Deaf Task NYC Meeting Minutes Dec. 1, 06

Meeting Minutes for DTFNYC December 1st, 2006

We had another wonderful, engaging meeting in which many citizens learned information that was both exciting and disturbing about current plans in place for emergency accessibility.

NEW DTFNYC CONTACT INFORMATION
There is now a series of places to get or email information pertaining to emergency accessibility!

A) To receive a list serve of continual announcements/news about emergencies, issues, actions being taken to solve problems and so forth, please send an email to join a yahoogroups account at: DTFNYC@yahoogroups.com

B) If you experienced an issue with fire/police/medical crews that should be addressed, PLEASE email us, and we will try to help you find a way to prevent that from happening. Email us at dtfnyc.publicaccess@gmail.com

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

We are excited to release the upcoming meetings for January, February and March of 2007!

A) January 5th –

a. Go Bags: What is a Go Bag? How to make one? What to pack in one? All these questions will be answered by a powerful presentation by Mr. Henry Sang, a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) member.

b. ICE: In addition Carmen King will explain through a short ASL instructional video on how to create an ICE (In Case of Emergency) system in your wireless device such as a SideKick/Blackberry.

B) February 2nd –

a. 9-1-1 access and wireless devices: We plan to host a small panel of representatives from different wireless companies to explain the challenges of creating 9-1-1 access via our wireless devices (SideKick/Blackberry) and to work together, brainstorming potential solutions. This meeting is VERY important to bring all your contacts in the wireless and legal industries to help expand our think tank to generate ideas for solutions!

C) March 2nd –

a. First Aid: This will be an introductory training session devoted to:
i. Understanding and mastering the basics of First Aid, and…
ii. How to become more self-independent during times of emergencies to provide First Aid for yourself and the people around you. We need volunteer interpreters and team members to organize this event!

MEETING MOPD DIRECTOR:

Jade (filmmaker) reviewed the DTFNYC’s recent meeting with Matthew Sapolin, director of Mayors Office of Persons with Disabilities (MOPD) on 11/20/06 to ask questions about how to:

A) Generate more readiness with the first response crews (fire/police/medical) in communicating with deaf people and…

B) How to improve communication accessibility in the Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s (MTA) transportation systems (subway/buses/ferries). Pleas see our conversation notes at blog entry under “Meeting Matthew Sapolin.”

Based on our meeting, we were instructed to develop an action plan consisting of:

A) What we need
B) Where we need it
C) Who to contact/generate action

With this action plan in place, it should be submitted to Mr. Sapolin and we have his support to help us carry out the action plan!

CALL BOXES:

After announcing the meetings, there was an in depth conversation about the use of Call Boxes. See blog entry “How to use Call Boxes”

MTA EMERGENCY DVD:

We discussed the issue about the MTA having a DVD that was released very recently about emergency accessibility – IT’S NOT CAPTIONED/SUBTITLED! We are developing a letter to send to MTA to see how this problem can be fixed right away. If anyone has connections to the MTA or how to solve this problem, let us know!

NYPD FIELD BOOK:

All NYPD officers have a large, long wallet that they wear for issuing tickets/violations and documenting important information. It’s called a field book. We learned that all police officers keep a list of phone numbers to contact for any specific emergencies (example: Child Safety, Animal Control, HazMat leaks, etc.) inside their field books. But do they all have phone numbers to an on-call interpreter in case of police activity involving a deaf citizen? We are investigating to see if this is carried out; if not, then we need help developing an appeal to make sure this is done.

CITY CONTRACT WITH MEJ:

It was announced during our meeting with Matt Sapolin (MOPD) that the city has a contract with the interpreting agency, MEJ – which is reputed for not hiring accredited, certified interpreters. During our meeting with Mr. Sapolin, our interpreter couldn’t accurately facilitate two-way communication with the DTFNYC members and Mr. Sapolin with grossly inaccurate signs. We plan to investigate this and confirm if this contract arrangement is true; if so, we want to ask the RID community to join us and help plead for a city contract with an agency that provides ONLY certified interpreters. RID-certified interpreters – this is your jobs being taken away from you!

CENSUS OF DEAF POPULATION:

There has been considerable difficulty in trying to retrieve an accurate count of deaf/HOH populations in the NYC Metropolitan area, due to a wide variety of sources that provide an equally wide variety of unreliable numbers. We really need a strong, accurate number to determine government funding specifically for accessibility issues for the Deaf/HOH populations – not just a vague “Disabled” category. If you know of any reliable sources or specific numbers, please contact us!

PAYING TAXES FOR SERVICES THAT DON’T EXIST!

There were a couple of stunning announcements that shocked the people who attended the meeting with feelings of disgust and anger. We are paying our taxes for services that should benefit us – hearing people have access to the benefits from these tax dollars. We don’t!

A) Westinghouse H.S. (Brooklyn) has a program consisting of a group of deaf students. They DO NOT HAVE STROBE LIGHTS for fire emergencies! Currently they use a system of two teachers as a “back-up” plan to make sure everyone in the deaf program room is aware of any fire emergencies and to follow proper evacuation protocols. It was announced that this system HAS FAILED in the past. Will it fail again? YES.

a. This means the Board of Education has liability for not implementing strobe systems in older schools.

b. This means the FDNY is liable for not issuing violations to ensure that proper fire notification systems are in place.

We need your help to get legal assistance to create action by both the FDNY and the NY Board of Education to ensure that all fire notification systems are implemented in any facilities with deaf citizens!

B) We pay FCC fees and taxes with our phone bills from our wireless devices (Blackberry/Sidekick, etc) for Directory Assistance and 9-1-1 assistance.

a. There is no way to contact 9-1-1 with relay systems in place
b. We can TRY to call 9-1-1 with our cell number, but can we communicate with the 9-1-1 operator? No.
c. Suppose we tried calling Directory Assistance to find out the nearest hospital, police station or fire station? Nope. No access.

This needs to change, and not tomorrow, but NOW. Please share this important information about where your tax dollars are going, coming back in the form of missing services and lack of accessibility. Scour your networks to find legal contacts, political advocates, and telecommunications representatives to try to work together for a solution that benefits us all.

There will be more announcements in future meetings. Please keep checking with us on this blog and see you at our next meeting on January 5th!