Committees, committees

Blog post 1

Committees, committees

I am on two committees through my work with the City.  One of them is the at the departmental level and is concerned with equity and human rights and the other is the quarterly accessibility round table. 

The first group is involved in imagining an organization that furthers social justice, equity, accessibility, dignity, sustainability, diversity & inclusion.  This group devises action plans and is accountable for the completion of efforts to make the organization all that it can be.  I have been on the committee for many years and helped create a City Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan and this was the basis for the departmental effort.  We created subcommittees and a five-year plan for our department.  We continue to meet such goals as creating online lists of language resources for serving clients who do not use English and putting Big Shot (magnifier) on all computers. This group is eager to hear what I have learned in my courses and helps me implement projects furthering Universal Access.  The members of this group are like-minded and interested in equity and access, both physical and informational, for all.  Being a permanent manager now, I have more power as far as monetary and authority to allocate funds and employee work toward supporting Universal Access principles.  It is exciting and energizing to be a part of this committee and its work.

The other group is concerned with our meeting the Americans With Disabilities Act requirements.  At our meeting last week we discussed the amendments to the ADA and what we still needed to do to meet the requirements.  We had two new members, one from the sidewalks group and one from Human Resources.  As we talked I shared some of what I am learning in Project ALFA and asked the group to please remind me of our narrow scope if I head off on a Universal Access tangent from time to time.  Forest, from sidewalks, asked me what that was and I told him a bit about it and how it relates back to Universal Design theory.  He apparently knew the term Universal Design but did not know the background and history of Universal Design as conceived of by Ronald L. Mace.  Forest was energized by what I was talking about and practically shouted “…but if we do Universal Design and Access we WILL be meeting the ADA, so why don’t we just do that?”  His exclamation almost made me laugh; ah, though it were that simple. The convener explains that we have to balance how many people what we do will help with out limited budget.  She explains how the City uses the ADA as a baseline, as a guideline.  If we do less than the ADA requires we are breaking the law, if we do more, we have to solidly explain what we do as responsible stewards of public money.   I want to get to the committee that decided the scope of the Quarterly Roundtable; that is where I want to gain a seat.  I want to affect that group the same way I was able to reach Forest.  The look on his face was amazing; it was like I was telling him what he had wanted to hear all of his life.   I remember that feeling.

 I am learning what I have wanted to learn all of my life.  I remember in Dr. Maatta’s course last year thinking “I have been working for equity and human rights for years and I am learning information I have never even thought existed” I’ll remember being amazed this year in both of Dr. Bonnici’s courses learning the benefits of making, not only libraries, but everything accessible to everyone.  Dr. Bonnici gently brings me back to the Universal principle when I start talking about setting up adaptive tech stations or other segregation model ideas.  I remember listening to Tim Emmons talk about how if everyone used Apple’s concept of building accessibility into, well everything, from the ground up instead of trying to overlay something onto a finished product that it would be far less expensive and time consuming.  The courses and the educational opportunities afforded me by Project ALFA have given me a new strength in looking at technology, procedures, policies, collection development and interpersonal interactions.

The personal change that has come about by my participation in Project ALFA has helped keep the ideas flowing in one of the committees I sit on, while making the other committee seem antiquated.

I will end my blog posts with two quotes

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

Mahatma Gandhi

"That’s okay; they give up an inch. I will take that inch. I will take that inch and the next one and I will never give up. I will keep moving forward inch by inch if that is what it takes. No one can keep me from my righteous journey."

Rayna Luvert (one of my fellow committee members)

http://www.udinstitute.org/