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Members & Officers as of January 1, 2004: Kathy Allen, Celeste Andrade (Secretary), Susan Burgess, Ray Glazier (Chair), Laurie Graham, Janet Macdonald (Vice Chair), Carole Williams. Associate Members: Art Heron, William Rodi, Francis Williams.
Members & Officers as of 31 December 2004: Kathy Allen, Celeste Andrade (Secretary), Ray Glazier (Chair), Laurie Graham, Joan Hantman, Janet Macdonald (Vice Chair), Carole Williams. Associate Members: Art Heron, William Rodi, Francis Williams.
The Disability Access Commission’s membership changed somewhat with the resignation of Susan Burgess, who moved to the Washington, D.C. area to take a federal government job. Subsequently, the Board of Selectmen appointed Joan Hantman a new Member of the Commission. Ms. Hantman brings to the Commission over 20 years of experience with mental retardation and other disabilities as a staff person at the Fernald Center, formerly known as the Fernald State School. The Disability Access Commission held six (6) publicly posted meetings during the year: on 15 January, 11 March, 13 May, 23 June, 9 September, and 2 December.
The Commission continued its active monitoring of the renovations of both the Town Hall Annex (formerly the Homer School, to be rededicated as the Homer Municipal Building) and the School Administration Building (formerly the Underwood Library) through Ray Glazier’s participation as the Commission representative on the Town Hall Complex Building Committee (THCBC). A major change to the original design of the Town Hall Complex site was reviewed, viz., alternative footpaths across the Memorial Park green from the Belmont Savings Bank property line to the new, accessible main entrance of the historic Town Hall. This change was occasioned by the discovery that elevations at the site were different from plot plans, making the original walkway plan infeasible. Options presented by the project architect were reviewed by Art Heron
and Ray Glazier, and the optimally accessible design was recommended to, and approved by the THCBC.
The 50% Construction Set of drawings for the two new Fire Stations was provided by Donham & Sweeney, the project architects, for accessibility review by the Commission. Fran Williams and Ray Glazier performed the review, then prepared and submitted on 10 August an Access Review Memorandum of recommendations for both the Trapelo Road facility and the Leonard Street site.
The Commission responded to a reduction in the number of designated HP parking spaces in the East parking lot at Belmont High School in November, advising those responsible of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) requirements in this regard. The situation was remedied through the cooperation of Dr. Gerald Missal, Director of Finance and Administration for the Belmont Public Schools.
The Commission appointed Vice Chair Janet Macdonald as its liaison with the Senior Center Building Committee. A liaison with the Library Committee has yet to be assigned. In view of the number of current and upcoming Town building projects, the Commission wrote a letter to Town Moderator Henry Hall on October 12th stating staffing constraints to Disability Access Commission attendance at all Building Committee meetings and suggesting that Commission members with architectural access expertise be brought into each Building Committee’s deliberations only at crucial junctures in their proceedings where this expertise is needed.
The Commission continued to operate its Disability Assistance Program (617-489-8266), matching the unmet assistance needs of residents with disabilities with volunteers in community service, with the exceptions of personal care or emergency services. Commission Secretary Celeste Andrade continued to act as volunteer Program Coordinator during the first half of the year, with Laurie Graham assuming those duties from that point on. Few inquiries for assistance or volunteers to provide it were received during the first half of the year. To address this matter, Joan Hantman began distribution of 2,000 yellow Disability Assistance Program flyers to hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets, doctors’ offices, etc. The Commission continued to coordinate assistance activities with Belmont High School’s Community Service
Program through Alice Melnikoff.
Over the summer, an informal Commission subcommittee met to select disability awareness videos for purchase as additions to the Commission’s lending library for schools and community groups. However, expansion plans were tabled until a suitable storage and distribution space can be arranged, perhaps through the School Department. Ray Glazier prepared a handout on the mission and membership of the Belmont Disability Access Commission, which Laurie Graham and Celeste Andrade distributed at the “Meet Belmont” welcome to new arrivals in Town, held at the Belmont Memorial Library on August 31st. [This flyer, which features the Disability Access Commission Mission Statement, adopted in May, appears below.] Plans were laid for the initiation of a Disability Speakers Bureau to be developed and
coordinated by Commission Secretary Celeste Andrade; the Speakers Bureau will constitute a list of speakers willing to address classes and community group meetings on specific disability topics, along with brief biographical statements and contact information for each individual.
The Commission commemorated October as Disability Awareness Month with a joint display with the Special Education Advisory Council at the Belmont Memorial Library. Town citizens were apprised of Disability Access Commission activities and Ms. Hantman’s appointment in an update article in the local newspaper, as well as a Guest Perspective piece entitled “Inching Toward a More Accessible World” on the Op-Ed pages of the Belmont Citizen-Herald. [See below.]
Mission Statement
“The Belmont Disability Access Commission is dedicated to protecting the rights of all Belmont citizens, of all ages and with the full range of all abilities and disabilities (specifically including “hidden disabilities”), fully to access Town services and programs, to educating Town officials and the general citizenry about disability issues, to promoting the full inclusion of all persons with diverse disabilities in community life, and to the promotion of their general welfare.”
- adopted 13 May 2004
The Belmont Disability Access Commission is a body of volunteers appointed by the Board of Selectmen; we have no staff or Town funding. But you may leave us a message at our Town Hall number 617-489-8266, which is checked on a regular basis. (See over also, if you have a disability and need help, or if you are interested in volunteer work with Belmont residents with disabilities.)
Members: Kathy Allen, Celeste Andrade (Sec’ty), Ray Glazier (Chair), Laurie Graham, Joan Hantman, Janet Macdonald (Vice Chair), Carole Williams.
Associate Members: Art Heron, Bill Rodi, Fran Williams.
Belmont’s Disability Assistance Program
The Belmont Disability Access Commission initiated the all-volunteer, person-to-person Belmont Disability Assistance Program in 2002. This program is conceived as a way of matching up the unmet assistance needs of town residents with disabilities with the available time and talents of the “temporarily able-bodied” among us. We say “temporary” because disability is an equal-opportunity proposition that can affect any one of us in a flash. And disability is the common destiny of each and every one of us, if we live long enough. Yet disability need not be dreadful or devastating, if appropriate assistance is available.
We know that Belmont residents with disabilities of all ages have everyday assistance needs that are not adequately met by existing service programs, even when combined with the volunteer efforts of family and friends. Typical needs that disabled persons of all ages share with senior citizens are for companionship and help in getting out and about their community, as well as for chores like lawn mowing, leaf raking, snow shoveling, errand running, transportation to shopping, proxy shopping for groceries, etc. Even changing a light bulb in a ceiling fixture is an insurmountable task for someone in a wheelchair, for example. A person with blindness might need daily, or every-other-day reader services to read the mail, sorting out the personal and bills from all the junk, or to read the Belmont-Citizen-Herald aloud,
getting the local news not available on network TV.
Community service is a very fulfilling activity, and it doesn’t have to be a large block of time. Dropping by to change that light bulb, to bring in the mail, or to deliver the few extra items you bought for someone while doing your own shopping takes little effort. But it means so very much to the person who can’t do those things for himself/herself. Our youth are learning this through fulfilling their Community Service requirements at the middle school and the high school. In fact, the Disability Assistance Program is offered to students in cooperation with these existing school programs. Interested students can sign up for service at the Middle School or at the High School, where Alice Melnikoff is the coordinator.
If you are a town resident with any kind of disability – mobility, vision, hearing, learning, cognitive, affective, chronic illness – and have a need for company or help other than personal care or emergency services, please phone the Disability Access Commission’s Disability Assistance Line at Town Hall: 617-489-8266. Since the Commission is an appointed volunteer body with no operating budget or office staff, you will need to leave us a brief message. Please give your name and phone number, the nature of your disability, and the particular kind of help you need. A commission volunteer will make every effort to get back with you within 24 hours to try to schedule the assistance.
If you are “temporarily able-bodied” and want to devote as little as a half hour of your time to making a real difference in the life of someone else, please call 617-489-8266, leaving your name and phone number, what sorts of assistance you can offer, and the hours and days you are available. Our job is to match up assistance offers with needs.
Respectfully submitted,
Raymond E. Glazier, Ph.D., Chairman
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