[Access] Accessibility - Process Problems

Sun Apr 6 18:15:16 CDT 2008

Nice post, David...
Thanks for your ideas.  I think the CC isn't the time for this, and I think
the June meeting to get the rev.'s ideas would be really ehlpful.

Maybe we chould check with Leslie about how she'd feel about having a skit
or two on her game night...

Oh and, committee, we need to come up with a newsletter announcement about
the game night making it sound
"fun and appealing" according to Phyllis P.

She is so sorry cindy P.'s name didn't get into the newsletter re the April
poetry night...

j-m.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Gilmartin [mailto:Rev.D.Gilmartin at comcast.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 11:36 PM
To: algaelady at gmail.com; Access Issues and Discussion
Subject: Re: [Access] Accessibility - Process Problems

Someone pointed out that next Saturday's meeting of the Coordinating Council
will be largely devoted to budget discussions, and would not be optimal for
a discussion of this subject. I can agree with that.

What I have in mind is starting a discussion having to do with identifying
and telling stories about times when our communications have been less than
completely accessible, how those situations were problematic, what was done,
how could it be done better, and whether there is any "overall" policy or
set of "ready-if-needed" procedures that can be put into place to make
things easier in the future.

A good place to start might be telling stories on ourselves, the
Accessibility Committee, where we've knocked against this a couple of times.

There's this most recent instance, in which I came to the committee with a
report written at the very last minute, which had not been shared with
anyone on the committee except the person who met with me (as a
subcommittee) to put a report together. The intent of the report was to
describe to Martha, the webmaster, what the content and organization of the
"accessibility pages" of the website would be. In addition to this
information, in my enthusiasm I went on to brainstorm about other aspects of
electronic communications at UUCE which had not been previously discussed by
the Accessibility Committee and about which no consensus of opinion had been
formed. The result was a great deal of confusion, and an inability to move
toward consensus on any of the new material -- because no one had had it in
time to think about it in advance of the meeting. Two members of the
committee are blind and hadn't received the information in Brailled copy; no
one else received the information until it was handed out at the meeting. I
thought I was just passing along information, a report, but, in preparing
the initial draft, I had not been sensitive to distinguish parts of the
report which had already been discussed and accepted by the Committee from
another part of the report, which was only some initial thoughts of my own,
which had not been evaluated or previously agreed upon. If I were doing it
all over again, I think I would have split the report in two. One part
described what we had agreed upon so far; a second "report" in effect was an
additional proposal and should have been a separate item of business.

Jeanne-Marie, I have a vague recollection of another instance in which you
and I discussed a situation in which Brailled copy of a report or something
was lacking. Perhaps it was a Board meeting? Or lack of Brailled order of
service readings? Do you remember it?

Another part of either story, or other stories, would be, what was done
because of the problem? Was the item tabled until the next meeting? Was the
paper read out loud so it could be discussed without further delay? Was the
accessibility  issue discussed? Etc., etc. And what should be the way things
are done because of this kind of problem? Is there a simple, single answer?

I'm glad to be taking this off a front burner, by the way. The way in which
people on committees were asked to think about our "reserving"  
seats for others at services, and its implications in terms of
hospitability, by Nisco and Marilyn, for example, was quite creative.  
Maybe we could create a little psychodrama skit of a meeting at which Mary
is taking part but can't take part because a key background paper did not go
out in the Board packet in Braille... Hmmm?

Enough for tonight.

David

On Apr 5, 2008, at 10:40 AM, jeannemarie moore wrote:
> How would you go about this, I mean what do you have in mind?
>
> I will have JUST moved, so I'm not sure I can make it...
>
> and, by the way, David the research guru, would you be so kind as to 
> research the words to:
> "the road goes ever onward" or "ever on" from the movie The Trilogy 
> and send them... quick enough, Mary could braille them...
> She is already (kindly) brailling the responsive reading for the three 
> of us for tomorrow...
>
> This is an issue worth discussing and we may need to use instances as 
> examples, they don't have to be "wrongs."
>
> j-m.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: access-bounces at uueugene.org [mailto:access- 
> bounces at uueugene.org] On Behalf Of David Gilmartin
> Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 1:13 AM
> To: Access and Discussion Issues
> Subject: [Access] Accessibility - Process Problems
>
> I think Jeanne-Marie has accurately targeted some of the places where 
> UUCE's process fails to provide accessibility, such as in my effort to 
> have an item on the agenda even though the background information had 
> not been shared in ways that made it accessible to everyone with 
> adequate time for consideration before the meeting. Or the subject of 
> her recent email
> --
> about it appearing that words of some items for Sunday's big 
> celebration will not be accessibly available to all.
>
> And I think that some progress might be made if the issues and 
> difficulties could be discussed separate from any specific instances.
>
> Is anyone interested in helping to put this concern into some form for 
> discussion at the upcoming meeting of the Coordinating Council, April 
> 12th?
>
> David G.
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