Commission on Disabilities
3rd meeting
2/24/05, 3-4 PM

Present: Georgia Keeney, Penny Cragun, Roger Petry, Trudie Hughes, Pam Griffin, Ken Norstrud, Raj Karim, Mags David, Elee Vang, Rob Weidner, Debra Petersen-Perlman, Judy Bromen

Excused: John Weiski, Beth Esselstrom, Maria Campanaro

Minutes approved from 11/30/04

New business
1. Penny Cragun asked for money for two upcoming events
a. Deaf Duckling: brought in by Mixed Blood Theatre. UMD's portion is $900.00. The Commission might pay for a reception. Georgia stated we have $600.00 in the budget but will not need all that money for the reception. When AFA and other UMD groups figure out how much money they will need, they'll send a request to the Commission. The event is scheduled 7pm April 20th - appropriate for all ages
b. Annual Student Recognition Reception scheduled for April 27th for multicultural students, who are student leaders and scholarship winners. $500.00 is already in our budget to use for this event.
Other Business
* Northern Bridges (a regional group of college disabilities services professionals) and UMD Disability Service staff are working together to assist K-12 special ed. staff help high school students make transition to college. Meeting for this group scheduled for March 29th.
* AFA - disability crash course March 9th in Kirby Ballroom 10-4. Booths will be set up for simulations across disabilities such as assistive technology, dogs who assist the blind or deaf. A wheelchair obstacle course will also be set up. Appropriate for classes to attend.
* ITSS - web accessibility online course by Laura Carlson and Bruce Reeves.
* Transportation issues for accessible vans for field trips. UMD past policy to rent accessible van for local events e.g., transporting students to health services or pick up guest speakers. Now have students needing transportation for field trips for classes. Twin Cities has 1 car, but not available. Voyager, a local company has small buses to rent. Business office prefers to pay for local vendor instead of purchasing a vehicle for the campus. Accessible transportation is important to consider so students can go as a group with their class instead of being excluded from events. Need to revise annual transportation letter sent by Greg Fox and check language to encourage faculty and students to make accommodations. Suggestion is to link from faculty web page to appropriate web page to arrange for accessible transportation.
* Interpreters are often late for classes due to parking problems. Problem is that interpreters do not always work full time and they change from semester to semester. There is no parking available now, but need to look into spaces for next year. Possibly buy a gold sticker to ensure a space. Suggestion to provide hoods that can be secured on the meters that indicate interpreter. Also possibly get the space that is for the Achievement Center.
* Door problem in Marshall Hall at entrance to Life Science on first floor, Split door is difficult for wheelchairs to get through. Pam will re-submit with facilities to change doors. Georgia will send a draft email to the commission addressing the issues with the Director of Facilities.
* Another door problem is the entry way doors to the Tweed - too heavy to open and need power operated doors. Problem maybe the funding issues since Tweed is separate from the university.
* Complaint - elevator in the dorms closes at 12 midnight. Students can get a key to access this.
* Recent complaint that people w/out disabilities are using the disabled bathroom stalls in restrooms. Can't solve this problem because you can't tell if a person has a disability or not.
* Mags is chairing the new campus wide assistive tech team. One problem is that library staff is not trained to use the technology and we do not have 1 person to call if problems arise with assistive tech. Now have a team working on a resource list on what's available and who to contact. Need to make faculty aware of resources to refer students to.
* Pam, Judy, & Roger are putting something together for a booth at the TechFest.
* Pam has a couple of students who formed a support group for anxiety, depression and other psychological problems. Meet at 4pm on Wed. in 264 Kirby.
* Debra P. - Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention, have access to films. Also announced upcoming annual events related to the holocaust; list is posted on the web and more publicity will be coming. March 29 - Ap. 2nd Holocaust film series. April 16th Ghost of Rwanda

Adjourned at 4 PM
Next meeting to be arranged, week of April 4-8.