[Access] notes from the Co-ordinating council meeting

[David Gilmartin]

Very helpful summary, Mary.

SERVICE AUCTION ACCESSIBILITY: I think the main thing is aisle widths,  
and the next is  table positioning. ADA Guidelines will have aisle  
width information. What I am thinking of when I refer to table  
positioning is not to have two long tables pushed together into a long  
and wide display surface. The reason is that, for some, that combined  
width would be too far to reach across to grasp an item, from the aisle.

CLUSTER DISCUSSION: In our work planning, at our last meeting, for  
this year and next, it seeded to me that our goals had to do with  
accessibility and welcomingness within the church building and  
congregational life. As far as the cluster descriptions go (from  
January 12 agenda), I think this may be a better fit with  
"Ministerial" than "Social Justice." Social Justice, to me, carries  
the implication of doing something in and for the wider world. Closely  
related, I've been working to find a better name for the "Program"  
category. "Creating Meaningfulness"?

MEETINGS ON-SITE AND OFF-SITE: Mary, I think your paragraph  
description is brilliantly clear and concise. I think it belongs up  
there on the accessibility web pages!

David G.

On Jan 12, 2008, at 12:39 PM, Mary Otten wrote:

> Hi folks,
> i attended that meeting this morning, as did Mariah.   There is
> definite interest in our check-list, including some specific numbers
> that will ensure that power wheel-chairs can be accommodated. It was
> mentioned that having somebody who uses a wheel-chair go on site  
> visits
> is a good idea, but there are ADA numbers as well, so I think it would
> be good to get specific on the check list and include such numbers,
> e.g. as pertains to bath-room access and meeting set up, aisles, row
> spacing etc.  Sue Craig mentioned her concern specificaly with regard
> to the upcoming service auction. she wants to make sure that they set
> things up so that folks who use power chairs will be able to move
> around. Since I doubt the check list will be finalized by the time of
> the auction, it might be a nice idea if Cindy and Sue could get
> together via e-mail or telephone or whatever to discuss that aspect of
> things specifically as they relate to this event.  There is also
> interest in having our check-list put together with Candee-s list  
> about
> how to get child care, since lack of child care is also an
> accessibility barrier, albeit of a different sort than what we deal
> with directly.
>
> At the meeting, there was discussion about the committee clusters  
> idea,
> and there was talk of putting us into the social justice cluster.
> further work is going to be done on this whole topic; a
> subcommittee./task force has been formed to do that work.  I can't
> recall who volunteered for it, but I know Ken and Mariah are on this
> list, and I'm sure one or both of them will be able to fill in. So if
> anyone has definite ideas about this topic, contact one of the members
> of that subcommittee and make your wishes known. I know one of the
> folks is Sarah Hendrickson.
>
> We also talked about the issue of when its preferable to hold a  
> meeting
> at church and when off site is ok, and I made the points that we
> discussed at our last meeting, emphasizing that we were not trying to
> dump guilt trips on people, but that we did expect that meetings where
> anybody might be expected to come should be held at church, and that
> off site locations of such meetings should be chosen with  
> accessibility
> in mind. and there was some discussion as to just what that meant. I
> hope I got the idea across that the bottom line is that, a: we
> recognize that its not always going to be possible to hold all open
> meetings at church; b: its not always going to be possible to have off
> site locations be 100% comfortably accessible; but c: it is essential
> that we try to make that happen, and that people know that the best
> effort was made to make it so. Its a lot easier to take "no" for an
> answer if you really feel like best efforts were expended.
>
> If Ken or Mariah want to add anythingh to my summary of acces-related
> CC topics, please feel free to speak up.
>
> mary