Advisory Commission on Disabilities

400 S. Eagle Street City of Naperville Naperville, IL 60540 Meeting Minutes - Final Advisory Commission on Disabilities Wednesday, February 5, 2020 6:30 PM Meeting Room A A. CALL TO ORDER: B. ROLL CALL: Present 9- Mikel Briggs, A. Rae Elegant, Daniel Fumagalli, Michael Heyden, Paul Hinterlong, Suhel Siddiqui, Barbara Ann Stark, Abigail Granato, and Delaney Chitwood Absent 1- Sheri Baumgartner C. PUBLIC FORUM: There were no speakers for Public Forum. D. OLD BUSINESS: There were no items discussed. E. NEW BUSINESS: The commission discussed the potential to partner with the Accessible Community Task Force to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the approval of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which is occuring in July. No decisions were made, but staff will look into options for moving forward. Commissioner Stark provided a written copy of the ACTF Report to the ACD. The report is as follows: National Voter’s Registration Month -July 2020. The ACTF will be making plans (possibly with the LWV) to have an event to assist people with disabilities get registered to vote. The plan is to hold the event during the week of July 13-July 17 to coincide with National Disability Voter Registration Week. ACTF member Mary Hamill will meet with the president of the Naperville League of Women Voters to determine the next steps. Potential plans discussed included bringing voting machines/equipment from DuPage and Will counties to practice on and going to election sites to verify accessibility for people with disabilities, possibly including volunteers from civic classes at local high schools. Caring Hands Program. The ACTF had met with Jim Pacetti, Crime Prevention Specialist for the NPD, over the past few months to advise on the new program “Caring Hands: A Naperville Public Safety Program”. The program went live in early November 2019 and is now on the City webpage with a media blitz planned for the near future. In addition, brochures have been printed and are ready for distribution to the public at large. The ACTF asked Jim to add “mental City of Naperville Page 1 Printed on 11/2/2020 Advisory Commission on Disabilities Meeting Minutes - Final February 5, 2020 disabilities” to the literature as one of the population groups that can benefit from this program. In addition, the ACTF will reach out to community groups to help publicize “Caring Hands”. We expressed our appreciation to Jim Pacetti for guiding this program to its completion. Best Buddies Naperville Community Citizens Chapter. This newly formed group reached out by email to the ACTF asking for our help in publicizing this organization and recruiting adult Buddy peers from the Naperville community. Best Buddies recognizes that the recruitment of volunteers will be the largest challenge to this program’s success. The Best Buddies Citizen’s Chapter creates one-to-one friendships between adults with and without Individual Developmental Disabilities (IDD) in the community. These opportunities for friendship and inclusion are especially important to adults with IDD, who have limited opportunities to stay involved as they age. By matching volunteers with and without IDD in friendships, hosting engaging community events and creating matches, the Best Buddies Citizen’s program strives to create an inclusive and diverse community for all. The ACTF stated that we would do whatever we can to support this worthwhile cause. 30th Anniversary of ADA (July 2020). The American’s With Disability Act was signed into law in July of 1990 and will therefore be celebrating its 30th anniversary in July of 2020. The ACTF has found literature offering monthly ideas for action leading up to July 2020. The ACTF would love to, and thinks we should, partner with the ACD in planning and carrying out a July 2020 event for Naperville to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this milestone legislation. 2020 Resource Fair. The 2020 Resource Fair, co-sponsored by School Districts 203 and 204 will be held on the evening of March 11, 2020 at Neuqua Valley High School. The initial planning meeting was held on October 22. A list of potential vendors will be sent invitations to attend the fair. Potential speakers are being determined. There will be a respite room which was well received at last year’s fair. The next meeting was held on December 10 and Mary attended representing the ACTF. 1. Approve the minutes of the November 6, 2019 ACD meeting. A motion was made by Siddiqui, seconded by Fumagalli, to approve the regular minutes of the November 6, 2019 meeting of the ACD. The motion carried by a unanimous vote. 2. Consider the existing ADA parking in downtown and conduct a group activity to make recommendations for potential modifications. The ACD participated in a tabletop exercise to consider changes to the number and distribution of the accessible parking spaces serving the downtown area. By working together and informally discussing various options for changes, consensus was reached on leaving the spaces in the parking facilities, but adding on-street spaces to reduce the distance from a parking space to a destination. Overall, the group felt that 300 feet as measured along an accessible pedestrian route is a reasonable maximum distance for an individual with disabilities to walk to a business. Fifteen proposed locations were identified City of Naperville Page 2 Printed on 11/2/2020 Advisory Commission on Disabilities Meeting Minutes - Final February 5, 2020 on a map of the downtown. These locations will be reviewed by staff and provided to the public for comment at an upcoming public hearing. A final proposal including locations and an implementation schedule will be provided to the City Council for consideration later in the year. 3. Receive a staff report from the ADA Compliance Team Peter Zibble, city staff liaison to the commission, provided an update from the City’s ADA Compliance Team. The ADA Compliance Team consists of a group of city staff members representing different departments that work together to address issues that impact accessibility to Naperville facilities, programs and operations. Mayor’s Office - The Mayor’s Office will be accepting resumes for the vacancy left by Commissioner Baumgartner who resigned from the ACD effective January 5, 2020. It is assumed that the new commissioner will be selected and start their term on June 1. City Clerk’s Office - Ruth Broder, Community Grants Coordinator for the city, provided a brief overview of the CDBG Consolidated Plan. She indicated that funds from the grant could be used to improve ADA accessibility for public facilities. She asked the commissioners to email her with any thoughts they might have on potential improvements. Gary Smith, ACTF Chair and attendee, asked if the money could be used for a general grant program for individuals to make improvements to their own homes, or if it could be used to fund removal of wheel stops throughout the city. Community Relations - No updates. Department of Public Works - One of their projects for 2020 includes exterior accessibility improvements at the Police Department. Additional information will be brought to the commission as it becomes available. Legal Department - Update on formal grievance filed with the city regarding the city’s social media policy and the lack of access to many posts by those individuals with visual impairments that rely on screen readers. City staff has acknowledged the issue and will address it by the end of February. All images used to convey information to the public will either have a supplemental written description, associated alt text linked to the image, or a link to another web site that provides the information provided in the photo. Police Department - An update was provided on the Caring Hands program, a voluntary program that provides first responders with additional information to help them meet the needs of residents who are dealing with developmental, intellectual, medical or physical disabilities. Staff is pleased with the participation which included 68 individuals as of the end of January. Transportation & Engineering - Provided an update to the commission on ADA parking spaces. To comply with the state and federal accessibility codes that allow a shared striped aisle for two accessible parking spaces, city standards will be modified to allow for that configuration. The justification was that if vehicles are prohibited from parking in the striped aisle area, as is stated in the Illinois Vehicle Code, then there is very little benefit gained from requiring a City of Naperville Page 3 Printed on 11/2/2020 Advisory Commission on Disabilities Meeting Minutes - Final February 5, 2020 dedicated aisle for each space. Also, there is concern about conflicting codes creating confusion for designers and property owners. The commissioners voiced concerns that the change would require more vehicles to back into spaces to align their ramps and lifts with the aisle thus creating difficulties for drivers. This information will be conveyed to city staff who will continue to monitor usage, compliance, and complaints to determine if the implemented change should be reversed. F. REPORTS: There were no reports presented. G. ADJOURNMENT: A motion was made by Elegant, seconded by Stark, to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried by a unanimous vote. City of Naperville Page 4 Printed on 11/2/2020