three are already scheduled, three and a half. So, we're gonna be going to the Grove Hall Library in September. We're gonna be going to Chinatown, Codman Square, and Egleston. And some of them are gonna actually be piggybacking off of housing clinics that the office of housing stability is holding at the library. So especially for those visits, if you know people because I know people in the disability community often have a lot of questions about housing and are looking for those resources.

Please send them my way because I can make sure they know about the ones that are gonna be held at the library on the same day we'll be having the disability outreach tour.

Thanks. Great.

Thanks, Colleen. And then one other thing, just as an update from our department is, again, I've mentioned this before, but we do a monthly call with other disability commissions across the state, many in the greater Boston area to talk about best practices and challenges. So it's mainly made up of board members and commissioners from other cities and towns. It's not usually staff, but from our department, our staff attend. But we'd love to have some advisory board members attend if they're available.

I know a few of you have expressed interest, so please, if you have time, we'd love for you to go. We'll go to the next slide. So I wanted to give some information on opportunities for board members to get involved in different city projects. So there are two important city council hearings coming up in the next few weeks. One is next week.

It's a hearing on accessibility and safety of sidewalks. It's next Wednesday, August 13 at 10AM. It's in Boston City Hall. It will be held in person, but you can also watch you can livestream it on TV or online, and you can participate virtually if you wanna give testimony. So this first one on accessibility and safety of sidewalks is gonna look at how the city's doing as far as the current brand program that we're working on, how we handle complaints, how we resolve issues, and what some of the barriers are.

So if anyone's interested in watching, you can tune in to the livestream. Or if you wanna participate virtually, you can contact the contact person at the bottom section of the slide, ShanelPack@Boston.gov. The web sorry. The email address is Shane.pac@Boston.gov, and you can provide your testimony that way. You can also join virtually that way.

I'm sorry. I'm feeling a little under. The other city council hearing coming up is on accessibility in Boston City Hall, and that's looking at the interior mezzanine stairs, which are challenging. We did just have a platform lift installed there three years ago, so it is more accessible now, but it still has a lot of challenges. So some different things that we're gonna talk about during that hearing. I've been asked to be on the panel for both of these hearings, so I'll be speaking. But certainly welcome anyone on the board and members of the public to attend as well. That one is September 11 at 2PM. So please join and offer testimony if you're interested. And we'll go to the next slide, which I think that's it.

I had a short report this month. So any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Let's see. Oh, Wesley, please. You have your hand up.

Yes. I do have a question about the the hearing for the sidewalks. Can you tell me, will that also impact the blue bike docking stations? Will that be on the agenda there?

So the blue bikes are specifically on the agenda that I've seen, and the hearing notice is included in the links. But, certainly, blue bikes are an issue on sidewalks. So we know there have been reports, you know, in the news about sidewalk safety, including electric bikes, and blue bikes do have some electric bikes for rent. So and also the location of the stations on sidewalks is something we pay attention to. So if you want to give input on Blue Likes, you could certainly do that in regards to sidewalks, but it's not specifically on the agenda. That doesn't mean that people who come live to the chamber can't ask questions about it. It's just not something that is specifically listed as being part of the hearing.

Okay. Sure. I'm gonna give that some thought if there's anything else. So what I might actually do is send an email with my thoughts. That's great.

Paula, do you see your agent?

So did we have the focus group that some of us participated in this past month, or was it last month?

The focus group on the planning department. Yes. Yes. That was this past month. Oh, okay. I should have put that in my my report. So thank you. I can talk briefly about that. Can I just ask if anyone has any further questions on what I've said so far just before we move on? No? Okay. The planning department did host a focus group for people with disabilities to get input on ways that they can increase engagement of the disability community for our projects. And, again, this is something that I talk about at many meetings. There are so many ways that you can give input on new developments. You can attend community meetings.

You can provide written or verbal input at the hearings at the community meetings. And we know the development across Boston is booming, not only downtown, but in the neighborhoods. So if there's anything popping up in your neighborhood that you see a construction site about, you're curious about, you can always email us and find out the address and ways you can get involved. So the planning department also has a a very systematic way of looking at projects and assessing them, and it includes all these things I just talked about, like community meetings and ways to input. And they really want to get people with disabilities involved in this system.

So they held a focus group to see, like, how they can better reach the disability community. I wasn't able to attend, but Colleen and Andrea went. And I know they said, I think, six people from the community were there, including at least one board member, if not two. I don't know if Andrea or Colleen wanna give any overview of the meeting.

This is Andrea. Paulette was one of our attendees, so I might kick into her to give her impressions of how the focus group went.

Well, I thought it was interesting that that we were included in that discussion because I I think that sometimes when projects are going forward, by the time they bring it to the community, they've already made up their mind about how it's gonna go about. And I think that that's some of the reason that we don't get as much community participation. So I appreciate you being a part of that discussion so that they could think about some of the things that we mentioned to them moving forward.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that input, Paulette. And I will definitely agree with you that I know the community feels like by the time they ask for input, decisions already been made. I completely agree with that. In reality, there is really still a lot of time to make changes after community meetings, and certainly my office is involved from the beginning. Sarah and Patricia go to these meetings before a shovel isn't put them around. Mhmm. When they're just at the beginning of design, we give a lot of input. But having the community back us up is so important because they'll listen to us because we're staff, and they have to listen to us, and we have to say these things.

But when they hear from the community that how it's really gonna impact your life, they have to pay attention to that. And we really believe they do. So the more input we get from community members, the more impactful it's gonna be on these projects. So thank you for making the time to attend. And I believe Richard also attended from the board. Yes. I think so.

Commissioner, I just have a follow-up. I'm glad they had a focus group. Is there gonna be a final report? I mean, this is Jerry, by the way. I'm I'm sorry to not identify myself. But is there gonna be a report or next steps after the focus group?

So the article 80 process is undergoing a whole revision. So this was just one piece of it. They're trying to, like, make it more user friendly, easier to understand, and try to, you know, improve the whole process. It's a very old process that's been existing for a while. So I know when that is completed, there'll be final reports, but how do you leave it at the end of the meeting, Andrea?

Yeah. This is Andrea. So this was one of a series of focus groups that they've done. I believe it's, if not the last one of the last ones. They've met with community groups.

They did a youth focused one with high schoolers, you know, all kinds of things. My understanding is that what will come out is a new standard operating procedure for engagement. So I don't think it'll take the form of a report so much as a published guide for developers saying, here are the steps that you must take if you're going to, you know, submit a development to the article 80 review process. Here are the community engagement steps that you're required to take as a proponent of a project. So my understanding is it'll be a public document.

So we as residents and developers are all on the same page to know that a developer is required to do, if not every one of these steps, I think a menu, like you can pick two of five or whatever, But the idea is that it will create a publicly transparent list of expectations for what developers have to do as part of that process.

Great. Thank you for that clarification. And thank you for everyone who participated. Any other questions from the commissioner for the commissioner before we move on? Seeing none, I will move on with the agenda. And I believe the next, item on the agenda is the architectural access report with Patricia Mendez. So go ahead, Patricia.

Thank you so much, Jerry. Hello, everyone. My name is Patricia Mendez. I'm the director of architectural access for the Disabilities Commission. I have short, dark hair, and glasses, and I'm wearing a a white T shirt.

Today in my report, I'm going to briefly talk about Downtown Crossing. More specifically, I'm going to talk about Temple Place. Recently, we received a report of some areas of this sidewalk that needed repairs, and that came in in the form of a complaint to the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board. Temple Place is the head the the the street is houses the headquarters for BCIL, Boston Center for Independent Living, and therefore, there is a lot of constituents with disabilities that use that street. So the existing sidewalk conditions, you know, all present some unique challenges that I wanna talk about.

Some of them is that there are several jurisdictions in this block, and the sidewalks are owned by multiple parties, including the city of Boston, the MBTA, and private property owners. The sidewalk also has different kind of materials, which have deteriorated and need repair. Some of the materials are concrete, brick, granite, asphalt, and even metal grates. Underground, there is a bunch of things. There are electrical vaults.

There are MBT tunnels, and there are areaways. Areaways are old basements of adjacent buildings that extend under the public right of way, so under the sidewalk. And they are owned by private property owners. We make sure that they're very difficult for the city because of their property under there. And we're gonna show a short videos just about what the area ways are.

But first, I'm going to finish talking about Temple plays and and the repairs, and then we're gonna play the video if that's okay. So after we received that complaint about repairs needed for Temple Place, our commission and the street cabinet got together, had a conversation, and then the street cabinet sent crews right away to conduct repairs to address the issues flagged in the formal m AAB complaint. We received photos of the before, and we received photos of the after after the sidewalk received the repairs, and I'm gonna show that in the next slide. And I also wanna share the long term solution. So the small concrete repairs that I'm gonna show in the picture, those are the short term solutions.

And the long term solution is that the street cabinet is planning a capital improvement project that includes a bunch of street in the downtown crossing. That includes Temple Place, Brownfield Street, School Street, Washington Street, and a handful of other streets in in the other side of Washington Street. And this project is in the early stages. So the the early stage is called the concept design phase. Next slide, please.

Okay. This is Temple's Place short term repairs, the before and after. On the left, we have a picture of the before showing the side the concrete sidewalk with some deterioration on the concrete, and it also shows a piece of the pedestrian crossing with the white markings and also a metal grate that looks like a a drain and also some deteriorated concrete between the metal grate and the sidewalk. The next picture in the middle is one of the after photos, and it's showing, the concrete repairs on the concrete sidewalk. And the next photo on the right is also an after photo, and it shows the concrete repairs along the sidewalk of Temple Place.

Okay. Now we should go back one slide and watch this small the short video on areaways.

This is Andrea. Apologies. The sound is not playing, so give me one second to figure that out.

Okay.

There we go. Okay.

I figured it out. Let's see if this works. Getting around Boston, you might actually be above someone's basement.

We call these hollow sidewalks areaways. Unlike with regular sidewalks, the city cannot repair areaway sidewalks without collaborating closely with building owners. It's vital

that we do because they have become some of the least accessible sidewalks in the city.

Some are hard to miss, like old hole holes, but others are difficult to spot. Some area where owners don't know they're there. Recently, been experimenting with ground penetrating radar, which detects voids underground via electromagnetic waves.

Following this promising pilot, we will create a more complete picture of Boston's underground, engage

with owners, and begin repairing these neglected silos.

Yay. Thank you, Andrea. And that concludes the report for today, and I'm happy to take questions on what I just talked about.

Thank you, Patricia, very much. And and, Andrea, did I hear a familiar voice in that video?

This is Andrea. You have a sharp ear, Jerry. You did. Some of those words were me.

Great. So so I guess my question would be would be, what's the next step after the video? Are you yeah. I I there next steps? You know?

This is Andrea. The next steps from that video are a couple different places across the city where we are now that we have the ground penetrating radar and know there's an area way, there is a whole bunch of meetings and conversations and bringing engineers together to fix those areaways. Basically, there's a new process internally at city hall to coordinate the, like, six different departments that need to be in touch with these property owners in order to actually fix the sidewalks. And so Kingston and Summer slash Otis and Summer Downtown Crossing should be getting some repairs soon under this new process. And the reason Patricia brought them up, Temple Place, as well as School Street, also part of the downtown crossing reconstruction project.

Also lots of area ways, including one that's three stories deep. Yeah. So there are lots of places downtown that should be getting repairs after probably decades of you all noticing that they need them is really the next steps.

Great. Thank you for that. Any questions on the architectural access access report from the from the advisory board? Seeing none, I guess we'll say thank you, Patricia, for always a very thorough report, and thank you for thank you and Sarah and and the team for always looking out for our interest at at the you know, with these projects. Appreciate it.

My pleasure, Terry. Thank you, everyone.

Next up on the agenda is the board member engagement shout outs. This is the time where we get to highlight either events we've been to, you know, meetings we've attended, or or just the the the work that we've done between last meeting and this one, if if anyone has anything for sure. Go ahead, Carol.

So there's a couple of things I've been working on. One, the first thing is on autonomous vehicles. Last week, I attended the well, two weeks ago now, I attended the July 24 hearing at the Boston City Hall in the City Council chambers where they had a hearing on whether or not they should allow autonomous vehicles in the city of Boston. I obviously would approach it from yeah. It would be good for the disability community at large.

I was a little disappointed on the how to hear and when because they gave a large panel to the union. They gave many of the union members unlimited time to testify, then they broke for a press conference where I sat in the City Conference Hall alone waiting for them to come back so I could then testify. It was a little heavy and planted, and the city councilor made it very clear from the very beginning before even those of us with disabilities could testify that they weren't open, that they weren't going to allow autonomous vehicles because they're worried about losing union jobs. So I thought so I have written to some of the city councilors to keep an open mind. Yes.

They should consider employment for unions, but it also they should consider employment for people with disabilities because the unemployment rate among the blind community is seventy percent. Among the disability community at large, it's anywhere between thirty and forty percent. Autonomous vehicles would be a great way to lower that employment. I mean, we too want the same ability that everybody else worked out with is to provide for our family. So I was a little disappointed.

I've written since then an op ed piece to the Boston Globe. I'm hoping it gets accepted. So that that's one thing. So and I'm hoping that someday I I approach Jerry and and the executive team about potentially having Waymo come in to just discuss how autonomous vehicles can help people with disabilities. I'm not asking the the advisory board to have an opinion or make a decision.

You can certainly ask them all the questions you want. I'm just asking for the advisory board to listen and maybe keep an open mind. Okay? That's one thing that I've I've been doing. The second thing is, lately, I don't know what's going on, but in the last six months, I've had several denials with service animals on shared transportation mainly through the Uber Flex program, which means it's part of the ride program.

I've been trying to figure out how to make sure that drivers are penalized for violating our civil rights because it's both federal and state legislation. I haven't figured it out yet. I can't get the police doing for it because they don't have legal jurisdiction to do so. I can't get the MBTA to do it because they said that Uber won't share their information. I can't get Uber to do it because they won't share the results of the investigation. I've filed complaints with MCAD. It's been six months. It's very onerous. Now I knew this would happen, and I probably would not get in the way even though we already have laws on the books saying this. It is against the law, the driver can be fined to 100 to $300, but I can't figure out who does it.

I knew this would happen when I pursued this. So I have filed complaint with MCAD. I will be mediating with and I've sued both the p, MBTA, and the and I'm not looking for any financial matter. I've already turned down money that Uber offered me. I don't want a dime.

I want them to change their policy that they'll share the names of the drivers or at least let us know that they've taken action. And and I'm also working with state senator Joan Lovely, who's gonna be filing some legislation on finding shared transportation drivers significantly and also changing the jurisdiction so that the police they're a little worried about that one, but they we've had senate help senate and health counsel write the bill with with me and Senator Lovely to change the rules that the police have jurisdiction. So if you call the police, they can come. They can find the ticket. So those are the two things that I have been working along with the other stuff I do, but those are two things of areas of interest.

I just wanted to bring to the attention of the Disability Advisory Board in commission. Thank you.

Thank you, Carl. And I'm very disappointed to hear about the service animal refusal again. You know, I know in wearing one of my other hats involved with the Rise Transportation Access Group, I do didn't know that that they were they had, like, kind of a subgroup work, you know, working on this issue. And I've been, you know, at meetings myself with representatives from from Uber and Lyft where they said they, you know, take this matter very seriously.

And and They do. They they have a deal so this they said they have a deal of tolerance policy, but they won't share with you what they did. They said they'll investigate it, and that's all they'll leave it at that. They said they can't share the results of the investigation, so I have no other no idea of knowing whether they found or did not find Krausz.

What can we do to to as a as a board to to support this issue and to to bring this issue?

Send the board the list of the bills and and and going on from there. I I don't I'm still figuring oh, the other thing you should know is I've hired Christine Griffin to represent to be my counsel when I do go to MCAD and talk to Uber and and and the MBTA to mediate. So that's the and those of you who don't know Christine Griffin, she was the former executive director of DLC and the former assistant secretary of health and human services under the Patrick administration that oversaw the disability cluster.

Great. Please let us you know, please do forward those those bills. And if we can write letters of support, you know, as a as an advisory board and as individuals, you know, I'm sure we would do that. And and thank you, thank you for your advocacy on on on this issue, and please keep us updated if there's new and different ways for us to to support you in this work as well. I I heard that Olivia and Tara might have some things that they wanna share.

I know Olivia had her hand up

first, or I'll do her the floor first if she's still here.

I'm still here. Sorry. I've been having technical technical issues all night.

You're not the only Wi Fi.

So I'll be doing a presentation to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership on disability pride. It's part of their their lunch and learn series on Wednesday, August 20. So that'll be fun. A good chance to get out advocacy information more about BCIL and and their activities, and and just life as a as a person with a disability in Boston.

That's great, Olivia. Thank you so much for sharing. Tara, would you like to go next?

Sure. Hi. I'm Tara, for those who don't know. So aside from disability advocacy, I also volunteered for the Department of Children and Family Services. And last month, which coordinated with ADA Day, there was a training for us volunteers that focused on disability, which I was very excited to attend.

And it was presented by the director of disability services for Massachusetts for the whole state. And it was really interesting. So Massachusetts is the first the first state to implement a disability policy in child welfare, and they trained all of their social workers to both help assess as well as provide accommodations. And not only did they speak largely about children with disabilities, but also with parents with dis with disabilities, which I thought was really cool because I know a lot who are, and I know the struggles that they can have with DCF. And there are many regions here in Massachusetts, and there is actually a disability specialist in every single region.

So if anybody ever wants to know more, have any questions, I now have the contacts on who to reach out to. So yeah.

Great. Thank you so much, Tucker, for for doing that important work with Department of Children and and Families. And if if you wanna share more about what you do, please feel free to to to to do so at at future meetings. So any other any other interesting things that folks would like to share? Not gonna put anyone on the spot.

Hearing none, I guess we'll move to the next part of the agenda or seeing none. Andrea, right? No no hands up that I'm missing. Right?

That is correct. I am not seeing any other hands.

Great. Thank you. So next on the agenda would be old business. We have two things under old business. The court captioning state bill, the specific item regarding that was whether to whether to have the advisory board write a letter in support of of keeping keeping the court reporters live and and not, AI, eye based, in that in that bill.

I guess there's a section of of the bill that would that would allow AI to to replace live court reporters, and we were gonna take it up under old business this month. So, Andrea, I don't know if you wanna share anything. I know we touched on it at a at a prior exec board meeting. If you wanna, you know, just just catch us up to speed again, get on it, and and we can talk about it.

Absolutely. So this is a bill that was brought to us by the Massachusetts State Court Reporters Association. It is a bill that raises the reimbursement rate for stenographers up from where it currently at is, which is $3 per page where it's been from 1988. The bill's been introduced a few different times, and one of the things that's also in the bill is taking out the word stenographer to allow for different ways of transcribing audio recordings. So one of the concerns that the Court Reporters Association brought to us is that the by stenographers have specific training and official court reporters have specific training that the other people who might be allowed to do court reporting would not necessarily have if this bill were to pass.

And the concern is that their concern is that the quality of of the transcripts would be much poorer, including some high profile examples of people who had no access essentially to the transcript because there wasn't a human in the room that heard it and the, like, machine didn't pick it up.

You just get my package.

Okay. And so the machine that was recording in the room didn't pick up someone who was soft spoken, and there simply wasn't a transcript of that that day. Those types of issues are the ones that the Court Reporters Association feel is is a huge potential challenge for folks who are are court involved. So they reached out to the board requesting certainly support for the race, but keeping the words stenographer and the requirement for a human court reporter as it currently is.

And did you did we clarify, Andrea, that if we support if we support amending that language, that wouldn't necessarily mean that we're we're we're voting to vote no on the asking to vote no on the bill because the the bill is the entire bill itself is around, you know, having hybrid meetings and accessible public meetings. Correct?

So I'm not sure exactly what the requirements all are for courts as opposed to open public meetings. But, yes, the board could certainly write really anything in their letter about what they do or do not support related to this bill. Again, my understanding from the Court Reporters Association is that they have written letters to legislators saying, you know, we partially support this. We support the raise, but we have concerns about these other language and and we want you to eliminate or change these lines but not others. So that's certainly something you all could do as well and say we support this but not this.

We want you to have more hearings on this or, you know, whatever the case may be.

Do know and, Carol, you may know this, but do we know where the bill stands currently?

That's what I was gonna ask. I have I've never looked at the text of the bill, but if you give me the bill number, I can let you know in about thirty seconds.

I believe it is H1649.

Got it. I'll mute myself and take a look.

And then West has his hand up, Jerry.

Hand up. West has his hand up.

Go ahead, West.

Yeah. I think thank you very much for the update on that. I think at the last board meeting, I I addressed this issue or this question. I think the concern is that AI use with court reporting The question is about what is the role of a stenographer if AI is going to be the method. Right?

Court agencies don't specifically have they won't be able to give any assistance to AI. Right? So you need human assistance. And so with this bill, it doesn't the language in the bill doesn't seem clear about how that's going to how that's going to all work. So, really, I think I support that complaint in general because the court needs to be able to they wanna have AI as a form of support, but also So I think the court agencies are generally against or opposed to the idea of utilizing AI for these these documents.

Yeah. Again, let me pull

up The

court reporters themselves are against it.

Yep. So let me pull up one of those emails I got from Association. So it was a little background. The letter says, with the advance of audio recording, official court reporters have been gradually replaced over the last several decades. And technically, in 2018, official court reporters were terminated.

And the state created the Office of Transcription Services to manage audio recordings, establish protocols, recruit that and hire approved court transcribers. And so there may not always be a person in the room or sorry. Yep. So they it says, we must deal with low audio, soft spoken speakers, noise interruptions. We spend extra time researching case law and technical terminology.

The existing 12 ACTs that are here in the state includes stenographers, voice writers, digital reporters, and legal transcriptionists. But I guess there is a company that is trying to come into the state that does not currently hear and they bring digital recorders. They bring use speech to text recognition to transcribe the events, not, you know, the people themselves. The transcribers themselves were not present at the event. They don't keep track of they don't have, like, care custody and control of the audio and that's the concern.

It's not

so much that AI itself is being considered. It's this concern that people who are not trained and certified would be allowed to come in with recorders and then, you know, send the recording off. So Just reiterating what I've been told. So

It looks like there's

deal guess if I could respond. The email doesn't specify how the reporters will address the the this transition to this technology.

This is Carl?

Well, Wes said. Was that a question, Wes?

This is this is Wes. That's my question. That's my my point is that it isn't addressed in the bill, and that's my concern.

Okay. Point well taken. Carl, you had a

you Yeah. It looks like there was a hearing back in April. I don't know what the results of what the finding was. It probably hasn't been reported out of committee, but this bill has already been heard back in mid April. So if we do decide to do something, we have to do it sooner than later. Okay. I would support the pay increase. I would even support if we decide to do something, the pay increase. I would even support the work the change in the work stenographer. I worry about changing although it I worry about I hear some of Russians concerned how we're gonna deal with the technology.

But, usually, that stuff isn't in the bill. That that stuff usually gets bills are very short and not too long usually, and then that stuff gets wiped out. But I would certainly support the the pay increase because the fact that they haven't gotten a pay increase in almost forty years is ridiculous. And demographer doesn't narrowly define what we think of, and it it's gone much beyond that. So if the committee wants to do something, I would support those two things in the letter.

Do you wanna make a motion, Carol?

I I wanna I I I don't know that I wanna make a motion unless I feel like the rest of the commission is behind it.

Do we have any other comments or questions or concerns from any member of the other members of the advisory board?

Well, I can go ahead and make a motion, and we can see if I vote. I make a motion that we do draft the letter, but that we keep it defined to the pay increase and change in the terminology so that it gives the writers more flexibility.

So supporting the supporting the what the court reporter's association recommended and having having actual transcribers and whatnot?

Well, that's tricky because even I'm using AI at the state house now. So and even CNN and television network, it's not perfect, and it's not as good as human caption writers. So it

Carl, just to clarify, one of the things that the Court Reporters Association has asked to to change about the bill is to keep certified in front of the word transcriber or or stenographer.

Say, use what

again, Andrea? Certified.

Okay. Okay.

Thank you, Andrea. Thank you for clarifying that. Yet again, you you mentioned that earlier. Thank you.

So I heard a motion to write a letter supporting the increased reimbursement rate and encouraging the legislature to keep the word certified in the law. Was that what you said, Carl?

No. Is that correct? Yep. Great. Any seconds to that motion?

You need a second, I believe, for it to move forward. This is Paul. I second the motion. Okay. All in favor of, writing the letter as stipulated in the motion?

Aye. Aye.

Anybody else? Any nay? Up. It's a yes. Any nays?

This is Wes. Wes,

I'm Wes is saying I'm abstaining.

Okay. I was gonna get to the

I I just feel like yeah. I feel

like the technology issues are I don't know. It's just too complicated, so I'm abstaining.

Okay. Any other nays or abstentions?

Hi.

This is Ari. I'm abstaining as

well. Okay. Any, any, other comments? Olivia or Tara, you abstaining?

I believe I heard ayes from both Olivia and Tara. Okay.

How many so, somebody tabulate those for me. Does the motion pass or not?

This is Andrea. I count five ayes and two abstentions.

So would that, would that technically pass? Yes. It would. Okay. I I guess we'll we'll I'll work with Andrea to to or to draft a little letter in support of the of the court reporter's amendments to the legislation or the the letter in support of for the court reporter.

Great. Thank you. And we had one other, item under new old business, I should say, is accessible trails for all. Again, Andrea, could you remind us, what, what that item was?

Absolutely. This is Andrea, and this is an update from a coalition that presented to you all more than a year ago at this point. And you all wrote a letter in support of some proposed legislation that they titled the accessible trails for all bill. The bill, proposed a number of things including creating a task force to assess the accessibility of Trails City. Be so do to

And And The bill did not pass last term and which is why it has a new bill number this term.

Yes. Thank you, Carl. One update that I believe I provided a few months ago was that the governor did appoint the task force. She didn't require legislative authority to do so. She was able to create it. It is meeting. Yep. But the bill that would, route additional funding has not yet passed. It was attempted to be added as an amendment to a larger funding bill called an environmental bond bill, but it did not get added. And so they are once again this session trying to pass that bill. So they sent me that update

for you. Number for that address?

I had it in front of me.

No.

But I will email you when I find it.

So we need to basically, we need to write another letter of support. Is that what the is that what it seems like?

If you would like to, yes.

Any motions to to write a letter in support of accessible trails for all?

I make the motion.

Any seconds? Great. So we have a motion on the floor. We'll vote on whether to write a letter of support in in favor of accessible trails for all, with the new, bill inform bill information that either Andrea and or Carol can can get for us. A motion

That bill number, by the way, for the record, H915.

Okay. Got it.

All in favor?

Let's see. Oh, aye. Aye. Aye.

From Wes. Great.

Olivia. Sorry. Tara.

This is Olivia. I'm a She

voted. Yes.

Tara, you're you're have you voted?

Yes.

Okay. Alright. So your vote.

And this bill has not been heard yet.

So I don't have to I don't have to use my poor math skills or rely on Andrea's math skills. That motion passes unanimously to write a write a new letter of support in favor of the of the new bill for accessible trails for all which would create, you know, a funding source for it. Thank you, everyone. And next on the agenda is does anyone have any new business that they'd like to discuss? Andrea, I'm gonna rely on your eyes again.

I am not I

heard you're not relying on my eye, Carrie.

This is Andrea. I don't see any hands, Zoom hands, or questions in the chat.

Great. Next on the agenda is public input. I know the the our meeting time is is getting short, but we do wanna leave leave, you know, an opportunity for the public to, to participate in the meeting. Again, Andrea, do we see any members of the public?

This is Andrea. We do have one member. Folks may have seen. He's a a fellow City of Boston staff member but attending in his personal position as he has been for several months. So welcome, Sean. But I'm not seeing any questions from Sean in the chat.

Okay. Great. And so next, it's on the agenda, and glad Carl is here. Would you like to make your motion, Carl?

I would love to. I wanna go eat dinner. I make a motion to adjourn.

Any seconds? Is this Paul? I second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And that and that passes again with a resounding yes. So so, again, I don't have to rely on my poor math skills. So that's great. You, everyone. Thanks, everyone, for attending. Recording stopped.