[IL-Talk] chicago minutes draft 2.

[David Meyer]

National Federation of the Blind of Illinois Chicago Chapter

Minutes for December 12, 2020

The meeting took place via the Zoom platform.

President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 1:01 pm. Of note, 
participants included  Horacio Esparza from the Progress Center and Ann 
Brash from the Illinois Council of the Blind. We all  recited the NFB Pledge.

What's Happening: Dave stated that things are good for Teresa. Dave's 
extended family, his younger  brother, his wife, and his daughter all 
had COVID and his cousin and his wife had COVID for a  second time. All 
are recovering pretty well. Board member, Denise Avant, reported that 
she was  recently elected to the board of directors for Access Living 
Chicago. Gina Falvo said that she is a  9-year breast cancer survivor. 
Nadia Sherman says that she had a minor procedure done and that she  
asked everybody to pray for her. First Vice President, Patti Chang said 
that Dick Davis from Blind  Inc has had COVID. He is in the hospital, 
but he is not on a ventilator. She also says that some of  her family 
members down in Belize have COVID. Steve Hastalis reports that Metra 
and its ADA  advisory committee have appointed him chairman and his 
first meeting as chair will take place on  February 2. We had a grand 
total of 29 people participating.

Program Item: Our speaker for today's program, Ms. Hazel Bowman is a 
disability inclusions  coordinator for an agency called Anixter in 
Chicago. She has come with a host of jobs to fill. She  says that the 
Anixter Center has been advocating for people with disabilities For the 
last 100 years. we have been advocating for individuals with  
disabilities. Anixter received a grant and this grant is geared toward 
placing individuals with  disabilities into healthcare job 
opportunities. We are partnering with Mount Siani and the  University 
of Chicago Hospitals. We're trying to place individuals into current 
jobs. We're trying  to find individuals who can do the essential 
functions of the job and there will be some  accommodations being made 
based on individual situations. We want to place people into jobs who 
are blind or low vision. Ms. Bowman wants to find out if you know  of 
someone who is qualified to fill any role in either Mount Siani or 
University of Chicago  Hospitals and to place these qualified 
individuals into jobs. Ms. Bowman's phone number is  312-415-4505 and 
her email address is  hbowman at anixter.org . Dave commented that not 
everybody uses the same accommodations because everybody is going to 
need  different needs in accommodations. He asked if this can be taken 
on an individual basis for those  who apply. Ms. Bowman said that we 
can take this on a case-by-case basis. Patti commented that many  times 
we get into a job situation where the underlying software is 
inaccessible. These hospitals  ensured that their underlying software 
is accessible to blind who use screen-reading software. Dave  mentioned 
that there are other organizations that would also be interested in 
working with Ms.  Bowman. Horacio Esparza from the Progress Center is 
willing to help find recruits. This is a center  for independent living 
that is a cross-disability center, so it would be more than blind folks 
possibly.

National Presidential Release #500, Tuesday, December 1, 2020: 
President Riccobono said that they  are in the living room foyer space 
of the Barney Street Wing, the newly remodeled space.
We still have Braille calendars available from the American Action Fund 
for Blind Children and  Adults. 2021 Braille calendars are available 
while supplies last and will be available in the  market until 1/31 and 
not available after that date. So if you have not gotten a free Braille 
calendar for 2021, you should call the market and get yours quickly. We 
do have gift certificates  available for the Independence Market. They 
are available for purchase in amounts of $25, $50,  $75, or $100. The 
gift certificates are valid for up to 4 years from the date of 
purchase. You can  get the gift certificates as a PDF that's emailed to 
you or you can get it sent to you via the  regular mail in Braille 
format, and you can get more information about them by sending an email 
to  independencemarket at nfb.org  or you can call the national office at 
410-659-9314. A good piece of news to look forward to in  2021 will be 
the reemergence of our Independence Market website where you can order 
products. It  has been down for some time. We've been rebuilding and 
retooling it into our new website.
Last month during American Education Week which was11/16, we sent a 
letter to all of the top  education officials in all of the 50 states, 
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. You can  read that letter by 
going to nfb.org/legal. That letter calls on the state's education 
officials to  recognize the critical barriers that blind students face 
in inaccessible educational technologies  and it calls them to take 
actions to make sure that blind students have equal access. We have  
gotten a number of responses from some of the state's educational 
officers and we will be following  up with those individuals in putting 
resources together. We're getting a good response so far.  We've gotten 
some engaging phone calls from folks who are interested in what we have 
to say and  we're going to put together some resources to help.
We have a December open house. The open house events are for 
prospective new members to learn about  our organization and we'll be 
having an open house on Sunday, 12/13, at 7:00 pm. Our Smart City  
Summit meeting is on 1/28, and, on moving it to 1/28, we're also going 
to take advantage of that  being the day before 1/29/21, which will be 
the 10th anniversary of the blind driver challenge. The  blind driver 
challenge was our effort to build a car that a blind person can drive 
and the first  public demonstration was on 1/29/11. More information 
will be sent to the listserves about the  Smart City Summit. Our access 
technology team has a number of accessibility training sessions  coming 
up, We call these accessibility boutiques. Go to nfb.org and look for 
our accessibility  boutiques under our programs and services. When we 
get into January, we will be preparing for our  Washington Seminar. We 
are encouraged to plan to participate in the Washington Seminar during 
the  second week of February, but also before that, we're going to be 
offering some training in January  to get ready for the issues.
The Freedom Scientific Company is offering $50,000 to NFB if we can 
raise $50,000 before the end of  the year. If you give a gift before 
the end of the year, it will be matched by Vispero up to  $50,000. You 
can make a contribution online by going to nfb.org/donate. You can send 
a check to the  National Office at 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 
21230. You can call our main number and  dial extension 2282 and 
someone will get back to you to make your contribution. As long as it 
is  made by the end of the year, that will help.
Secretary's Minutes for October 10th: Approved.
Treasurer's report: Steve says we have $3,285 in the treasury.
State Presidential Report: NFBI state president, Marilyn Green thanked 
everyone who came to the  state convention. It was a great success, We 
have our next state board meeting on 12/21 at 7:00 pm.  The state 
committee list will go out on January 1 on ill-talk. If there is any 
committee that you would  like to serve on, please send Marilyn an 
email at  president at nfbofillinois.org  and her phone number is 
312-343-8396. The Blind Services Planning Council has appointed Marco  
Gianotti as one of our representatives. Andrew Webb has served on 
behalf of our affiliate for the  last 6 years. Governor Pritzker 
reviewed the composition of the Blind Services Planning Council  
Marilyn thanked Dave Meyer for sending letters to the state 
legislature, to the minority and  majority leaders as well as the 
speaker of the house, Mike Madigan on behalf of the affiliate as it  
related to our appointment on the Blind Services Planning Council. 
Marilyn got a phone call from the  honorable speaker, Mike Madigan's 
chief of staff regarding our seat on the Blind Services Planning  Council.
We are currently beginning to work on making voting accessible by mail 
for all blind people in the  State of Illinois. Just because this 
year's election is over, there will be elections going forward  and 
blind people will need an accessible vote by mail option.
Marilyn has appointed Denise Avant and Dustin Cather to chair our 
federal legislation committee. Denise states  that the Washington 
Seminar is going to be virtual and this will give everyone an 
opportunity to  apply to represent the Illinois affiliate at the 
Washington Seminar because you don't have to  travel anywhere. You 
don't have to worry about the expense of travel, getting a hotel, or 
food. If  you want to represent our affiliate at the Washington Seminar 
for 2021, you can apply. The application is on the NFB of Illinois 
website. Go to www.nfbofillinois.org/washington-seminar and that 
application  is due to our president by 12/31. We will make sure you 
are well-trained in the issues so that you  can be articulate. Everyone 
in our affiliate is intelligent. Illinois is one of the few affiliates  
that offer training, plus our national office also offers training. The 
dates for the Washington  Seminar are February 8, 9, 10, and 11. The 
Washington Seminar will start with the Great Gathering  In. Denise 
invited everyone to fill out the application, submit it by 12/31, and, 
perhaps, you will be  chosen to represent our affiliate at the 
Washington Seminar. We have received 4 applications so  far, but we can 
have more members this year. Illinois has a large congressional 
deligation, so we're  looking forward to having people who don't 
ordinarily get the chance to participate be able to do  so.
Patti Chang and Debbie Stein are co-chairing the scholarship committee 
for 2021. The committee has  started by posting the application. The 
application is on our website at nfbofillinois.org/scholarsh ip or you 
can go to nfbofillinois.org and look for the link. The application is 
due on 3/31. We  need to get the word out and we'll need to make sure 
that students don't wait till the last minute  to apply. There is an 
application. There is an essay. There is a letter of recommendation and 
you'll need to talk to the president or her designee in order to apply 
in Illinois because you do  need a president's letter from our 
president or her designee. Spread the word to anybody you know.  Make 
sure that they are aware early enough that they can get this done. The 
best time to do it is  over the winter break. The second thing that we 
will need to do is come to the meetings with the  students, to keep 
urging people to apply and offer some assistance if people need 
assistance. The  committee will meet on 1/7 because we'll be proactive 
about getting the word out. Ellen Bartell  says that there will be a 
virtual Midwest Student Seminar. The dates that we are looking at are  
3/19 and 3/20. The registration form is not up yet.
Dave asked if one is not selected or chooses not to apply for the 
Washington Seminar, may they  still attend the Great Gathering In being 
that it is a zoom meeting this year? Denise said that we  don't have a 
lot of details about that yet. From the way things sound, you would be 
able to attend.
Exchequer Pub is having a very difficult time right now. It is 
difficult enough that somebody  actually started a Go Fund Me page for 
them. We had discussed whether or not we should give  something in 
advance to Exchequer, either a donation or something in which to help 
them out in the  short-run. Our Chicago Chapter board came up with a 
possible solution and Dave would also like this  discussed and acted 
upon during the general meeting as well, that we would pay for our next 
12  sessions at Exchequer in advance. This would be a total of $900. It 
does stretch us tight in order  to do this, but we do have the money to 
do it. If Exchequer is not able to make it from a financial  
standpoint, they would be left with the remaining contribution that has 
not been used. We were  hoping to advance the contribution from what 
would amount to the next 12 meetings. Whether they  would be in 2021, 
2022, or a combination thereof. Patti will make a motion that we pay 
Exchequer  for what will amount to the next 12 meeting sessions. Jemal 
seconded the motion. Jemal asked if  Exchequer does not make it, has 
there been alternative plans made like another meeting site? Dave  
replied if Exchequer can't handle us, we're not sure if any other place 
can handle us either, and,  if they are, it will be a lot more money 
than we now pay. The motion carried.
Read-a-thon: We had a read-a-thon in November. It turned out reasonably 
good. Once all contributions  come in, we will have $775 as a result of 
this event. We did not have a lot of people reading  this time and 
people who did solicit or make donations towards the read-a-thon did 
not reach outside  of the organization to try to get donations. Dave 
asked if anybody has any ideas as to maybe what  changes we might be 
able to make to improve the read-a-thon overall or to make it more 
inclusive.  Patti says that for her the timing is difficult because 
it's close to the state convention and  close to other state 
conventions. Patti said that she would like to see us move it to 
February or  March. We used to have Dick's fundraiser in the spring and 
the Read-a-thon would be good for a  different time of year. We can do 
more on social media to promote it. Patti also suggested that we  do 
something to help people understand that even if they can't read, they 
can still seek donations  from their friends and families to support 
whoever else is reading. Denise suggested that those of  us who are 
Braille readers if we could tie it to Braille Readers are Leaders so 
that people  participating in that can get people to sponsor you. Dave 
said that we did the time that we did  either October or November 
because we considered it to be a Chicago Chapter Meet the Blind Month  
activity. There were some folks that did not participate this year 
because we had to do it via  conference call and the reason we had to 
do it that way was that the Zoom account was still in  transition at 
the time of the event. That no longer is an issue. The Zoom account is 
presently in  place. It might be best that if we do have a Read-a-thon, 
that we use the Zoom platform to do it,  because, in that way, we can 
simply do it from where we are. We don't have to congregate anywhere.  
During the last several years, we have set up this event where we had a 
$10 entry fee for anyone  choosing to read. But, if they were able to 
raise more than $10 from others, that $10 admission fee would be 
waived. Dave asked us to keep this in the back of our  minds. If you do 
have any thoughts on this, let Dave know.

Old Business: Eileen noticed that there were scooters in her 
neighborhood that are attached to  poles and the Lime scooters are in 
Braille and the Bird scooters do not have Braille on them. Dave  stated 
that from his understanding, that all companies were to provide both 
Braille and large print  contact information on their scooters. Debbie 
replied yes, the scooters are to have Braille and  raised print which 
will be legible to large print readers and legible to some people who 
cannot  read large print but don't know Braille. Steve says that we 
have another meeting coming up on  12/22. It seems like the people 
running it are dismissive of the concerns of the blind community. We  
have a resolution on the website, so we can go tell them to consult our 
resolution that expresses  NFB's concern. We have a state resolution 
and a national resolution on the subject. Debbie raised  the concern 
about scooters parallel to the quiet automobile advocacy that we have 
done and nobody  seemed to know or care about that. Debbie and Steve 
attended the last advisory committee meeting. The people running that 
activity have not contacted Debbie or Steve. Denise did write to the  
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities in 2019 asking them to make 
sure that any people  entering as contractors for the scooters to make 
sure that they were marked with Braille and large  print so that people 
would know where to call in case there was a problem and also make sure 
that  the AP was accessible. Now that was in Round 1 of the testing and 
then in early January, the city  said that it was going to engage in 
Round 2 of the testing. Denise knew that Lime had put Braille  on their 
scooters, but she did not know about the rest of the carriers. We may 
need to reach out to  the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities 
to remind them about our concerns as far as  reporting. The other thing 
is that Denise heard on the news that the City is supposed to do a  
survey of citizens citywide to get their comments or their feelings 
about the scooters. The news  report did not say when the survey would 
be started or how people would be able to go online to  take the 
survey. If we can ever find out where that survey is, it would give us 
a chance to take  the survey and register any comments that we have 
about scooters. Marilyn commented that this would  be a wonderful 
opportunity for the Chicago Chapter to reach out to Commissioner Arfa 
particularly  on this item, because if Lime was doing it and the other 
scooter companies are not and they are  allowed to operate in the City 
of Chicago and Mayor Lightfoot has stated that she wants Chicago to  be 
the most accessible city in the country. This is definitely an issue 
that we should address to  Commissioner Arfa's Office whether it's a 
letter to her or a phone call inviting her to a future  chapter meeting 
to express the concerns that we have. Denise said the pilot project may 
be over.  They will survey and then it will be time for Mayor Lightfoot 
to make a decision as to whether she  is going to allow them in. Steve 
commented that we needed to get this to the city officials, so  when 
they bring this program back after the winter months, they have this 
requirement for the  operators of these scooters. It seems that Lime 
has taken our concerns seriously unlike some of  these other service 
providers. Marilyn said that it's important that we get ahead of this 
and if we  make our concerns known to the Mayor's Office, she has 
jurisdiction to determine and to let these  companies know that in the 
next pilot, for, if they are going to operate in the City of Chicago,  
these are the requirements and, hopefully, she will put forth some type 
of censuring for them if  they don't do as asked if they don't provide 
Braille, large print, raised letters, whatever the  case might be, that 
some type of sanctioning for them. Kira states that the legislative 
committee  will take action either having Steve or someone appointed or 
herself prior to the December 22  meeting.

New Business: Horacio Esparza, executive director of the Progress 
Center, thanked us for the  invitation to the meeting. He has been at 
the Progress Center for 21 years. Prior to working at the  Progress 
Center, he worked at ICRE Wood for a couple of years providing Spanish 
translation for  anyone who needed it. In 1994-1995, he formed a 
support group for the visually impaired who were  undocumented and were 
not eligible for any services and he was teaching them Braille,as well 
as orientation and mobility. Recently he has been appointed to serve on 
the Blind Services Planning Council. Horacio  said that under their 
internship program, they recruited many blind and visually impaired 
people at  the Progress Center.

The meeting adjourned at 3:01 pm.

Respectfully submitted: Eileen F. Truschke, Secretary, Chicago Chapter
Date