Date: 11.6.17
Chair: St. Amand
Vice Chair: Creese
Committee Members Present: Cohen, Kohl, McWeeney, Vu
Committee Members Absent: Ndayishmiye
Non-Committee Members: Sardinha, Watka, Nicole (URI student “liaison” for Disability Challenge), George Gallien from MSSC, Pamela Rowland from disability services
Meeting Start Time: 5:08PM
Accessibility Challenge:
-Nicolette distributed the following handout:
Accessibility Challenge
2017 Cultural Affairs Committee
Goal: Find which places on campus are not accessible to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. By doing so, we can bring up these problems to higher faculty members and better the life of everyone at URI.
Facilitation Steps:
- Assign each student willing to participate with a specified disability
- Establish a day to hold the Accessibility Challenge, Monday-Friday
- On this day each student will go about their normally daily schedule and take notes on each building and classroom they go into
- Discuss certain aspects of the building and campus to look out for
- Come back together and discuss our findings
Key Aspects to look for:
- Person who uses a wheelchair:
- Where are the entrances in buildings that are handicap accessible
- Where are the entrances in classrooms that are handicap accessible
- If you would have to be separated from the class during lecture because of where the entrance is, how would you feel?
- People who are blind:
- Is there braille outside and inside every elevator
- Is there braille outside every classroom
Where all this information will go:
- Meet as a group to discuss findings and formally write a letter to URI Disability Services, President Commission on People with Disabilities, and Kathy Collins
*looked at out of date campus accessibility map and key, what the key meant
*Pamela surprised that this map is even still on the website—very out of date
*not sure where the wheelchairs are coming from – health services receptionist said probably but director has not responded as of yet
* Pamela not sure about liability, wheelchairs are not let out of health services building?
* have to be fitted, trained to use it, etc.
* will follow up with Ellen, director of health services
* maybe rent wheelchair from third party
* Pamela: you can still gather a lot of information without actually using a wheelchair
**Nicole still thinks students will not be able to understand what it’s like without actually using a physical wheelchair
*have the whole month to complete
*last Monday of Nov (back from Thanksgiving break)
-Nicole wondering how to spread the word—has friends that want to participate but could not attend meeting
* Nicolette says to email her to get more info for them
* pretty open, no definitive dates
* up to the participant, make sure it is done by Nov 27th
-Nicolette to assign roles once she gets a finite number of how many people are completing challenge and if getting wheelchairs from health services is possible
*will email everyone by the end of the week!
**Pamela knows staff in charge of updating database of accessibility—they are very open to new information!
-Nicole discusses how lots of buildings on the map say “limited accessibility” or “accessible” but she knows from personal experiences that that’s not necessarily true
-i.e. Chemistry building and Chaffee are connected but that is not recorded anywhere
-want to add notes to database of buildings so tricks and shortcuts can be added
* committee adding notes to buildings on google maps *feature
* Pamela emailing Ed (in charge of map) to see what is going on and how the improvements can be made
-matched with a family for spirit of giving!
-2 kids: 3 and 11 years old, both girls
-drop off date for gifts: Dec 10th
*will distribute donation envelope at this week’s general meeting and keep donations coming in until the week of Dec 10th where we purchase the gifts
-Christian Gonzales
* abroad for month of Nov; not available but Nicolette inquired about ideas from him
-this month’s diversity event = Nov 20th
-booked ballroom for Ace of Cakes for March 6th
* Zac Yip said it didn’t work—elections are during that week, there is a finite amount of volunteer hours that senators can provide, last year elections put a large strain on elections committee itself
* Nicolette personally doesn’t think date needs to be changed
* Sam King said it didn’t seem to cause too much of an uproar
* Nicolette will talk about it during exec tomorrow
Meeting Adjourned: 5:46PM