please stand by

>> em two. this is a virtual meeting. this is being broadcast on public television, sfgov.tv. that is our website. this meeting is open captioned and has asl interpreters. the mayor's disability council hosts public meetings annually. generally they are on the third friday of every month. if you would like to contact the mayor's council on disability for more expansion on information, or ask for any other accommodations, please call us at 415-554-6789. that is a voice message.

you can also leave a message there. you could also e-mail mov@sfgov.org. our next regularly scheduled meeting will be on friday, june -- the third friday of the month, also from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

and that will be broadcast at a later date. as the co-chair, i would like to say that these meetings are an official capacity and we must make sure that we're respecting everybody. there will be disagreements and disagreements play an important role in government but let's focus on our strength and work on our weaknesses. be mindful and being polite and respectful of each other. please do not have any personal attacks on anybody that may have a different opinion than you. we like to get the perspective from all people of the community, all people with disabilities. we encourage you to give us your ideas. we don't want to see any insulting or name calling. no verbal assaults are necessary. we do promise to treat everybody with respect. members of the public, just like our committee members so we may disagree with you. we're here to listen to you and to take your concerns into account. for people who are joining us today, we ask that you speak slowly and clearly, try not to speak too fast.

we do have interpreters and captioners and takes them a little bit of time to catch up. please also be aware that during this meeting the m.d.c. staff will turn off their videos. while they are not speaking. so you may see that their cameras are off, but that does not mean that they have left the meeting. it means that they are participating fully, just having less visual noise on the screen. also having it off allows the interpreter to be larger. debby, can you give us the roll call, please? >> yes, i can. thank you, co-chair. when i call your name,

please indicate whether you're here. [roll call] helen let us know in advance she would not make this meeting. [roll call] sean, let us know if you would be here but maybe a little late. [roll call] that is the roll call.

>> thank you, debby. next, agenda item number 2-105. reading and approving of the agenda. clerk, can you please read the agenda? >> yes. so after welcome and roll call and reading and approving the agenda, there will be general public comment and that is on items that are not on the agenda. and the first information item is the co-chair report. followed by item number 5, discussion item accessibility and inclusion in city sponsored summer programs

presented by jean robertson from san francisco unified school district. lucas tobin from san francisco recreation and parks and sharice dorothy from san francisco department of children, youth and families. public comment will be welcome after that item. following that, there will be a discussion item, number 6, working together. the san francisco disability community 2022 advocacy agenda presented by jessica layman and fiona heinz. jessica layman is with the community alliance of disability advocates and fiona heinz is with the community living campaign. and following that, community comment is also welcome.

and then there will be a 15-minute break and item number 7, after that the presentation on hearing loss awareness month, resources for people with hearing loss, presented by ken arcia, association of late deafened adults. following that is a report from the mayor's office on disabilities. item number 8. item number 9 is correspondence. item number 10, general public comment. item number 11 is council member comments and announcements. and item number 12 is adjournment. >> great. thank you.

thank you, debby. great. any questions or comments regarding the agenda? do any council members have any? or say yay if you approve the agenda as read? [garbling] >> i approve yay for the agenda as read. thank you. >> thank you. item number 3, our public comment period. clerk, could you please open the meeting for general public comment? if any of you in the public have a comment, please go ahead and begin now. >> we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after

specific items on the agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes. we ordinarily use a stopwatch that we show on the screen or a timer. this month, because of staffing shortage, we will be giving you a verbal warning when your time is up and alex madrid, co-chair of the council, will do that today. at the end of the comment period, we will move on. at the end of your comment period for three minutes, we will move on to the next commenter. if you want the council to respond to your comments after the meeting, please provide your contact information by e-mail message

to mdc@sfgov.org and use the subject line m.d.c. comment reply request. you may also provide additional comments by e-mail to that address, mdc@sfgov.org. or by calling 415-554-6789. you can join the meeting as a zoom webinar participant. to make public comment. and you will be able to make your comment by raising your hand. and use the raise hand function at the bottom of the screen.

and you will be recognized when it is your turn. you can also use the q&a feature in the webinar to be recognized or to make a comment. if you wish to be recognized, type into the q&a box that you want to make a comment. and hit send. or you can also type your comment into the q&a box and i will read it for you. if you join the webinar by phone, dial star 9 when you want to be recognized and we will let you know when it's your turn to make comments. we welcome suggestions about how to make the m.d.c. meetings more accessible.

and you can send an e-mail to mdc@sfgov.org. if you need assistance accessing the meeting, you can also e-mail that same address. mdc@sfgov.org. at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council but are not on today's meet, agenda. agenda items, there will be time after each item on the dading for public comment. -- on the agenda for public comment.

you cannot talk about any items that are not on the posted agenda and that includes items raised by public comment. i see one hand is raised. that is a call-in number. i don't have the number let's see. >> could you use number 2? >> caller: hello. >> caller number 2? please make -- yeah. >> caller: hi. this is william railing, commenting for accessible san francisco. an unincorporated nonprofit association. and i just wanted to give some praise for the way that

this meeting was agendaized. a week ago, last friday, i checked the agenda page and the agenda had already been posted for this meeting well in advance of legal requirements. it was also posted on the proper agenda page for the m.d.c., not just on the home page of the mayor's office of disability. and i just would like to say it's always great to see any community commission board of the city go beyond what's legally required and give plenty of advanced notice and have -- have the agenda posted. it makes it a lot more likely for more people to participate. i just want to say thank you for that and thank you for

the great agenda for today in terms of the topics. there is always so many different items that you could hear and i think today is a great example of a diverse set of topics that touch on a great many people with different needs and so i just wanted to thank you for that as well. >> thank you! thank you for that comment. that was great. is there any other comments? >> i do not see any at this time. >> none at this time. ok. great. i assume then that we can go on to number five, agenda item number five? >> yes. >> great. so, that is our discussion item.

accessibility and inclusion in city-sponsored summer programs. >> excuse me, madame co-chair. i believe the co-chair report was next. >> oh! ok. ok. that's fine. ok. let me back up. let me start over. >> i apologize for that. you're correct. we're going on to number four, which would be the co-chair report. go ahead. are there any co-chair reports? >> i believe since you are the co-chair that that is for you to do. >> that's right. i'm looking to find my report.

give me one moment. just one moment. >> madame co-chair, i have that that you provided to me before the meeting. would you like me to read it for you? >> yes, please. >> ok. since the april public meeting, the m.d.c. has begun to prepare for the annual m.d.c. planning retreat, which will be held in august. the council will use that time to set priorities for the coming year and view activities and accomplishments for the past year.

so that was the brief report. >> perfect. so that month we'll have no public meeting. our next public meeting [inaudible] meeting again in july and then september. now we can move on to number 5. discuss an item, again this is accessability and inclusion in the summer-sponsored programs and this will be presented by jean robertson from the san francisco united school district. lucas tobien from the san

francisco recreation and parks. and sharice dorsey from the san francisco department of children, youth and family. >> after this presentation, we'll hold public comment after this presentation is done and then open for comments after the presentation. so if you have any comments, use the chat and q&a box. if you would like to speak your comments, please hold them until the presentation is done. so we're ready to start. >> perfect. thank you. good afternoon, everyone. thank you for inviting us with the city-wide inclusion collaborative to present to

you today. my name is sharice dorothy smith. i'm the executive director [inaudible]. and the c.i.c. for short is a coordinated effort amongst city departments to provide greater access to city sponsored public programs for disability. and i'm joined here obviously with the other two and we have a short presentation and give you a better understanding of what we're trying to do and what we've been able to accomplish thus far. we do have a power point that i believe lincoln will share. >> is that showing up?

>> yes. >> great. >> if you need to adjust your screen you can. it's important that we see the interpreter. >> thank you, lucas. >> next slide. so for city-wide inclusion collaborative consists of multiple city departments. we have the department of children, youth and families where myself [inaudible] and we have the department of recreation and parks which is lucas tobin, jessica huey and jennifer -- oh. i can't remember your last name. >> jennifer wong. >> thank you. [laughter] the community advisory

committee for special education that is represented by christina cher who also represents support for families. and then we have the san francisco unified school district with jean robertson and julia marchand. so, we wanted to provide information on what we've been doing and summer programs and these are opportunities and i'm going to pass it on to lucas. >> all right. this next slide shows a line that goes through some dots that symbolize the path that led to this collaborative and the path that it's taken since and where it will hopefully go. it begins with when the pandemic started and the shutdown began in march 20620, to the community hubs initiative for the 2020 to

2021 school year, to the summer together program where this collaborative really got its start. to the training program that we started and then the final dot on the path says visioning for our future and that is where we hope to go with this collaborative. this next slide shows an image of the earth next to an impositive charge of a covid

molecule and it's meant to illustrate the start of the pandemic and that we're all in this together. and that is what we were saying back then when it started. and then this next slide shows images of kids showing off their band-aid where they got vaccinated and some health care workers in full protective gear and then a group of people who are all wearing masks and different face protection. and there is a picture of a smiley face with a mask on and hearts around it. and it shows the dates that schools shut down. the date was march 13 of 2020. and the -- when we started the child emergency and youth care program, which was three days later on march 16, and thinking back to this time, we in the city were really scrambling, first of all, to get the emergency child care sites opened up and provide

services for kids who were children of health care workers and other first responders and people like that. but also -- and also just to get equipment. protective equipment. things like masks. we didn't -- people weren't actually wearing masks yet. but getting any kind of protective equipment and cleaning equipment and even getting alcohol wipes anther momer thes was impossible at the time. we were ordering things wherever we possibly could and trying to get equipment and that people throughout the city were working, including recreation and parks and the libraries we're working in person while at the same time, the school district was really scrambling with getting distance learning started. and children and youth with

disabilities were supposed to be prioritized for the emergency child care and as i'll talk about the community hubs that we started. but according to the health orders, but we were seeing that this -- you know, that while that was the idea, that it wasn't really happening in practice how it should be. and there was a lot of confusion about that. and so that's -- that leads us to the next phase. and sharice, i'm going to hand it back to you. >> thank you. so on this slide, you will see a picture of bill ginsberg, the director of recreation and parks, maria sewell who is the director of the department children youth

and families and another sharice who is actually a staff member with recreation and parks in the top picture that are at one of the community hub sites i believe in engelside at the rec center and then the bottom picture shows mayor breed and a student at another one of the community hubs. i would also like to invite jean robertson in to participate in this slide, to talk through how we, in partnership with rec and parks place and then as the school year started to wrap up and the district was coming together to figure out how to implement distance learning and then all three ofs the school districts coming together to implement the community hub to be able to talk from what was happening from the [inaudible] and their point

of view and what did this mean and what did our house provide. so i want to have julie come in and be able to talk through what it meant. jean? >> thank you, sharice and lucas. i'm really happy to be here. as part of this collaborative as you know. so, back when we were first met with the new challenge of the shutdown, you were saying what did we know at the time? we didn't know much at the time. and we were scrambling. there was a lot of talk happening about what should be. and there were a lot of people coming together to try to take action. but there was some confusion. if anybody were to go back down memory lane, i think there is even a chronicle article that is linked in the

notes section of this power point that will sort of illuminate some of the challenges that we were all dealing with. first of all, this was unpress demented. -- unprecedented. our children were at home. our children did not all have devices in which to engage and learn from. we had to pull off herculean coordinated effort to get hotspots and technology into every child's hands. i believe that was probably one of the first things that we had to mobilize on. ultimately we saw this as an opportunity knocks. at least in my department. and we leaned in immediately to maria's phone calls and e-mails saying, jean, help. we're building hubs. and your kids are coming. our kids, our city kids. and we're not teachers and we're not paraprofessionals

and some of our kids have disabilities and we need some guidance so we took that opportunity knocking as just a bold [inaudible] to collaborate and come together and that is exactly what we did in building the hubs together. it didn't happen overnight. it absolutely took some time, some meetings to strategize exactly what we were trying to do and who we could get into those hubs. we had hopes and dreams and desires that weren't put into action as easily as hoped and our district was engaged in some later conversations. so, we couldn't just put our staff in your hubs as much as it sounds like that would have been the perfect example to meet the need. there is strict labor laws and bargaining agreements that we had to work within so we were a little bit at a

loss at the beginning but did not deter us. so, what we did do is look at what we had in our central realm as far as helping the staff that was already in place in the different hubs. so, that was the first thing that we did together. in our collaborative. so, while the district was getting technology and all the kids hands so they could be home schooled and we were, well, schooled at home i will say it that way, and our neighbor partners and district representatives were working through discussions on how best to set up distance learning in the home. we still wanted to help what was happening in the hubs and build out because so many of our kids were in the hubs. i'll stop there for right now. but those were the first sort of actions that we took together and it's what brought us to the table and the commitment to continue to meet, i think we were meeting

almost weekly back in early 2020 over the course of our journey together that was in the previous slide, we went down to meeting every other week and at times monthly. but we have never not met from month-to-month because we're very commited to the success that we had together and ongoing visioning. so i'll stop there. you can prompt me again when you're ready. >> thank you. the remainder of the just talks about what the hub provided but i want to move to the next slide. and on this slide, it shows a picture of eureka valley at one of the homesites and there is a graphic that breaks down the different sites that we have 35 c.b.o.s and 19 rec p.d. sites. there were sites at the public library two, sites in public housing. we had two sites with the hotel. and the thing that i want to

call out is that, out of the 2750 youth that we were able to serve, 21% are [inaudible] youth that we were able to implement and bring in program. all of this prompted us to move on. so next slide, please. and start to plan for the summer. we knew to make sure that we were serving our youth with disabilities and they had access and a place to be for the summer. so, we then introduced summer together and summer together launched in summer of 2021. and it was a coalition of our community organizations, nonprofits, businesses, schools and other city. departments working together to offer in-person experiences for ours highest needs and hardest to reach to address the impacts of the

pandemic. we [inaudible] over 25,000 students who were a part of that and we actually had six v.o.s in these sites. we went 31 rec and park sites. 80 schools -- 80 agencies at 77 school sites and we implemented private camps and we brought in private camps to support our students during the summer. there was an effort. we had early outreach for disabilities and one of them as well as our youth in public housing and our students. but our priority was to figure out and make sure that we are addressing and getting the students into the program who need it the most. >> i want to say one other thing. i forgot to mention.

in the community hubs, you mentioned a percentile of kids on i.e.p.s and one of the things we did was touch base with the director and give them the names of contacts, school contacts for every single one of those kids. so that they had a straight phone line to, i called it the mothership and they could talk to school staff regarding that individual learning plan. we ams made sure that every family had an opportunity to sign a release of information if they chose to where we would be able to share an i.e.p., which is the individual educational program of each child. we call it an i.e.p. at a glance and we share those goals and objectives and present levels and levels of

services and what works for these kids so they can implement to the best of their ability within the hub. not only did we provide training to hub staff, but we also tried to broker these strong, authentic partnerships from the git-go to best support kids on i.e.p.s. thanks. >> go ahead. >> well, i was just connecting with what jean is talking about because recreation and parks did run an inclusive community hub at eureka valley rec center that sharice mentioned as well. so our hub was focused on children with disabilities

and it really was -- it really was great how connected the staff were able to be with the teachers. i was -- you know, we've been invited to i.e.p.s once in a while over the years and in this case, we were invited to all the meetings and really had good connections with the teachers and it helps with the connections with the parents and so that really just wanted to add that. so what jean was saying. should i go ahead -- all right. at the same time as this sumer is together program was coming together, we were -- at recreation and parks, we've always done our best to be inclusive, but also have felt somewhat like we're on

an island and trying to get everything we could to be as inclusive as possible. but, you know, we've always been limited in the numbers we can serve and especially, you know, with covid going on and limited staffing and really limited numbers, we were still having to limit the numbers of kids in each group. for our programs and coming in to summer to get ready for our camps. so we were hearing concerns like we always did from families and i believe nicole bonn was also hearing concerns from families about how do we register, do we have priority to register, how do we register, what is the process going to be and then families had had a lot of experiences of being turned away by different camps, camps not really being as inclusive as, you know, maybe they said they were to

being inclusive. but in reality, didn't really work out. that is when nicole really called the meeting -- the first meeting with all of us. so it included everybody we talked about, recreation and parks and mayors of disability and department of youth and families, support for families and the c.a.c. as was mentioned before and maria and sharice were so incredibly responsive in saying, yes, what can we do to help make sure that these -- the camps are more inclusive and that families know how to register and the communication is good. jean robertson and julia martin from special ed were so on board and so inclusive

and i was just incredibly excite about having everybody together and working noting this way because, you know, like i said, i sort of felt like i was on an island for many, many years and -- but i've been dreaming and there were the people in the room when we started those meetings. so, just in really a few weeks before summer started, we were able to change the language around registration, get better information to the families and connect them with camps that were going to help their children be included. and the result was some really great success stories for that first summer.

>> sorry. next slide. >> so as we're preparing going into this summer, from what we learned from last summer, we realized there needs to be more training. so, on this slide, you see an image of some young people on some skate boards and a summer program. and we -- in our discussions, we're like ok. we need to make sure, as we gear up going into this summer, that we are more successful in outreaching, contacting and rowing not only our families that have children with disabilities but that we have camps and we increased their capacity to serve more youth. so we provided some training, what we called ongoing cross training, to all of our c.v.o. partners and everyone

who was engaging in working with young people. next slide. jean, would you like to talk through just what the brain child and what we came up with and what led to be involved? >> i don't know if i can do all of that. [laughter] but what i can do is, first of all, just acknowledge everything that lucas just said and it's too bad that you have felt like an island all of those years because -- and we kept saying this, we're such a small city, seven by seven and there is no reason we can't come together and share this list. we clearly understood that we all had something to offer. one of the areas that we agreed on very early on was really helping summer staff

understand and respond appropriately to behavior. so we were all born and raised and we all had behavior and all of our grown-ups responded to our behavior in certain ways and we seem to cycle a lot of those sort of actions over time. for those of us in the business, and we have a whole behavior unit in the special education department in san francisco unified school district, that is all they do and they are very, very good at their jobs, they have a fantastic supervisor who sees that unit. and they love to share knowledge about behavior and what we can learn from a child's behavior and what can lead into a behavior and how we can support kids and really manage and get through at what one point would have

been egregious, perhaps escalating. kids escalate, often times grown-ups add to that escalation. we don't realize that we're doing it. we're utilizing all those old methods that we were born and raised on and, frank, it was wrong. sorry-not sorry because if you are a behaviorist, you are an expert in this field and we got our experts to build some kind of beginning behavior 101 dex and we infiltrated each other's space and shared these assets with each other and we trained. we called it cross training. all of our partners that were providing services to children over the summer. we did this on a small scale and then really built it out for summer together. so working and coordinating with lucas and all of those

discrete camps and different folks that come in and work with our kids, they all got the same sort of training around how to support kids and behaviors. so, that was one of our first chunks that we took on. we also got a beeper to look at kids on the spectrum and how to support kids and some of what is happening for children who might be demonstrating some behaviors that are associated with their disabilities and how we can support that. obviously we are very committed from our teams to

not deny service to anybody. we want every single child to have the same access. equity is a huge piece, not just kids across town that might have trouble getting across town or, you know, it was just very important that we set up conditions so that kids could be successful, all of the kids so we really honed in and focused on behavior to start with and i'll just stop there. >> the next slide, we'll wrap up real quick so we can get to comments and questions. we are going into summer 2022, we've done outreach that began way back in march. youth and disabilities was one of our first populations that we outreach to where we call our early access. we were able to enroll just through that first wave, over 200 youth were enrolled in programs and it was ongoing. we've had multiple ways after and i don't have my final number to know how many students were enrolled between my program and between the program -- the community based organizations and rec and park.

but enrollment is still happening. access is still available for some sites. summer program begins in two weeks so we're hoping to finish up and have final enrollment that will end at the end of may. but what youth will receive in these programs, there's comprehensive wellness support. there's going to be social and emotional learning support. we're doing literacy and math. there is enrichment activities. there's physical activities. and for our older student, we have credit recovery. the photos that you see on this slide are these you meaning people engaged in a summer program last year at the zoo, doing arts and crafts and then in front of a fun sign and then it is what's next. what what's after this? >> i want to add one thing

about training for this summer coming up. we did expand and we got a little savvier and we went deep with the more inclusive how to accommodate children and best practices and communication with families and needed across the board always and lastly trauma informed deescalation. and i called it lockdown during their distance learning and they're very disregulated behaviorly because we ramped it up a little bit more. needs are shifting in the field. thank you. >> do you want to close us out? >> who, lucas? or me? >> you, jean. [laughter] >> ok. sure.

i can honestly say that amidst all of the madness that we've been carrying as public service in the city of san francisco during this pandemic, meeting with this group has been a real bright spot because i really feel, and i know they do, too, that we've done something good. and they're very committed to continuing to do the good work. so we are looking for information from the field collaboratively from our families and anybody who wishes to type up. and help us find our continued journey together. we have our eyes on the library system. we can always do ongoing inclusion training because we're getting so much better at it over the years. that work will never stop. i think it's in our blood. so we'll don't cross train. staffing continues to be an issue in all aspects of all of our work. so we want the world to know

that this is still a very wonderful place to work. meaning with children. i wouldn't have spent my 33 years as a grown-up any other way than working than as a city employee working with children. it is a very wonderful way to spend your days. so i encourage everybody to think about that and get the word out. and if you want to talk more about that, i have recruitment elevator speech i'm happy to share with anybody. and yeah. we'll continue to plan workshops with support for families and our c.a.c. partners. everybody in this room and i just want to say thank you. thank you for listening to us today. and hopefully celebrating a nugget of goodness amidst all the madness that surrounds us. we're very proud of our relationship.

>> ok. that was a great, great presentation. thank you. i wanted to give council members the opportunity to give a comment. alex, would you like the go ahead and start with your comment? >> yes. i have a couple of questions. one question is that i learned that some students cannot do in-person activities and [inaudible] options to go online activities and, if so, how do you [inaudible]. and the second thing is that

in the past year, can you talk about amazing things but i'm sure there are things that need to go and i would like to learn more about that. and see what things you guys implement on that. >> should i chime in here? so, thanks for the questions, alex. and for your first question about online activities and

recreation, i think that the -- what we represent here are really more of the, you know, in person day camps and after-school programs and that's mostly what the city is involved in. but there are some great programs that aren't doing, you know, really people haven't -- people have learned how to do virtual programming during the pandemic and there are still programs doing that that focus on kids with disabilities like support for families is still doing virtual programming -- >> i just want to [inaudible]

and doesn't offer options on zoom, correct? >> s.f. rec and park does not because we've been so in-person. we offered a lot of virtual stuff for seniors. like i said, three days after the schools shut down. but julia -- i mean jean, sorry, do you have anything to add about that? >> i wondered if the question was more focused on sort of the school. we do this year. >> [inaudible] you guys, everybody [inaudible] particularly [inaudible] and school district. go ahead, jean. >> i'm a little confused by the question. >> let me -- let me repeat my question, jean. >> ok.

>> my question was did you [inaudible] i understand that you guys [inaudible] envision activities but some people -- some students has a disability cannot do in-person activities. are there any activities that is provided on zoom because of some implementation. that was my question. >> so, i am not aware of activities specifically. we do have zoom support, school support for kids. this year year.

there is a program. if a child cannot get in person, they can get their school and education through zoom still. and many children are in that program. and several are on i.e.p.s. and so those accommodations run the gambit. there is lots of different ways that we can accommodate students. so, they weren't denied access if we could provide what we call their free and appropriate public education via zoom. if we felt -- if the team felt that we couldn't provide their free and appropriate public education via zoom, then we opened the conversation to get creative and, again, there were a lot of different ways of doing it. none of them were optimal. i will be honest. it's very difficult to provide faith outside of schools and what our current

and typical conditions are. but i.e.p. teams did get creative and worked hard. we also accommodated some kids through the home hospital program which wasn't optimal, but it was a legal means in which to do so. so, for some kids, we used that sort of mechanism for lack of a better word. for any recreational or after-school activities that kids might need accommodating on, i am not aware of any from the levels from where i sit. >> they do, i think. i think it's good to think about some zoom activities for kids [inaudible] but it

is time to [inaudible]. >> do you have comment? >> yeah. it's tiffany yu. i first wanted to say thank you. it's great to see all of these different stakeholders collaborating in this way and i hope to see more of this continue in the future. i loved alexa's comment and inquiry around virtual programming because i know a lot of disabled folks, that's where we start to have been gathering. and i also just want to acknowledge how thoughtful i think everyone has been in terms of working with parents, trauma-informed

care, having mental wellness available as well so i wanted to acknowledge that. i do have a question, and maybe this is more of a comment. but i noticed that a lot of the programming seems to be focused on kids with disabilities and maybe this program is specifically for that. but i just want to acknowledge that i think kind of like early young adult people with disabilities are probably some of the loaniest people out there so i was wondering what programming might be available for them to continue to get socially connected as well. >> that is a great question and comment. this is where hearing that we need to know what do we need to focus on moving forward. typically in the summer in the past, at least for why a lot of programs have been geared toward childrens in k to 8 or even our high school, stopping at 11th grade. but over the last year, we realized we need to probably

do more going into even beyond our 18 to 24. even in that range. what would that need to look like and who are the providers that can actually put, you know, produce program or provide programming for that population. so, that is something that we'll definitely look into and have more conversation about. as of right now, just across the board, the typical type of programs that are available to the older youth are around like the credit recovery or college and career type and then there is some content-specific, like more focused on workforce and then wanting to have a job and have that work experience, which we do have a program that we fund that works with hearing and speech and works with a certain set of population around opportunities and programming. but they're only one and they can't, of course, serve the amount of youth that need

that. but that is something that we can look into, going into the schoolier and then going into gearing up for next summer. so i thank you for that. >> and i can chime in. recreation and parks does offer a -- some general team camps and inclusion support and my team offers team camp around that is a specialized camp for teens with disabilities. and we're limited in the number of weeks we can offer that. we also hire some of our teams as youth workers. and they're working in general camps. as well we have a year round or a school year program for access students, the students who are the young adult transition age youth that we've had to scale back. we used to have five different programs at rec and

park that were geared toward both students. it's scaled back mostly right now but hopefully we can build that back up again. and then volunteer opportunities and other work opportunities for those access students as well. >> thank you very much. are there any other council members? i believe denise, do you have a comment? >> no, i don't. it was already addressed through tiffany's questions. but thank you very much. >> ok. great. i do have a comment. i am a parent of a hearing child child, during covid,

honestly access to the programs, unfortunately my son wasn't able to go to some of the summer camps. but as a parents in a middle class family, a lot of the other programs were already full and their priorities were given to other familis so that was a little frustrating. but the camps that i found that were provided were very expensive and a lot of them were all filled up fast, too. so is it possible to having -- you know, my son had to stay at home with me for two years and not be able to participate in any of these programs available. i wish a lot of them were so it's wonderful you were able to provide some of the huds that were in the library. i heard there were comments about how do i sign up for this program and i know priorities were given to the family who work or have a

parent who works in the health care industry. not only in the san francisco area but there were some other families out of the san francisco area so i know that this is a big need that we have and then the other families were not provided with some of those opportunities and the children had to stay at home. and it did impact behavior and other parts of our [inaudible] as well. so it has taken time to recover. and obviously that situation is -- i get a little better

and i know that we are trying to advance that. i want to applaud you for the great work that you are doing and happy to sew that you are continuing to include more training and more practices and i wish that we had some of these before the pandemic happened because, you know, as a deaf mother, i'm -- i was always looking and trying to navigate information for my child and i had to ask lucas, you know, if you could help me find the name of a dcys and that is how i was able to get in touch with a person and make that request. and often times myself, as a deaf mother, i would understand why we needed things set up the way they are so some of that became frustrating and i know that there have been other people frustrated as well. so, we need to make sure that, you know, some positions require college degrees and there are other positions that if you don't have college degrees they'll accept experience in lieu of a degree. my question for you, is if there is a staffing problem and we're not able to find participants or people that have a college degree, have you considered expanding the services and expanding for experience rather than

college degree? i know that there's been comments before about this specific topic. has there been any [inaudible] to adjusting your process to expanding the pool of candidate that is we have and maybe, you know, also allowing the parents to be able to have those services and meet those needs. so, that was one of my comments. i guess i just wanted to make that comment. >> go ahead and then i'll go. >> ok. i just wanted to say that i agree with everything you've said. knowing that there was some hiccups and confusion with forms and we got a lot of feedback in the moment and it will add to our learning and redesigning ongoing, number one. number two, as far as the staffing issue in relaxing

any of those guidelines, if only i had that power. i personally don't have that power working in the sfusp because we adhere to the credentialing guidelines set out by the california teacher credentialing sort of entity. there is a whole unit that guides how we can navigate through that. now there are ways to get people set up in pathway programs and/or on emergency credentials, but that always comes with a promise of intensive training to bring them up to speed in the current times. that is no easy feat. however, there is a pathway program in sfusd and sped central is keenly aligned with them because we are the

hardest staffed area in our district. so that is my answer from the district side of the house. i'm sure lucas has a different aens on the recreational side of the house. >> i can speak for recreation and parks and sharice can speak for the other providers. but at recreation and parks, we will always -- all of our positions pretty much you can substitute hours, years of experience for having a degree. so that is something that we are able to do for our staffing. and especially with our temporary staffing, our frontline staff. it's always based on ours.

-- on hours and not degree. >> and they take -- they look at experience more so than, of course, the degrees. so i think there is more flexibility unfortunately with -- fortunately, not unfortunately with our c.b.o. partners and trying to get into the city with sfpuc but that is something that i can remind agencies about. there's folks out there that have the experience that you can tap into. i think for them it is knowing where to access those people. and how do they get the word out and be able to recruit folks who can help. >> great. thank you so much. all right. are there any comments from the staff before we move on to public comments. >> this is nicole speaking. i'll be very brief because we want to go to public comment to our next presenters are also here and we're on a little bit of a schedule today. so first i want to say thank

you. we've come a long way in these programs in this year and this collaboration. i hope it can be a model for other interagency efforts where we can improve access for kids and so thanks. i was a camper in a summer program kid and it really shaped my identity growing up. so i say personally thanks and thank you on behalf of the department. i want to encourage us to make sure that we're collecting data to make sure that we have some success metrics that we can report out. let's keep on working on that and as a final comment, i'm wondering if folks are listening or following, is

there still time to register for additional programs? if so, how do we do that? anyone can take that one. there maw be some community-based programs, but i'm not 100% sure. we do have on our website -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt. i do believe some of them do have a deadline of may 31. so there is some time. >> yeah. there is still some time to don't register. at least for -- we have on our website a list of all the community-based organizations that are providing summer programminging so familis can look to see and read the description and see about the agency or program they're interested in, be able to reach out directly. the enrollment that we had online has closed for that registration process.

but you can always go directly to the c.b.o. and be able to apply. ant register. >> we have space in our youth programs and there are i'm sure some spaces still in some of the general camps at recreation and parks and i'm putting the website where people can go to for registration and putting that in the chat. >> and for the public, we will move that into the q&a for information. thank you very much. i think we can move on. madame co-chair to public comment. >> great. does anybody from the public have any comments.

>> ok. go ahead. >> somebody named audina? >> are you monitoring public comments? i'm just making sure you're there, please. >> i'm sorry i was talking while i was on mute. i was saying i saw -- now i do see one person named anita. so, please go ahead and provide us with your comments. >> do i have two or three minutes? because the team here knows i can take every single second of it. >> three. >> ok. wonderful. thank you. so my name is alita fisher, i'm the advocacy chair for the community advisory chair for special education. and so on behalf of the c.a.c., i just want to thank

teams who's presenting here. as chief robertson tells us all the time, we have to look for those pandemic silver linings and i think this collaboration was absolutely one of them. i would like to thank the team for all the work that went into summer programming last year. students with disabilities got ub precedented access to private programs, through grants, to priorization in s.f. rec and park camps and it was amazing to see the inclusion that happened. one of the things we are hearing, though, this summer is without that same priorization and the attached funding, many private camps didn't offer the same level of inclusivety this year. i'd also like to appreciate the staff training and how -- what an impact that is something in after-school sites and summer programs. thises a huge move forward. and also the c.a.c. would

love to see more paras, behavioralists, behavior techs on call and available at each camp. adapted -- adapted physical education personnel and so many other things as well. as far as partnerships moving forward with the public library, that is amazing. we'd love to see sfmta be part of that. a lot of our students with disabilities struggle to independently access transportation as they get older. and our social skills camp. social skills groups. things like that. we saw a huge need for kids to increase social skills during the pandemic. i would love to see golden gate regional center added to the collaboration here. that is a huge need. there are so many familis who could potentially access who

could have folks [inaudible] to support their kids at after school programs at summer camps if they only could get access. this c.a.c. has been talking for years about a collaboration between the city and the district as far as some kind of camp option post, extended school year. extended school year runs 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 or 8:00 to noon and very often families that work full time struggle. to find options for their kids after that. and so in parting, i would just like to make sure everyone is aware of the concept of the dignity of risk. and as kids get older, a part of adolescence, a part of growing up is being able to take risks and when we take risks, we learn and grow and have a better quality of life. and people with disabilities deserve as much access to camp and other opportunities to take risks and grow as everyone else does.

thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment. next comment, please. >> i see no more comments. >> great. thank you. thank you so much for the presenters for coming today and presenting on this wonderful topic. i hope that these summer camps will continue to be a success. i do want to remind everybody that this is a fantastic opportunity for families to gain some great access to information. so, thank you. all right. and next we'll continue with our next discussion item. great. yes. discussion item number 6.

this is, as i mentioned, item number 6. working together, the s.f. disabilities community 2022 advocacy agenda and it will be presented by jessica layman. community collaborator on the alliance of disability advocates and fiona heinz who is community living campaign. the two will be presenting today. i do want to remind the public comment will be taking place after. if you do have something that you just can't hold on to, go ahead and type it into the chat. we want to welcome fiona and jessica for coming today and

please go ahead and begin your presentation. >> thank you so much for having us, co-chair, and owl of the commissioners. we're really glad to be here. so my name is jessica layman and i work as executive director of senior and disability action and i'm here today presenting cada, the community alliance of disability advocates. >> and my name is fiona and i am the director of systems change and independent livinging resource center, san francisco. and i am here representing the dignity fund coalition. so our goal -- go ahead. >> i'm going to go ahead and share slides and we'll be sure to explain them along the way. these are slides in yellow and the title in white below it.

i should clarify that i don't know if it's as cohesive as this makes it sound, but we will be talking about a number of issues that are really big this year. in the disability community in san francisco. and says presented by jessica layman and fiona hinze, may 20, 2022, s.f. mayor's disability council. >> thank you, jessica. and i'll just piggyback on what jessica was saying. jessica and i are part of several groups and each have several advocacy priorities they're work on this year. so we just chose a couple from a couple of our groups that are really important to us. so i was here first to

present on the dignity fund coalition and priority for the [inaudible] season and for those who don't know about the dignity fund coalition, we started in 2016 and works to pass the dignity fund, which is a [inaudible] for services for seniors and folks with disabilities. and [inaudible] continues advocacy for seniors and people with disabilities and this year our priority is really around the digital divide. so if you would go to the next slide, jessica. we'll see on this slide [inaudible] the name of our campaign and there are folks

of various races using various assistive technology devices. next slide, if you would. this was really informed by first the entire san francisco needs assessment. they are assessing the needs of seniors and adults with disabilities around the digital divide and digittal literacy and over the next couple of slides, i'll just go briefly over some of the findings in the report is available online in full, if you will. so this slide says the top five barriers to access and this was a survey. the cost of high speed internet is the number one barrier at 28%.

insufficient smart phone data. so, we know that, for example, folks have [inaudible] and limited data and you can do -- you do one telehealth appointment and cast your data. and next we've got unstable internet connections and we know that wi-fi in the home is now a critical need for folks and then we have concerns about online security and if you would go to the next slide. so, again, we have assistive technologies. critical [inaudible] on this slide. so we know it's not all about

computers. so, when looking at the [inaudible], we found out that it is critical, not all assistive technology cost and arm and a leg. some of it does, as we know. but not all of them do. and then we've got training, of course, being critical. as i said when i talked about this, as in the past, you know how to use it as we -- we've all learned during the pandemic, information about a.t. options. so, we're providing information and, again, training. access to free and low-cost repairs. at 30%.

so, if your a.t. breaks and you need help to fix it, i know that that is something that happens to me with my wheelchair often, and then we have these needs especially prevalent for those with chronic pain, mental health disabilities, low income and our own residents. and people who speak languages other than english, such as spanish or chinese. so we really need to -- we took this information and we passed it with budget [inaudible] on the next slide, if you would. so this really has a -- i

won't read all the line items. i'll just go through and talk at a high level around the categories. ? [please stand by] [please stand by]

>> and they are making sure those resources areavailable on a variety of languages . and also the devices that are not maybe computers or cameras but other assistance and technology as i talked about before that are not necessarily flashy but are really necessary for someone's daily living like a walker are student that helps folks eat independently really assistant technology is a very broad scope . so yeah. that's the ad and i'm happy to

go deeplyinto any categories of it . in our question and answer period. the next slide ... >> i wanted to add in addition to this ask that senior and disability action went through a lot of other disability groups and organizations is also pushing at&t, the biggest internet provider in the area to use wi-fi for seniors and people with disabilities and it's been great to work closely on what the city needs to do as far as offering devices and training andwhat it's like to have quality wi-fi more readily available . >> there's also awi-fi component to our ask . just on this particularsection , we can reach out by email for

more info@sfdignity.org and there's a link to our campaign website. where there is all this information and more. there is a petition that folks can sign and take a look at . we really are pushing 500 and and we also have a petition where we can sign wherever we can gothat is the info on that . i will turn this over to jessica for some of our other priorities and talk a littlebit about that . >> thank you so much and just to clarify i did have a question on at&tworking to providehigh-speed internet

connection . i would say no . we are fighting at&t alittle bit . the case see it they keep saying they don't have money or itwouldn't be equal but they have a ton of money to where pushing them to do the right thing making some improvements on the federal level that would affect people here as well . so it's always a huge issue in disability communities in san francisco and there's a couple of specific things that many of our organizations have been working on and gina is supporting this year. for many of you have been hearing for years about the problem elevators and sro hotels andlow occupancy hotels . most of these hotels were buil 100 years ago literally . and they are not in great shape and the elevators are very old, built with very old parts so they fall apart.they stop

working and it often takes weeks to get a new part and at first i thought it was a joke when they would say the part has to get built in kansas so that's going to take several weeks and it's just likenothing else that ever needs repair and then i found out this is true . they're just kind of building the parts as they need them because theyare so old and not readily use obviously that system doesn't work . and a few years ago we fought and won and sro elevator repair rebate program that ran through the mayor's office of housing and community development that helps buildings for about five buildings repairs for their elevators. but we need something more so this year as part of the housing stability funds ,

there's a recommendation for $10 million for elevator replacement and installation and sro's so recognizing that just replacing parts, that repairing elevators is not a good long-term fix we're talking about replacing elevatorsand installing new elevators yes that's incredibly expensive . it's is $1 million for elevator so $10 million would go for 10 buildings. but that's huge.if there's even 50 people in eachbuilding , then that is 500 people that wear affecting. we know from a survey that we did several years ago that the majority of people living and sros are disabled people and seniors who reallydepend on elevators to be able to get in and out of their units . there are so many stories of elevators being out for months at a time and people being stranded in their units notable

to go out and get food . notable to get to doctors appointments . not able to connect with anybody in thecommunity . or an elevator is out and somebody needs their wheelchair in the lobby and then they managed to get up the stairs but they're out of breath and they have car problems and a wheelchair gets stolen. just these are appliance stories that don't need to be happening. we just need to fix these elevators. so that is the first major ask in terms of housing. and then also a few years ago several of our organizations disability groups and senior groups fought to develop, we didn't have to fight. we worked with supervisor norman e who is the president of the board ofsupervisors at the time . to create a new program called senior operatingsubsidies . this addressed the problem in what is called affordable senior housing.

the income people are required to have is so much higher than so many seniors or peoplewith disabilities .so this program takes a level where it may be set at 50 percent of the area median income and that senior operating subsidy will lower it to 15 percent or 25 percent of area median income, much more in line the incomes on social security or fsf. so we know that's an important all along. we said we need more and to create some kind of disability operating subsidy program and there's a lot of issues involved in that. we don't have affordable disability housing built right now in the way we have affordable senior housing so we have to be creative and thinking about it but we know it can happen. part of the ask for this year

also through the housing stability funds is for the city to pull $4 million into expanding senior operating subsidies and creating disability operating subsidies. the last thing on the list for housing is portable rental subsidies for people with disabilities. this is the same issue that is not enough affordablehousing and rent going higher and higher . this is for people who are currently in a unit but the rent goes up for or their income goes down. maybe they were getting from a family member. more likely rent goes up and they don't have a way of bringing in more money. so a portable subsidy allows a person to cover the difference in what they can afford in length and what the actual rent is so they don't get evicted and end up homeless because we know there's often nowhere for

people to go. there are not good options. this is a program that started a couple of years ago and subsidies are run through the department ofhomelessness and supportive housing and it's been incredibly effective for keeping people in their home . they're not through department of homelessness, it'salso through the mayor's office of community development . so we just need to reach more people. we all know seniors and people with disabilities that are struggling to pay their rent and are at risk of being pushed out. we are asking for $10 million more in portable rental subsidies. this is the line for the homeownerservice provider association . they have an ask that has a lot of different housing components so they're asking for $10 million for rental subsidies forseniors and people with disabilities .this is one of

those ways where the disability and senior communities are aligned together and with broader online advocacy communities so that hopefully we can be very effective in our budget advocacy . in the picture on the slide is an action we had recently about the recommendations from the housing stability funds oversight board and so you can see a lot of seniors and people with disability in front of city hall holding all kinds of signs. there's one that's good and now i can't remember what it says is one that says sos for subsidies. does one that says housing now and this is deeply affordable housing and the senior and disability action banner being held up in response . that's housing. another issue we wanted to talk about is masking.

where to begin with masking? we all know it's been a really rough couple of years and things have changed constantly in terms of what we know about covid and what the policies are around protection. and of course relatively recently in san francisco and throughout the bay area masks are no longer required indoor spaces and on public transit. and so many disabled people and immunocompromised people as well as other people and parents are really upset about what does this mean for those of us who are either higher risk of getting it even if you're vaccinated. or maybe people can't vaccinate or whether the vaccine is not effective. as well as those of us and i'm in this boat as well who are at risk of severe disease and

potentially death if we do get covid. i think we're in a scary time right now where we know that with symbolism and all the other isms disabled people are very often excluded from public life. it's hard to get around, it's to get the services we need. it's hard to feel like our voices are heard and it seems like right now we're really seeing disabled people being treated as less important and all along through the pandemic the way it's been talked about that well, most people are fine but it's okay for us not to wear masks because most people if they get vaccinated are going to be fine if they get covid. that's not true for a lot of disabled people and that really needs to be considered in terms of public health in a way that it currently isn't.

and i think a lot of us are really disappointed and frustrated place like san francisco where we talk about being different and paying attention to marginalized groups that that's not happeningdifferently . on the slide or exclusions from public spaces. it seemed like the other day as well city hall is no longer requiring masking so if it's not safe for me to be inside that other people are going in for a hearing. i'm sittingoutside in my wheelchair . that's not okay. we don't need to have a system like that.so there's a graphic here, a little bit of a cartoon in the top panel there's a person riding a bike and it said cases are just stopping (again with them!. and then the second panel is

those drops mass mandates and the person takes a long and puts it in the real. obviously the bicycle is not going to go anymore and then third panel shows the person falling on the ground with the flight next to them and it says why are casesgoing back up ? then take action on the side says san francisco as a covid positivity rate of over 10 percent, highest in california and it's been pointed out so many people are doing home tests so nobody thinksthese numbers are even accurate . officials recognize the crisis and are using their power to issue mass requirements and we've been callingon them to reinstate the countywide mass requirements . and a lot of the focus has been onmasking on transit . on all of the bay area transit agencies we can be the only one that ac transit andall of them

are all connected . so we went to bark and board president rebecca salzman recommended health officials are not requiring masking on transit but it's the right thing to do toprotect all writers and especially when we know so many disabled people don't have other options . we cannot afford cars or people can't drive. there's1000 reasons disabled people use transit more than other people . so rebecca salzman supported the move to reinstate mass requirements and it passed a couple of weeks ago which was really exciting and i put on this slide a picture of bark and is weak from rebecca salzman that says enforcement of the mass requirements is so important to continue to protect our writers especially as covid cases continue to rise. unfortunately sf mta has not

reinstated the mask mandate so a lot of our organizations are pushing hard to make that happen. so on the right side is a picture that shows a crowded muni bus and the caption says are you willing to ride a masculinity and it says tell the sfmta board we need masks on muni so everyone can ride safely. there's two links on here we will put in the chat. there's the masks for equity action guide . masks number for equity, to get involved please email info as the action. all right, moving on to remote work is edition and i'll send it back as the community

alliance with disability advocates and i'll just say that the community alliance disability advocates both data as we call ourselves and you'll hear me use that acronym throughout the presentation. really a group with representatives representing disability related nonprofits and we really advocate for the disability population across the city so it's lrc, committed to living. disability, they're responsible for you have come to some of ourmeetings . as you'll see. so what do i mean when we talk about expansion. it's basically what the public

is being able to do right now. so these ability to watch a movie online and either comment by telephone or video. jessica has been great for the survey. that she gave to some of her members and i was wondering if you would be able to close it out for us . >> sure. first is my level of engagement in government meetings as well as their conferences for community groups has increased significantly. i was able to make my voice heard in meaningful parts. in meaningful ways in order supervisors committee hearings, sfmta transportation meetings about muni, the california redistricting and other hearings. i would not be ableto continue this level of involvement .

second quote. the accessible meeting what provide a lifeline for disable persons who wish to participate and remain active . and the thirdquote, make meetings more accessible to all people . >> so given those quotes and really the prevailingsentiment through the community , kayla came together and sent to the city okay. we work with the city and get a proposal together. what we would like to see as far as remote meetings continuing really in perpetuity and again, i'll mention that disabilities now are leading the way in terms of making an effort to continue to hybridize

its meetings even at this stage.so the proposal as kayla came up with includes that the city maintain a hybrid option for at least the meeting that are listed here and i'll go ahead and use them to read our board of supervisors and committees. so your meeting right now including a few of our subcommittees, and the multimodal accessibility rising committee. the park and rec district as jessica was mentioning the

accessibility of our open spaces has been hot button issue. and the health commission things continue to unfold with covid. there's going to be key areas and the disability and aging services division meeting. we really decided to prioritize these meetings as they have direct connection to the issues that most affect the disabilit community . we can go to the next slide. theprocess that we've made so far .

the dod representatives for staff met with the mayor's chief of staff and the city administrator's office. just a few weeks ago and we are and they highly advise us that it would be coursing the board and the president of the board of supervisors so we are in the process of scheduling that meeting. we are also with the help of your staff are looking into we may need to do some advocacy around sunshine roles and the brown act which governs open meetings at the city andstate levels respectively .

so advocacy is very much continuing on both fronts and i'll let jessica talk more about how you canget involved . >> we have a survey, you saw some of the responses earlier. we need more voices from disabled people to say years why remote participation is important and every time we talk about that people say we don't want to lose disability to call into a meeting. the mayors disability council has really been a leader on this. that you all have had hybrid meetings with so many accessible features for many years and you show that it's possible so when others say that's too hard we don't know how to do it. we don'trun together . look at nbc and we need to expand that so people may also have faster rates to share in the survey about nbc meetings

at work and how you want to see that from other government groups. so the survey is in the chat and i'm hoping the mayor's office on disability can share that as well.you can email me about getting involved at sd action.org and i want to add briefly that the part about that we may need some amendments around sunshine ordinance, that has alreadybeen controversial . what does it mean to amend those because it's about transparency and participation and we want transparency of course. so it's really important we don't end up with transparency being as kind of, that we can have one or the other. we have transparency or have access to remote participation. what does it look like to have changes that will allow hybrid

meetings but make sure that our governments is able to. >> and then on our last slide jessica if you have any questions or comments for those involved with us our contact information is on the slide and we are happy to answer. at this time we are open to questions. >> this is orchid. i know that there is one member tiffany that wants to make a comment before she has to leave so go ahead and go. >> highfield andjessica . i know in my capacity as part

of the san francisco mayors disability councilit's been great to be in partnership with the communityalliance and disability advocates . i guess i had a question and a comment . one question is i've been very loosely calling some of the things happening with the infrastructure bill at the federal level and i was wondering if that might help with some of the advocacy that's happening around closing additional hide and if you're connected with any of the advocacy and my second comment is that i love to just see if we can have a stronger partnership with both of your organizations and i actually think something like this could be beneficial for our counsel like on a quarterlyor biannual basis. like if you wanted to put that out there . >> your question about state and federal funds through the digital divide is actually something we been getting from supervisors and city officials as we been taking this on the

road. our answer is we do anticipate there will be need for these devices at some point but we don't know how much of that or how it will trickle down to us at the city . we really need this now. so we really you know, this is kind of a stopgap measure while we wait to see what that actually is. and how much it's going to trickle-down to us in getting devices in the hands of folks. >> i wanted to add that you. i really like the idea of having more collaborationand i think it would be really powerful . also tiffany reminded me that one thing we left out of the

presentation is jade up with a large part of it led by tiffany, is it okay if i call you ticket tiffany has been talking about an anti-idealism campaign and really thinking about that might looklike. they didn't talk about that, maybe next time we come back . and i also forgot i'm sorry i'll keep this short. in terms of masking on transit we really wanted to put in a request for the mayors disability council to consider our resolution all supporting the asking the mta board for the mta in general really to reinstate the mass mandates. having support from mdc could go a long way towards making that happen . >> thank you tiffany.

councilwoman tiffany and alex. you want to make a comment? >> my question to you is regarding the process and persons with disability that lives in san francisco . [please stand by]

>> how do we go about advertising this.

i know in the past, there was a study for the city and i'm just going back to my argument of how do you best reach out to people and people with disabilities and that. i just want to make sure that all people with disabilities and not only positive one status. >> yeah. yes. go ahead. >> yeah. thanks for the question, alex. so it's tricky to answer partly because the coalition are coalitions of organizations and so they're not so much doing

outreach directly. if it's okay for me to speak on disability action. we do a lot of outreach to disabled people and older people and we do focus on low income folks and black indigenous people of color and really like focusing on disabled and older people who are the most marginalized who have the most access to resources and people who tend to have the least ability to advocate for what they need, right. so that tends to be our focus. but an issue like transit or remote participation, those are things that really affect everyone. some of the ways that we do outreach, we use social media, we do surveys like this, right, asking for peoples' contact information so we can invite people to get involved for the free wifi campaign. we have a petition that we sent out that we're asking people to share as well as doing like on

the street and door-to-door outreach so we're really finding people in a lot of different ways. but it continues to be a challenge for all the of our organizations and all disability communities is that disabled people are often super isolated and i remember when we were working on support at home, the home care subsidy program that there was some data that there's a huge number of latinx disabled people that need long-term services and supports and aren't getting them and the people who aren't plugged in are hard to find. so i think it's kind of an ongoing discussion. >> thank you. i think reaching out to people

that and like myself and people who do have a job and are disabled, but that might have beneficial. so i just want to encourage the decision and all of us to reach out to people like those populations. thank you for coming. >> thank you. >> this is orchid speaking. i do have other two council members who want to join the discussion. i've got the council members to add their comments.

>> orchid, my apologies. i didn't have the request to speak. >> i didn't want to leave you out. >> no, thank you. my questions concerns were already addressed with council members. i understand because of time constraints. thank you very much for including me, orchid. >> of course. so our next is -- i'm sorry council member woods. thank you. council member woods. >> i did not ask any questions. i believe any questions i have have been thoroughly explained. okay. >> okay. thank you. so this is orchid speaking and i did have a couple things that i wanted to mention. i first of all want to thank

you for including us in this discussion because it is so important for all of us to advocate for our communities. it's so important. so please do not stop. please continue. all of the items that you've raised today impact a lot of people that elevator one especially i've heard from other deaf line participant who is eave said they've been stuck in elevators for hours, 24 hours screaming for help and they were stuck in that elevator so when you were saying that elevator story, it really touched me because people who can't hear -- people who can't hear, they can't push that button that connects them to the police or the firefighter that says, "hello, do you need help?" so that system is failure. that's a failure in the system for a deaf person and that's scary for and i have heard

stories like that happening. the internet thing i appreciate you going to bat with at&t and trying to get them to do this because i think especially our senior citizens and disabled communities who are isolated at home. right now, there's no more masks, they feel like they have to stay home, but they still want to participate, and how do you do that? you need the internet. so i think that's definitely food for thought. that's a discussion we definitely need to continue having. and, of course, there's no easy solution and money is a big consideration. i did want to thank you so much for your presentation. i just wanted to emphasize that everything you talked about is so critical and if you have any other ideas, we appreciate those too. were there any other council members before i go on to public comment? nicole, was there something you wanted to share? >> yes. if i could for just a second.

i wanted to say thanks again. and i wanted to also highlight a couple of things, one, there's been a lot of resources shared in the chat today. but there are a lot of sfgov members not sharing on zoom. and we will collect all of the resources that have been shared today and push them out and i will announce how to be apart of that if you're not on it when i get to my report later which has a lot more advocacy efforts that are happening even beyond what we've done at what everybody here is doing on the community level. so there's so much more to be done and i just wanted to elevate for the dignity fund. i'd be happy to talk with you in particular, but one of the

things also that we learned through the city's technology needs assessmentment in particular are experiencing technology gaps. and so in an effort to really make sure that we're reaching everyone, there's other details and this council heard a presentation on the technology needs assessment. >> oh, good. okay. i wasn't sure. >> several months ago, and also made a recommendation that the recommendations coming out of that effort moving forward are more disability specific focused and so i hope -- i know that this council will continue to advocate for that as we're moving forward and really looking specifically at what we learned about people with disabilities through that assessment. so just wanted to mention that and happy to talk with you or anyone really about what we learned. thanks again for coming and i think with that, orchid, we can

move to public comment, please. >> let's go ahead with those public comments. do we have any public comments? >> okay. so let me remind people that you can participate in the meeting as a zoom webinar participant and if you are interested in doing that, you can join the webinar by clicking on the zoom link if you're watching on sfgov tv, that link is displayed on your screen. if you want to join the webinar using a telephone, you can dial in (669) 900-6833. the webinar id is 85419550368.

if you join the webinar, you and your computer or tablet or smartphone, click on the three horizontal dots icon. and then click on raise hand and you'll be recognized when it's your turn. you can also use the q&a feature on zoom to be recognized and make comments and you can make comments if you'd like us to read them for you in the q&a area and if you dial in by phone, dial star 9 when you want to be recognized. so, i do see one hand up in zoom from avida and if you want to make a comment, alita,

please unmute your phone. >> okay. thank you so much. i think you can hear me now. >> yes. >> i would just like to thank both senior and disability action as well as independent living for this amazing presentation. thank you for the work being done. this aligns very much with what families and children with disabilities are experiencing in the city as well both the community advisory committee many of us have kids in high school. and we're hoping she tests negative and it's time to go back to school and walk across

the stage and graduate. fingers crossed for us, please. as far as remote participation, c.a.c. meeting attendance has increased by over 50% and what we found is that when families don't and families of children with disabilities, we have to hire specialized child care providers for our meeting and for a lot of families, getting their children with disabilities out to our meetings was a bit of a barrier and so now being able to participate online has been a huge game-changer from an accessibility standpoint. so now that we're being forced to in-person meetings, our members who have kids with disabilities are having to excuse themselves or if they participate as an attendee rather than as a member, they don't have their voting privileges because of the brown act. so this is a huge issue. and thank you for the advocacy

around this. >> thank you for your comments. great comments. next, anybody else? public comments? any other public would like to add a comment? great. okay. i guess there's no other public comments. so, now, we will have our break. >> hang on. i just want to check because debbie was [ indiscernible ] for a minute. are we good to go, debbie? do we have any additional public comment on this item? >> i do not -- i didn't see any a minute ago. and, we are i do not see anymore. >> okay. i'm sorry, orchid. thank you. i'm done speaking.

>> oh, that's fine. no words, council member. it is now 3:17. we will break. if we can please come back at 3:30 and it's a little less than 15 minutes. our next presentation will start at 3:30 and once that presentation is over, we will have one more report from our m.o.d. staff and then we will wrap up our meeting. so please be back at 3:30. thank you. [please stand by]

>> and in that spirit, there's going to be a seminar about the older americans act and we will send out that zoom link information as well. in concluding my report, i just want to talk about some other items for m.d.c. hearing consideration. we have as you may remember, we've planned out several of the agenda items with your feedback for the next few months, but there are a few other ones that are also time

sensitive. so i just wanted to elevate those for you. one is a conversation around the great highway and an effort around great highway park and the continuation and slow streets. as a reminder, when the state and local emergency orders are lifted, other current road closures or slow streets may be subject to permanent consideration and as you know been very involved in public comment on road closures. this is a significant concern for the disability community, so i encourage you to think about how you might want to hear and learn about that. hybrid meeting, hybrid public meeting participation as our colleagues earlier mentioned is also happening right now. conversations are happening right now and so the time for that is now as well or in the next few months.

and then, as i mentioned earlier, autonomous vehicles in san francisco for accessibility is a more timely item. the one additional item that i also wanted to recommend for additional consideration that's not as time critical, it is definitely mission critical, but not time critical necessarily is perhaps disability employment updates. citywide data collection efforts pertaining to employees with disabilities is to potentially begin happily in from our perspective in m.o.d. is for disability employment month. and we've had some positive conversations with our colleagues and the department of human resources and also from the mayor's office liaison

on racial equity to really think about what we're doing in terms of making disability employment more visible in san francisco and so i just wanted to elevate that as a potential topic for future consideration and that concludes my report for today. and, again, please be on the look-out for this report to be posted to the mayor's disability council website and what's new. you can also join our distribution list by going to sfgov.org/mod or by calling the number. >> thank you. i have to go, but i just want

to thank you first of all. thank you for your report and i gust have one portion to do. disability some disabled people and all other but when some us are getting into that