HomeMy Public PortalAboutWCOD Meeting Minutes February 2008_201401101411508905Watertown Commission on Disability Public Meeting Minutes from February 20,
2008
Watertown Commission on Disability
Feb. 20, 2008
Meeting called to order at 7:07pm
In attendance: George Donahue, Alex Liazos, Kim Charlson, Marilyn Devaney, Ann
Doughty, Gayle Shattuck, Carol Menton
Stefanie Farrell, CART
Guests: Bob Erickson, Veteran's Officer and Town Webmaster; Susan Falkoff,
Town Councilor; Fred Isaacs, SEPAC; Jonathan Spitler, resident; Joe Merkel,
Senior Planner, Steve Demos and Chris Hart, Adaptive Environments (soon to be
known as Center for Human Centered Design)
George reviewed communication protocol and obtained permission to begin the
meeting with the guests rather than following the agenda.
Town Website Compliance:
Bob Erickson reviewed the history of the Town's website and its compliance with
508 regulations. As he is preparing for a budget hearing, Bob is seeking feedback
from the WCOD on the website in its current upgraded form.
Kim was able to do a real time assessment, and pronounced the site easily
navigable and logical, with excellent picture descriptions.
There was a discussion of PDF files and standards. Brian Charlson should call Bob
Erickson to further discuss this.
Alex wanted to ensure we are now fully compliant, and that compliancy is planned
for in the budget. Bob Erickson said that he believes the site is now compliant,
and is checking to make sure. George distributed correspondence from Civic Plus,
which documents the website's accessibility.
Jonathan, who worked on the website as a student at WHS, asked about links from
the Town's website to the sites of commissions and committees. This led to a
productive discussion about the location of various commissions on the main page,
and live hyper link features, as opposed to links to files, which may be outdated
(e.g., the Accessible Dining Guide). Bob Erickson will follow through.
Open Space Plan Project Review by Adaptive Environments:
Steve Demos and Chris Hart of Adaptive Environments made a presentation.
George gave an overview of the history of the open space study from 2005, what
the original vote of the WCOD was to support Mary Crain's project and the vote to
increase the funding.
Susan Falkoff informed everyone that the next meeting of the DPW Committee is
March 4th at 5:OOpm. Alex made a motion to place a deadline to get the MBTA to
move the bus stop. Marilyn gave an update of conversations with Mr. Mee; that he
has presented a plan to move the bus stop to the Delta to the MBTA. The MBTA has
is not been responsive and they have been given conflicting directions. George
suggested that this agenda item be tabled until the presentation by the guests was
completed.
Mr. Demos and Mr. Hart explained how they went about the project, visiting 12
sites, what their approach was, what their recommendations were, and what the
Town does well. Their recommended next step is to use their report as an
appendices to the Open Space Plan, get grants to implement changes.
8:30pm Break
Treasurer's Report: a motion was made to accept the January Treasurer's report,
seconded, approved.
Minutes: a motion was made to accept the January minutes, seconded, approved.
Closed Captioning Update: Gayle and Carol regarding Gayle's meeting with
Tamarah Green, getting quotes from vendors for the service.
Jonathan Spitler gave an overview of the issues he has with small push buttons at
the corner of Arsenal and Irving Streets, Arsenal, Main and Mt. Auburn. Is it a
problem with the lights or with the traffic going through the red light?
Kim discussed getting the recycling brochure printed in Braille and offered the
services to print.
9:00 p.m. Motion to adjourn, seconded, approved