Watertown Commission on Disability

Watertown Commission on Disability
April 15, 2009

Attendees: George Donahue, Chair; Kim Charlson, Chair-for-the-meeting; Marilyn Devaney; Anne Doughty; Bob Hall; Fred Isaacs; Alex Liazos; Gayle Shattuck
Guests: Ms. Jini Fairly from MetroWest Independent Living Center

Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm by tonight’s Chair Kim Charlson.

Roll Call

Chair Report: No report.

Guest Speaker Ms. Jini Fairly from MetroWest Independent Living Center
Ms. Fairly gave a presentation about the history, advocacy and programs of the Independent Living movement. It started in Berkley,CA, and the second center was established at Boston University. There are 11 centers in Mass. They are funded by the Federal and State governments but they are an independent organization. They provided one to one assistance and advocacy, system-wide advocacy at the State level, information and referrals, peer counseling, skills training, computer training, moving people out of nursing homes and back into the community, vocational referrals to Mass. Rehabilitation Commission. They do not write grants but they can help with purchasing vans for modification, ramps and other home modifications. They have about 12 staff of which 4 work with 250 consumers per year. They serve every disability.

Business
It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously to accept the minutes of the March 18 2009 meeting as corrected.

Treasurer’s Report
It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously to accept the treasurer’s report.

Fred Isaacs gave the Watertown SPEDPAC report.
We had 150 people come to the combined Annual Awards Ceremony and our showing of Including Samuel. The SPEDPAC managed to get the documentary’s author/producer/photojournalist Dan Habib to provide us with an open-captioned copy. The interpreters were most welcome.
May 13 we will present Dr. Steve Imber speaking on bullying at the Lowell School Library.
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Closed Captioning – no report.

Kim Charlson reported on Safety and Access
No complaints on the signals.
There’s a request for a workshop on how to navigate Watertown Square and how to use the signals. Kim will look into moving this forward. It would be nice to do it in a downloadable format.
Old Business
Kim Charlson presented her proposal for a grant from the WCOD to add the Watertown Tab to the Newsline project.
She turned over the chair to George Donahue. She also abstained from voting on it.
The paper sets up a data feed for newsline.
There are 2300 regular users of newsline statewide for 200,000 minutes of service. Users need to be certified by a professional (a counselor will do) to use the service and the talking book library. Users also qualify if they have learning disabilities or cognitive disorders and don’t read well.
It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously (except for one abstention) to give a grant of $10,000 for the Watertown Newsline project to make the Watertown Tab available on the newsline service.

Bus Stop.
There was a meeting in Sen. Tolman’s office with Jerry Mee, Rep. Hecht, and others. The
MBTA agreed to do a test with the traffic signals reset. If the test is successful, changes will need to be made to the circle at an estimated cost of about $300,000.

Dining guide.
George Donahue is revamping it.

It was moved. seconded, and passed unanimously to adjourn at 8:58PM.
The next meeting is May 20th. Anne Doughty will be Chair.

These minutes are respectfully submitted by Fred P. Isaacs. My thanks to Ms. Gayle Shattuck for recording the first half of the meeting,