because when you are working with people with disabilities and people with different kinds of stresses, you have to adjust your thinking to who you're talking to and who you are working with. or work is shaped by to beliefs. the first is that we had no reason to talk about this ability with technology. disabilities' exist because of the -- i don't ask the client what their disability is because it is irrelevant. what do you want to deal on a computer? the print is too small, we can fix that. the mouse or the keyboard is too difficult, try this. try speech input, we will try different things to get the technology to work. the technology is what creates a disability.

the other believe that we have is that it is important to step back from what we know at listen to our clients. has to stop putting our beliefs on them. we have to look at where people are coming from with technology. and figure out what the issues are that they are having. the big question that we often asked is, when someone is struggling, is that a disability issue or a learning curve issue? we find that the disability issues are the easy fixes. the small print, hard to use a mouse, all of that is very easy to fix. the learning curve issues are really the hard ones for most people. most seniors and don't have a tool box of strategies for dealing with technology.

we were more able to figure things out. i may not know where the downloads folder is, but i know it exists. i might have trouble finding it, but i know it is there. for someone that doesn't speak technology as well as i do, they don't know how to look for it. if you are someone i have an analogy for you. how many people here can drive? you will be happy to know i do not. for all of you who drive, have you rented cars? when you rent a car, you get into a car you are unfamiliar with. how did you drive it? you do not know where everything is. you do not know where the high beam indicator is or where the turn signals are or any of those kind of things, but you know they are there. you have the language to drive

that car because you know what to look for. you know every car has turn signals, so you are going to look for it. when my parents bought their first car that had a locking gas cap, it had a door over the gas cap. they went to get gas, and they could not open it. it was because the release for it was by the driver's seat, and it never occurred to them. it was just not a place they would look. they look for the key, for the lever. my father reached into the glove compartment, pulled out a screwdriver, and broke the lock to put gas in the car. an experienced computer user is going to know if they are having trouble, they will go to the control panel and look for what is there, but someone who does not know what a control panel is -- they have no language to ask for it. another issue we find with a lot

of seniors in particular is a high level of frustration with technology. i talked to my mother about this all the time. my mother hates technology, and she has had to learn so much. i had a conversation with her the other day, and she was naming all the things she has had to learn, all the things she owns, all the things she hates. things like her dvd player, her vcr, or microwave, herself phone, her cordless phone -- there are so many things she has had to learn. in the senior center where she lives, she said the most commonly used assisted technology is a two-inch-long piece of black ls will take, used to cover the flashing light on the vcr and the dvd player -- black electrical tape. she says it is easier the learning to program the clock. for the most part, a lot of seniors to not trust technology. people have gotten the word that

there are risks to using technology, and a lot of seniors want to stay away from it. as much as i want to get my mother to do online banking and paying her bills, never going to happen. she is never going to do that. at the center for accessible technology, we work to understand the mindset of our clients, and as a result, we have systems in place of how we work with them. one of the things we do is we asked people -- what do you want to use a computer for? i cannot tell you how many people tell us they have never been asked that. they have been told they need to use a computer, but no one has told the what they need it for. sometimes we hear that people do not have anything they want to use it for, but a lot of times, they have something in particular. we tried to focus on something that will give them early success. so they are going to be able to have some success with the computer. if someone wants to be able to e-mail their grandchildren so they can get pictures of their

grandkids, they will be motivated to push past their technology fear for that. at least i keep telling my mother that. but we also have to recognize that one of the things that happens is people come in who have been using technology, and they have their own systems for use in it, and we let them. we do not try to change how people are using it. an example of that is my grandmother. she was a wonderful baker. i miss her, but i miss her baked goods more. she never had used a still in the old country that had thermostat. she would turn the stove on all the way to broil, and it would heat up like a furnace, and then she would turn it off, and then put her stuff in and cook it. if it got too cold, she would turn it on again. it drove my parents crazy, but she made wonderful food. she was never going to learn this technology, but she had adapted to it.

we recognize that people do that. if people have something that works, you leave it alone. another issue that people have on computers is -- and it is a real frustration for a lot of seniors -- that things do not show up in the same place. we try to set up people's computers so that it is recognizable. if you are using a macintosh, and it has the dock that has all the controls on it, you set it up so that it is always visible. you put the icons in place so they will always show up, so they are always recognizable. i gave my mother recently and ipad, and it is a brilliant piece of technology for seniors because it only has one button on the front of it. if you do not know what to do, you press that and go back to the home screen and start over. she really loves that. another important piece is ergonomics. people forget this a lot, but ergonomics is hugely important.

a real reason why people stop using computers is because they say they heard. if you did not set up some computer system so they can use it ergonomically, i will -- it will heighten the chances for their failure. we tell people it is okay to ask questions peer the problem with that is one to tell someone it is ok to ask questions, you then have to make it okay to ask questions. when my mother asked me for the 312th time, "how do i attach a picture to an e-mail?" i have to stop myself from going, like -- and it is difficult sometimes. they'll say the same things over again, but it is an important part of technological success. in preparing for this speech, i thought about how a lot of people here are pretty experienced technology users, but i am recognizing that most of us are, if you will pardon my saying this, a little on the older side.

how can i get you all to understand what it is like to use a computer for our parents and for seniors who have never done it? i have a great way. go home and find a 14-year-old boy and ask him to play a video game. i have done this with both of my sons when they were younger, and it is an amazing experience. my kids will be playing a game, which i am total in not understanding at all, and my kids say, "jump," and i go, " how?" everything that is intuitive to them is completely foreign to me. the good news is i am at no risk of becoming addicted to video games. the last point i would like to make is that the environment is really changing rapidly. 10 years ago, if we had sat down and talk about seniors and technology, a lot of people would have wondered why seniors would want to use computers, but that has shifted. over the next few years, as all of us move toward being seniors,

we will not be wanting technology. we will be demanding it. the field is going to change, and more and more people are going to be here. so the ability to make technology accessible is there. those of us charged with doing this have a really important role. we have to be able to provide the tools for the technology in ways that the people can hear. i am happy to be your speaking with you because i think this is an incredibly important topic. this afternoon, there is a workshop on addressing multiple barriers for accessing technology, and it will be a brainstorming session where someone from my office and a couple of other people will be leading a discussion of what issues people run into and how you deal with them. i think it is a really important topic and i think it is probably one of the most important things people could be talking about now. for all of us, technology is here and going to be here, and we all need it. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. i am really pleased to be up here -- well, not really, but you're so pleased to be able to tell you about two things before lunch -- i am pleased to be able to tell you about two things before lunch. as you know, this is the middle of a process to train and teach more people how to use computers. we wanted to showcase a little bit of what folks are learning out there. first, we will show a video, and then wind up -- linda will explain about lunch. i know a few people have slipped over there, but i ask everyone to be quiet for a few minutes. there is plenty to go around. the video we're going to show right now -- i got a feeling

this morning at 4:00 a.m. that tells you how dedicated people were to be able to produce it and have it here today. i wanted to thank paul grant, who has worked with the project with the family services agency senior community services employment program. you will see his good work here also john boswell, who came in at the last minute and help us pull this together. he did it in exchange for tyne bank hours with the bay area community exchange time bank. if you want to know about that, you can learn about that across the hall after lunch. finally, from the broadband technology opportunity program, which provides opportunities for seniors and people with disabilities to teach each other, to learn from each other, and create more connections across all of our communities. please q the video, and after that, we will dismiss for lunch after a little explanation. >> we want people to come into the center and learn how to use

all the different social media so they are not left behind. we do not want the whole community to be left behind. >> i have always been intimidated by computers. afraid that i would break anything. i wanted to learn. i wanted to see if i could, you know? but i was not sure, because of my age. i have grandkids i did not get to see as often as i would like, but my son post pictures all the time. >> i thought it would be important to bring my mom and my sister to learn basic computer skills so that they are not isolated. even the medical community wants to send her notes and things via e-mail. so it is important for her to be able to learn how use the computer, at least for those simple things. >> we are part of the social media team.

we will be teaching twitter, facebook, skype so the seniors in our community will not be isolated. >> there is no dumb question. we tried to make this an easygoing environment for everyone to learn here. >> they understand what you're talking about. i want to get on the internet and, like, if i need to, call the social security office or any other business. that i would know how to get in touch with them. >> people like us who are in wheelchairs in rehabilitation situations, in hospitals -- it opens the windows of the world to us. to be able to put your eyes anywhere in the world that you want to at a moment's notice. i paid acrylics. sometimes i search the internet or put images on the internet through cameras, through

different pictures that i take of the subject matter. -- i paint acrylics. >> all my life, i did not use this, but i had to learn how to tight and everything, so i tied to find, and moved the mouse fine on my computer, so it was not a real problem -- i typed fine. everything is on the computer, and easy to find. it is like a road map. all these blogs, etc., and so on, because i have all this time. i concentrate on a few at a time. >> i never expected to have a computer. i am 96. as they say, it is hard to teach

an old dog new tricks. and as you say, we do have this resistance to it. my daughter taught me how to play games. i am really hooked on that now to exercise my brain, and i started doing other things more quickly. i find that it really helps me. i can see pictures either that i have taken or that other people have taken if they are on a digital camera. i put them into my computer, and then i can crop the picture, enhance it. find out what safeway has on sale, and then michaels. they have their ads. i do use people who advertise, e-mail, so it is a very important part of my life. i love to e-mail, and i like to hear from people. i have trouble hearing from

people on the phone, so if you send an e-mail and one in answer to a question, they can find it, or if they do not know the answer, they call you back again. it has been a big help with the family in many ways. now, i cannot be without my computer. i would be lost. >> it becomes second nature, and it becomes easier. it becomes a tool in your hand. >> it is so wonderful. memaw is on the computer. i would recommend coming here to learn the computer. it is not as hard as you think it is. >> do not be afraid. it really is kind of easy once you get the hang of it. >> go at your own face. do not get frustrated. >> do not be afraid of the

computer. the only thing to be afraid of is that you will get addicted to it. [applause] >> you will see some of the stars are around. please thank them for being so brave and consider signing up to be one of them yourself. i wanted to invite dave up again to say how much we really appreciate him being part of today's program, helping shepherd it and share his own experiences. so thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you all. thank you. you are very, very kind. can i just be selfish and say that you inspired me? i am so happy. even if i do not see you again for regularly, i am taking pictures of your faces and

thinking of all the successes you will make technologically, even when i do not see you, so feel good about it. do not be afraid of it. tackle it. it is yours, and congratulations. thank you for being a wonderful, wonderful audience. thank you. [applause] 0, and happy birthday. ♪ >> i am so looking forward to the street fair tomorrow. >> it is in the mission, how

are we going to get there? we are not driving. >> well what do you suggest? >> there are a lot of great transportation choices in the city and there is one place to find them all, sfnta.com. >> sfmta.com. >> it is the walking parking, and riding muni and it is all here in one place. >> sitting in front of my computer waiting transportation options that is not exactly how i want to spend my saturday night. >> the new sfmta.com is mobile friendly, it works great on a tablet, smart phone or a lap top, it is built to go wherever we go. >> cool. >> but, let's just take the same route tomorrow that we always take, okay? >> it might be much more fun to ride our bikes. >> i am going to be way too tired to ride all the way home. >> okay, how about this, we can ride our bikes there and then

we can take muni home and it even shows us how to take the bikes on the bus, so simple right here on my phone. >> neat. we can finish making travel plans over dinner, now let's go eat. >> how about about that organic vegan gluten free rest rft. >> can't we go to the food truck. >> do you want to walk or take a taxi. >> there is an alert right here telling us there is heavy traffic in soma. >> let's walk there and then take a taxi or muni back. >> that new website gives us a lot of options. >> it sure does and we can use it again next weekend when we go to see the giants. there is a new destination section on the website that shows us how to get to at&t park. >> there is a section, and account alerts and information on parking and all kinds of stuff, it is so easy to use that even you can use it.

>> that is smart. >> are you giving me a compliment. >> i think that i am. >> wow, thanks. >> now you can buy dinner. sfmta.com. access useful information, any . >> okay, i'd like to introduce lieutenant dwight waldo, retired from the san francisco police department, he will be our next key note speakers so please listen to mr. dwight waldo >> thank you, drew, i'm very pleased to be here and i'm pleased to see so many people attending. my program today will basically be on training and expertise, being able to go out, understand the gravanis culture and then take it to

court and get a successful prosecution. just a little background, i'm not going to read it all. i pretty much go by sergeant because i was only a lieutenant the last 3 months and i found out if you google me under lieutenant you find something. i stick with sergeant because i have about 14 years on google for that. i spent about 28 years as a police officer for the city of san bernardino, california, about 80 miles outside los angeles. among other things i'm recognized as an expert on graffiti in california superior court. without reading all this i want to let you know that i am well rounded, i was supervisor of the unit to be supervisor of a multi agency dealing with it to being executive director for the entire state, california graffiti association of california. so i have a fair amount of background. i first became involved in

graffiti back in 1991 when i was told in the gang unit that i was going to be a two-week assignment to deal with these guys called taggers. i continued until i retired so it was a long two weeks. a lot of times cities don't understand how deep the issue goes. i have had my card handed out, this is my phone number. i have absolutely no problem with people calling me any time to discuss graffiti issues, graffiti cases, any of that stuff, i am always available. that's why i put my card out there. so first off, before we get into the graffiti part we have to talk about the person whos

going to be dealing with graffiti when he goes to court. personnel and training are the two keys to success in any detail, we're going to talk specifically about graffiti but in any assignment as a police officer. when we hire on a police officer we look for 3 things besides integrity, we look for the ability to do the job, the desire to do the job and the interest. if you are missing any of those 3 things eventually the officer will not be successful. when i was in personnel we were only hiring about 1 out of every 100 people who applied to the city. so you can see it's a very stringent requirement when you are looking for people to do what you want to have done. this is particularly important when you are initially deciding who wants to be a police officer, we want to get them through the academy, get them through probation and make them

successful officers. but it's just as important when becoming a member of a specialty unit. the iplt is really big. there are probably people in this room saying i got graffiti when somebody else wanted it, and that's hard. and there's people like me and the officers i have hired into my units that just love the job and see the value in it, see the value for the community. so you've got to have that interest or else, again, you are going to have not as successful an officer. now you found the officer, you got him figured out, i talk a lot about officers but the same applies to civilians, anybody sitting out in this audience. because my concept is anybody can be a graffiti expert and a lot of that comes down to training. where do you find this training? first it's police officers, we get a lot of it through approved training classes, things certified by the state, post-classes and

that's fairly consistent in a lot of states that have a group that authorizes what kind of training the officer gets. articles and books, that's fairly self-explanatory. and really you wind up in the next group, which is the internet. there's so much stuff on the internet, if you are curious about anything having to do with graffiti, start googling graffiti stuff. if you get on you tube, put down tag crews fighting, that's not just battling with paint, that's physically fighting with altercations. the thing about the internet, sometimes people will ignore some of the major graffiti sites because we're out here to fight graffiti, why do we want to go to a graffiti site. a lot of these guys when they have dedicated graffiti sites like art (inaudible) you can read all kinds of articles written by taggers for taggers

trying to train other people to be better vandals. so don't ignore the fact there's stuff out there for the graffiti vandal because that can be of huge use to you. meetings, we hold a monthly task force meeting and our task force meeting pretty much covers everything from santa barbara down to san diego is our main group we have a task force meeting with. we share ideas, it's evolved over the years, become more formal. now each time we have a meeting we try to do some new training or talk about the technology available, i will talk about the technology in my class this afternoon. it's really good because we document it because when you go to court, you can show training on a monthly basis.

conferences, i can't tell you how excited i am these are happening. only in the last two or three years have these major conferences come about. the one up in canada, they were a great group of conferences and other people started to pick up on this. when i became an officer dealing with gravanis in 1991, there were no conferences and there was virtually no interest. as dr. spicer mentioned, every time it got good, i foupld myself out of a job. i was out of a job for about 6 months because it fell apart and then came back together. mer and more cities are realizing gravanis is a pattern crime and as dr. spicer pointed out, it's a great way crime to many other activities. so you can wind up precluding with a lot of other stuff by dealing with them when they are down to the part doing gravanis damage before they escalate to a more violent crime or serious

crime. it's nice to attend different trainings. this one here is great because we have people from all over the country, canada and the united kingdom. there are things you are going to listen to when you go, yeah, i would never do that or couldn't do that because of the laws in my political jurisdiction or whatever, we are not allowed to do that. then there's going to be other things when you think, gosh, i never thought about that, i think that would work really good. i'm going to take it back it my jurisdiction. probably over the past few years i've got 500 people i've dealt with, officers that have come to the class and subsequently become gravanis experts and set up programs. almost every program is different. a lot of the basis is the same, the information is consistent worldwide but people will tweak what information they are going to use and how they are going to be allowed to operate. some are in