[Access] notes from the Co-ordinating council meeting

[d. maria]

good idea, David, about putting the description on the web-page.  dm

On Jan 12, 2008, at 2:23 PM, David Gilmartin wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Access mailing list
> Access at uueugene.org
> http://www.uueugene.org
> http://www.uueugene.org/mailman/listinfo/access
>