co chair jim blacksten, present. council member tatiana kostanian will participate via the bridge line. council member alex madrid. >> present. >> clerk: council member sally coghlan mcdonald. >> present. >> clerk: council member orkid sassouni will participate via the bridge line. council member helen smolinski. >> present. >> clerk: and council member kate williams is absent. >> thank you very much. let's move to action item, this is number two. reading an approval of the agenda by staff. >> clerk: item one, welcome, introduction and roll call. item two, action item, reading the approval of the agenda. item three, public comment. items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the m.d.c. each speaker is limited to three minutes. please approach the microphone or give your comment card to the m.d.c. staff. item four, co-chair report. item 5, information item, report from the mayor's office on disability. please note that the director's report can be found in the what's new section of the m.o.d. website at

. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you.now, we're going to go to patrick in a minute, but there is, i think, a council member here who would like to ask a question. so first is alex and then helen. >> thank you for coming and sharing the updates to us. i just have a question for you. i this is the first -- i know this is the first publish. what is maybe stats on implementing -- >> that's why i'm so excited. when i was invited to speak, i was asked if patrick would come, because that's what he's going to talk about. through vision zero, our agencies coordinate closely so we can inform improvements and that's one of the things he's going to be talking about today. >> thank you. >> council member smolinski: i'm curious, what is the thinking behind traffic circles? is this more appropriate for your colleague? >> yes, i'm so excited he's here. helen smolinski that's fine. >> co-chair blacksten: sally. >> council member mcdonald: your data indicates road users are the victims, is that what you're saying? you had pedestrians, peop

go ahead. >> council member smolinski: i don't. >> co-chair blacksten: alex? >> thank you for coming. question, is it -- first question is what do you guys do when businesses has -- such as -- but there is accessible -- in the back? what do you guys do with that businesses? and the second question i have is that, can you explain the steps on making accessible? >> the first question, if i understand correctly was regarding the inside of a business. >> no, i'm sorry. >> -- >> oh, alternative entrances? i'm not the design expert, so i'll turn that over to the department of building inspection ed sweeney. >> good afternoon, commissioners, deputy director. to your question about design, it's a case by case basis, of course we would like it -- what you're describing is a hardship. we would take it, analyze it, it would probably have to go to planning. and again, it's a case-by-case basis. in the scenario you're talking about, i think that would be reasonable and we probably would approve it. >> ok. if there is -- >> we would prefer the primary entrance to be accessi

>> co-chair blacksten: who was first?let's go with orkid. >> council member sassouni: i know there are some neighborhoods that try to add those signs, you know, i don't know if you've seen the deaf child at play signs and usually that comes up because there is a disabled person or deaf child in the area and it's like a warning sign. i was a survivor of a car accident as a young deaf girl and the only problem is identification process. how do we make drivers not only slow but pay attention to what is around them on the road? because every time i go to a corner i know as a pedestrian that i have to wait until i get a visual confirmation that the driver sees me, but if i don't have someone make that eye contact, i'm afraid i'll be hit. if they don't know i'm in the area, it can lead to an issue. i think we should consider educating drivers to make eye contact with people like me who can't hear them. >> i think that's a great comment and something that megan will take away as part of the education component of vision zero. it

co-chair, blacksten? >> co-chair blacksten: i have to second what my colleague kate williams said, you've really done a tremendous amount of work in a year's time. i'm very pleased and this is impressive. so, in my particular case, i am blind and hard-of-hearing, so in addition to not being able to see, i have to use hearing aids. i use text to speech technology which is called jaws. you may be familiar with that particular software program since you work -- i mean you've worked with the lighthouse. and i also use braille technology. electronic braille device. i'd like to be able to collaborate with you going forward because with my situation in the insurance field, i'm going to have to make presentations using screen share. and that's a big challenge, especially with text to speech. in other words, that's where your perspective clients can see you and if i were able to see, i could see them and we're not in the same place. so this is going to abchallenge. -- be a challenge. and i'm wondering, you put tog

co-chair, blacksten? >> co-chair blacksten: i have to second what my colleague kate williams said, you've really done a tremendous amount of work in a year's time. i'm very pleased and this is impressive. so, in my particular case, i am blind and hard-of-hearing, so in addition to not being able to see, i have to use hearing aids. i use text to speech technology which is called jaws. you may be familiar with that particular software program since you work -- i mean you've worked with the lighthouse. and i also use braille technology. electronic braille device. i'd like to be able to collaborate with you going forward because with my situation in the insurance

co chair jim blacksten, present. council member tatiana kostanian will participate via the bridge line. council member alex madrid. >> present. >> clerk: council member sally coghlan mcdonald. >> present. >> clerk: council member orkid sassouni will participate via the bridge line. council member helen smolinski. >> present. >> clerk: and council member kate williams is absent. >> thank you very much. let's move to action item, this is number two. reading an approval of the agenda by staff. >> clerk: item one, welcome, introduction and roll call. item two, action item, reading

>> 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