thank you for waiting and thank

you for being here. control room, let's get started. thank you. good afternoon, everyone. and welcome to the mayor's disability council this friday, april 20, 2018 in room 400 of san francisco city hall. city hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and other assistive mobility devices. wheelchair access is provided at the grove, van ness. wheelchair access at the polk street, garland, is provided via wheelchair lift. assistive listening devices are open and our agendas are available in large print and braille. please ask staff for any additional assistance. to prevent electronic

interference with the room sound system and respect everyone's ability to focus on the presentations, please silence all mobile phones and pdas, your cooperation is appreciated. we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and the end of the meeting as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes. and the council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card available in the front of the room -- that's the desk right there -- you may approach the microphone for public comment or call our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632. when a staff person will hand a request to speak. the meetings are generally held

on the third friday of the month. our next regular meeting is may 18, 2018 from 1 to 4, here in san francisco city hall in room 400. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information. or to request accommodations. as a reminder to all our guests today to speak slowly into the microphone to assist our captioners and interpreters. we thank you for joining us, welcome and good afternoon to the council members and the audience. and we're going to go ahead and proceed with the agenda. staff roll call. >> thank you. co-chair denise senhaux? >> present.

co-chair blacksten? present. council member tatiana kostanian? absent. council member alex madrid? absent. council member sally coghlan mcdonald? absent. council member orkid sassouni. >> present. council member helen smolinski? present. kate williams? present. >> item 1, welcome, introduction and roll call. item 2, actiontime, reading and approval of the agenda.

item 3, public comment. items not on today's agenda, but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and ends of the meeting as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes and the council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card, available in the front of the room. approach the microphone during public comment or call our bridge line at 11-415-554-9632. where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. item 4, information item. co-chair report. item 5, information item, report from the mayor's office on disability. please note that the director's reports can be found in the what's new section of mod's

website. item 6, information item. connect with tech week. an overview of connect with tech week, may 7-12, which is a city-wide initiative comprised of events to promote online access and technology skill building. the presentation will focus specifically on sessions that might be of interest to people with disabilities. presence by kate eppler, program manager, san francisco public library's the bridge at main. public comment is welcome. break, the council will take a 15 minute break. item 7, information item. sf digital equity and the disability community. this presentation will introduce the council to the san francisco digital equity initiative and playbook. there will then be a discussion with the council on ways to

engage the disability community on further user research and what's needed to better serve the tech needs of persons with disabilities. presentation by alex banh. digital inclusion officer, committee on information technology, city and county of san francisco. public comment is welcome. item 8, information item. better market street. an overview of the better market street project which proposes to bring transformative safety, transit and street scape update grades to 2.2 miles of market street, from octavia boulevard to steurt street. presentation by similaren bertrang, project manager, doesn't of public works. item 89, public comment. item not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. each speaker is limited to three

minutes. please approach the microphone for give your comment card to the mod staff. item 10, information item, correspondence. item 11, discussion item, council member comments and announcements. item 12, adjourned. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you, heather. we're going to proceed to information item number 4, that will be the co-chair report. and basically i want to talk some things that might be of interest to the senior disability community, some things that are going on. i'm very excited about today's agenda, because we have a lot of things here like better streets plan, that has been mentioned through the director's report, the mayor's office on disability and a lot of the issues are of interest to the public, so we want to let you know we're following up. the first thing i'd like this mention is the mayor's candidate town hall. it's going to be supported by the community living campaign as

a proud sponsor. and it's scheduled for thursday, september 26, 2018. that's on a thursday from 1030 to to 12. interpreters are going to be available in chinese, spanish and asl and there is also going to be assistive listening device. as i mentioned it is from 10:30 to 12, be there before 10:30 so you can seated. if you want to reserve a spot go to mayor dignity town hall, or call 415-400-7546 and the following candidates will be there. london breed, jane kim, mark leno and they'll be there to

discuss disability issues and concerns for seniors. and things that matter to those communities. i wanted to let you know that. the next thing that is kind of exciting coming up in san francisco. and it's also on our presentation today, it's connect with tech week. and basically, they're free classes. it's like a tech expo and engaging in panel discussion to help build your skills and take the next steps into the world of tech. this is may 7-12. there will be technical training, pdf ranging from computer skills to beginning coding classes, offered through the library system. the programs are free and open to the public and i'll give you the contact information, but our presenter will be here to tell you more about this expo. so information about this tech, you can call kate eppler, or

call the bridge at morin, at 415-557-4388 for any accessible requests, call 1-415-557-4557 voice or tty, 1-415-625-9082. and that's about it. i have for the announcements of what we have going on in the city. so i'm going to go ahead and -- i know we're running late, i want to get to information item number 5, which is report from the mayor's office on disability. >> thank you voch. and hello, and welcome to everyone here in the room with us today. it's nice to see so many of you. i'm very happy to see you, thank

you very much, and glad to have folks joining us on sf gov tv as well. so today i'm looking forward to our conversation about better market street and initiatives, as well as sf tech week which we'll hear about soon. please do not hesitate to recommend any action items related to any parts of the presentation or items discussed in the report as a follow-up to the public hearing. i'm going to highlight today some of the major collaboration was the mayor's office on disability and the city, since march 2018. and some important ways for the public to engage with san francisco in the coming weeks. the first item is related to an update on accessible voting.

so, the next meeting of the voting accessibility advisory committee, or vac will be held on tuesday, may 8, 2018 from 3-4:30 here in city hall. it will feature a vendor demonstration on the city's next voting system for starting 2019. we will see the operation of the polling equipment and discuss vac's participation in the voting system. while we anticipate that it is an interim solution, attendance at this demonstration and feedback from people with disabilities, especially blind, poor vision and physical disability communities is really needed. also, information on the remote accessible vote by mail system, including frequently asked

questions, is now available for review at the department of elections website by going to sf gov.org/elections/remote accessible vote by mail system. this will be implemented for the june 2018 election cycle, so please do visit this content and help spread the word about the availability of this. the next item for today is about bike share and scooter. mod has received feedback on these local issues, specifically pertaining to access to the public right-of-way and is engaged with our city partners on the topic. the mdc is highly encouraged to consider this topic as an agenda item for an upcoming public hearing. the next item is about an upcoming hearing on employment.

district 7 supervisor norman yee has called for a public hearing pertaining to the employment of people with disabilities and older adults in san francisco. while the date has not been formally set, we expect the hearing to take place in late may or early june. the mdc, again, is encouraged to attend this meeting when the date is set. information will be sent to the public also through the mod news feed as well. the mayoral forum was already mentioned, so i won't go over that again, except to repeat the date, which is thursday, april 26. so next thursday. from 10:30 to noon. i want to emphasize that everyone is welcome and i hope everyone does attend. but you do need to reserve a space so we make sure there is enough seating. we're getting a lot of feedback

and participation about the forum, so please make sure to reserve your spot if you're interested in attending. the next item is related to legislative updates. mdc and members of the public may want to engage with the following -- the first is proposed transportation network company or tnc legislation. sb 1376 which was introduced by california state senator hill and addressing the tnc accessibility plans was passed through the senate committee. they received local legislative approval to be supporters of the bill and senator hill's office is working with disability organizations to craft language surrounding the bill. the mdc again is encouraged to

engage and comment and we anticipate opportunities for this from the mdc and members of the public in general in may. the next legislative item is around the ada education and reform act. for those of you tracking the issue, hr 620 has been received in the senate, and california state senators have committed to opposing this bill. that's the end of my formal items, but this report posts to the mod home page following this meeting for questions or comments or to get involved or provide feedback on any of the items mentioned in the report today, please contact mod, 415-554-6789. to stay current on

opportunities, activities and events pertaining to people with disabilities in the city, please subscribe to our news feed at sf gov.org/mod. >> co-chair senhaux: i was so excited with the agenda, i skipped over information item number 3 for public comment. what i'd like to do is make an amendment to the agenda and ask our presenter for information, item number 6, if she can hold off for about 15 minutes while we go back to public comment. items not on today's agenda, but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. so my apologies, i want to give the audience a chance for their comments. we're here for you and to work with you and serve you, so i don't want to oversee or skip anybody. i was too excited over the agenda. so let's get back to public

comment. i want to thank our presenter ms. eppler for waiting 15 minutes and we'll go back. do we have a public comment speaker card? >> we do, denise, the first is matthew of the san francisco human rights commission. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. my apologies. go ahead. >> thank you, council members. i'm here from the san francisco human rights commission. and i'm here to let people know about an event we're having next month on thursday, may 24, from 3-5 p.m. and it's going to be a public training and information workshop on the subject of service animals in private businesses and public places. it's going to be held at the san francisco public library main branch coreet audience tore yum.

that is -- space is limited for the event, so we're asking people to rsvp. there is a link on our website at sf -- hrcor g/animals. and you can use the link there to rsvp for the event. to request an accommodation or interpretation for this event, you may call 415-252-2500 or visit the human rights commission at 25 van ness avenue on the 8th floor during business hours. and we ask that all requests be made no later than monday, may

21. this event will be in partnership with disability rights california and canine companions for independence. i will be here through the break to answer questions or take your information to follow up later. thank you. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. any other public comments? >> we have one more speaker card. from john lowell. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. >> good afternoon, members of the commission, my name is john lowell and i come here as a member of the public to announce i have initiated within city agencies and individuals a determination of what has happened with the program i only heard of as a registered member of what is called neighborhood

emergency response team, which was broadly advertised 13 years ago at the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. when i registered to become a coordinator of that, there was a program i heard of, and i have no paper sources to verify it, that it was described to me a program had been set up in which seniors and people with disabilities could register with a city agency such as nert which is managed by the fire department, captain erica. what would happen in an emergency such as an earthquake? that emts and first responders would know the addresses of

registered seniors and people with disabilities and these people would have to have registered for it. immediately proceed to those addresses to check in on them. to do trained form of building status and whether or not backup response needed to come from the fire department. i had, based on monday april 9, an inquiry with captain erica what was the status of that. she informed me the department of public health had cancelled it. and that perplexed me. so i posed some inquiries to several individuals, one of them is right here, donna atkins and with an official within the department of public health meagan wier to determine why

this had been cancelled. i'm still waiting to learn why this was cancelled. i have announced this research study i've initiated with the advisory council for the department of aging and adult services. this occurred two days ago, interestingly related to the point of my desire for understanding safety, it was on the 112th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake which was wednesday. the 18th of april. so i just notified them i was looking into it and of course, i will share what i've learned with whomever you would like me to share it with. this would be in e-mail format as i particularly am concerned with safety of individuals in the city, particularly vulnerable individuals, children, people with disabilities and seniors. thank you.

>> co-chair senhaux: thank you for your comments. any other public comment? anyone on the bridge line? ok. thank you, we're going to close public comment portion. thank you, everyone, for your comments and your time. now we're going to go back and resume our agenda, we're at information item. number 6, connect with tech week. i'd like to welcome our presenter kate eppler, program manager of san francisco public library's the bridge at main. thank you for being here and your patience in waiting while i did a little reversal with the agenda. >> my pleasure, thank you very much for having me. i'm happy to be here to talk to you about connect with tech week. this is our second connect with tech week. last year, when it was known as digital inclusion week, the event was a great success. we had over 2000 attendees as 43

classes and training sessions, plus special events. attendees indicated that they overwhelmingly learned something new from attending connect with tech week events. and we were very excited to do it again this year. it did win an honorable mention from the urban library council which we were pleased with last year. this is a community partner driven event. there are over 20 partners that join us to help shape and direct the course of the week. i'd like to thank heather kittel for her assistance this year, it's been wonderful. we begin planning meeting for this event very early. this year we started planning in december. and one of the things that the planning team identified was important to them was to have a good focus this year on events for people with disabilities. so as we have planned our

connect with tech week events for may 7-12, we have kept a focus in mind on having events of interest to people with disabilities. and again, thank you, heather, because much of this schedule is due to your assistance. so i have flyers because i'm a librarian and we bring flyers and if it's appropriate i can leave some on the table. but i'd like to go over some of the highlights of the schedule for this year that may be of interest to the community. sound good? >> co-chair senhaux: yes, thank you, please proceed. >> on monday, may 7, 1230 to 2, we're having workshop on applying for city jobs through the ace program. this is presented by the h.r. department and she'll teach people how to apply online for the ace program which provides a route to city employment for disabled individuals.

also may 7, the first of two sessions from walter del fin, he is going to be answering questions about assistive technology, how it can increase your quality of life, he's going to have assistive technology to demonstrate and people to interact with. he'll talk about the library and other services available. so that will be monday, may 7 at the main -- at the independent living resource center and tuesday may 8 at the main library in the 5th floor computer training center. also, tuesday may 8, lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired is doing an open house, 11-3. finding the right piece of access technology can be a daunting undertaking but knowing what options meet your need is the first step, so it's a chance to experience the latest in

technology. vendors will be on hand. and a lighthouse technology specialist will be on hand to answer questions and give tips for finding the right technology to meet your needs. that's tuesday, may 8, 11-3. also on tuesday may 8, again in the main library, microsoft accessibility features. there are a lot of features built into microsoft 365. meagan lawrence will be on hand to talk about how the products offer experiences that are hands-free, eyes-free or without a mouse and easy ways to share content. but wait, there is more. thursday, may 10, from noon to 1:30 is passport to the digital

world party. this is of interest to seniors and people with disabilities who are looking to begin to be more connected with the digital world. this is part of the san francisco tech council and part of their digital passport project. so they're creating a passport that you can use as a guide to learning new technology skills. it will be shared between different technology education providers, and people can use it as a way of tracking what they have learned. and deciding what they might like to learn next. so they'll be launching that project at the party, the main library, thursday, may 10, in the 5th floor learning center at noon. directly following that from 1-3 is the tech expo. which is shaping up to be very exciting this year. we have i believe 25 different exhibiters, many of them with exciting hands-on things to play with and many of them are of

disability interests. smith will be there, and they will be demonstrating the youtube audio describe product, the name of which i do not have handy, but we're excited to have that. also, potential of interest, lighthouse media and accessible design lab will be there with things to show and tell. this is a fun event with opportunities to win device giveaways, we're going to have wiebeling, video games. it's a two-hour event where you mill about and visit the tables that interest you. you can come anytime. continuing on. we have a senior training, which is a safety and security

educational experience on friday, may 11. that's going to be at the main library, computer training center, 12:30-2. and thursday, may 10, 6-7:30 we're having a panel discussion, pathways to work. the impact on recruitment and retraining. this is organized by dan gillette from the citrus institute and they discuss the potential for new platforms for discovering employment opportunities. this should be a very interesting discussion, i'm looking forward to it. and that's the slate of events i came to share with you today. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. i'd like to open up questions to council members. council member orkid sassouni.

>> council member sassouni: i'd like to attend, wonderful resource, i'm wondering if you have asl interpreters? you can contact the public library for requests. saying that's an option for accommodations. it's a comment rather, not a question. >> co-chair senhaux: council member blacksten? >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for your presentation. i'm always wanting to attend various events because it's an opportunity to meet people. just two of them caught my -- well, by the way, i have to commend the lighthouse, they are out there talking about persons of disabilities who are blind and hard-of-hearing and deaf, that need adaptive technology and that's great, but now you

mentioned something about microsoft being there. if i heard you right, you said showing people how to use mouses and various things. we who are blind don't use mouse technology, so would microsoft be ready and able to meet with some of us who are disabled that would want to see their technology? >> i believe the answer to that would be yes. i can't speak for mike soft right now, but let me talk about the microsoft accessibility event. from my understanding, microsoft 365, cloud based suite, has several accessibility features already built in and contained. so this class would be a great way to find out about how to use the product that don't require vision or use of a mouse. so i have to confess, i need to attend this class as well, to fully understand the

capabilities of the microsoft suite, but it's an opportunity to see what already exists from the company. and of course, meagan lawrence who is microsoft employee will be on hand and take questions and perhaps begin a dialogue that way. >> co-chair blacksten: that's great, because i wanted to learn more about what microsoft might have in their suite given my own particular situation which i won't go into now, so i will be attending along with you. i wanted to draw your attention to the tech council, have they been around a while? and where would they be planning to go from this particular event? >> the sf tech council and nicole probably knows better than i do, but i believe they're in their second or third year. it's a relatively new project of the city and brings together different agencies and community partners who are interested in making sure that seniors and

people with disabilities can get connected. i confess, i'm not 100% sure i can speak to the state of their future in funding, but they have many different projects going on. including a project to distribute refurbished laptops. they have regular meetings open to everyone and i encourage you to check out information. but this is one of the things they're doing, this digital passport project, raising awareness about training technologies in the communed and making it -- community and making it exciting and fun for people to learn skills. >> if i may add, if it's not clear, the -- excuse me, sf tech week, the effort is through the san francisco tech council, so this is a piece of the larger sf tech council effort. and i would encourage the

council, if you're interested, to invite the tech council specifically to talk about their connectivity plus initiative at a future meeting and you can learn more about what they're doing in terms of outreach in the city. >> the sf tech council has been a wonderful partner for san francisco public library as we plan this week of events. >> co-chair senhaux: any other questions or comments from the council? ok. i don't have any questions. i just have a comment. as i said earlier, i was really excited, i encouraged the senior disability to attend this expo. it's really exciting to have the resources and all these experts in one place at one time. and i'm glad that the ace program is going to be there. you're going to talk about technology. so these are all key issues that seniors and people with disabilities are interested in. so i think it's going to be a good event.

so i encourage everyone to attend. i'm going to open up -- i'm going to close comment from the council and open up to any staff, questions? >> i do have a question. thank you, kate, for being here today. i wanted to clarify. you went over a lot of information today and i know you had flyers, but where else can folks access the information, for those watching sf gov tv or may need digital access? >> they can access on the web at sfpl.org/connect with tech. or they can call the bridge at main, 415-557-4388 and we'd be very happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you very much, ms. eppler and thank you for waiting. >> no problem, thank you. >> co-chair senhaux: i'd like to

go ahead and open up the agenda item for public comment. do we have speaker cards? do we have anyone interested in coming up to the podium to make a comment about this agenda item? ok, thank you. please come forward. >> good afternoon, my name is hillary brown, i'm from the vac committee. while this may be about -- i'm glad you're available, because i am legally blind, i can use the knowledge especially from 2018. i know things have changed. so i like to share that information to the council as well as the audience and the staff. >> co-chair senhaux: thank you. is there any other public comment at this time? is there anyone on the bridge line?

ok. hearing none, i'm going to go ahead and close public comment. the council is going to proceed and take a 15-minute break. so if we can be back in 15 minutes on time? thank you. for the second part of the meeting. see everyone in 15 minutes.