EASTHAMPTON – The Commission on Disability (COD) is a  city-appointed committee that promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.

The commission provides public outreach and education on disabilities, recommends changes to increase access to all in municipal, business, and public buildings and sites; works with the city and the business sector for accommodations that will benefit all people; reviews proposals and recommend changes it feels necessary for the well-being of disabled persons within the community; and works to increase awareness and community cooperation. The commisson performs these duties while also serving as a resource for information about the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The commission has been around for more than a decade, but COD Chair Angelique Baker said the commission was not particularly active until she joined six years ago.

“My experience has been, we are there, and we are there before we have to be there, but it did not really feel like we were doing anything, to be quite frank. I did not feel the excitement, the motivation,” Baker said.

The main focus was finding violations such as door weight capacity and parking spots before she came on. Baker said that this seemed only to cover physical disabilities.

Baker’s goal as chair is to bring the public information such as letting people know who COD is, what they do, what agencies are out there to help with all of the different disabilities, and how they can access them.

“I want people to feel empowered, I want people to feel like there is hope, and that there are resources,” she said.

Besides the informational piece that Baker is trying to improve, her mission is to make this a more well-rounded committee. She would like to take out the stigma surrounding disability and help the city where they need help in the disability component.

“I think it is a good idea if we all collaborate. We are all working for Easthampton; we all want the same thing. We want Easthampton folks to be happy and have what they need to survive and stay here. Why not bring on the commission in these projects? We can bring a different perspective,” she said.

City Planner Jeffrey Bagg is the commission’s ADA coordinator. Baker shared that he has been applying for grants that would allow money to renovate some buildings in the city to meet standards and accommodate people with disabilities.

To emphasize the importance of collaboration, Baker mentioned that Mayor Nicole LaChapelle informed Baker that people had told her that the stoplights that blink fast cause people to have seizures. Baker expressed that collaborating is the only way to go because everyone has knowledge and specialties to share.

While the commission cannot make changes independently, Baker sees her job as brainstorming ideas for change and listening to people.

“I think listening to somebody and hearing them out is the first step because that is what people want. They want to be acknowledged and heard so I can at least offer that piece in my limited capacity,” Baker said.

One thing that COD cannot do is work with the schools and students who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 plan, a plan for how the school will support a student with a disability and remove learning barriers. The goal is to give the student equal access at school.

Those having trouble with the school, such as their child not receiving the services they need, cannot call COD for representation to help. Baker said she could give parents or guardians the numbers to agencies that can help, but that is all she can do.

The COD has created a one, three, and five-year plan that essentially categorizes changes for how long they will take to complete.

The commission is currently working on getting closed captioning (CC) for the city. Kelsey Hall, the commission’s recording clerk who also works in the field of accessibility and disability inclusion, said they are representing and supporting their disabled community members, which means that everyone should have access.

Hall continued to ask why should people with disabilities only have access to what COD is doing; they should also have access to what the city is doing.

She added that CC should be availabilty for everyone, whether people are deaf, hard of hearing, someone whose primary language is not English, a mother who is trying to put their child to sleep and listen at the same time, or in a house full of noise.

“These types of meetings that are happening at our city level include information that could absolutely impact every citizen, so why are we leaving people out,” she added.

Hall stated that it is best practice to have universal access and not wait until they know someone needs the assistance to provide CC.

“We should not have to require someone to request that they need something and hope that we can scrap around to get it, it should just be available especially when it comes to things like a city that has implications for citizens who pay taxes to the city, who are here because they want to be here but they are actively paying taxes, so why would we shut them out from being able to understand what is going on,” Hall said.

Hall acknowledged that the city may not have thought about it, but now that COD has brought it to their attention, she said that the city should be mindful of it and act on it.

“I think the Commission on Disability is kind of buried in all of this city stuff, and we are like ‘hey, can someone pay attention’. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and we are desperately trying to find any type of resource,” Hall said.

Hall said they should provide compliant captioning versus automated captioning because automated captioning does not capture punctuation and grammar check causing it to impact people’s understandability. Automated captioning does not go by context, so if it does not pick up the conversation correctly, it can be offensive or cause miscommunication.

Hall told Reminder Publishing that two kinds of CC offered. The first is real-time captioning for live events or meetings. The second is sending out your pre-recorded content to add captioning. For people who are blind, there is an option to have an audio description that provides auditory overlays for content to provide a visual depiction of what is going on.

While prices in services range, Hall said the commission does not have a budget to purchase CC, and it would be most impactful if the city went to a company and got into a contract with them.  She added that the company might give the town a bulk price or negotiate costs versus one person looking for a fee.

“We should all be invested because it is the biggest underrepresented population in the world but also the only one that anyone could be apart of at any time,” Hall said.

The commission continues to discover their options for funding to provide CC.

The COD is also working on a survey that will help them figure out what is going on in the city that people need help with that COD does not know. They plan to get it out to the public via an online source like survey monkey and have a paper version.

The survey will consist of open-ended questions like how their experience has been with officials in the city and particular questions for the individual taking the survey. Baker noted that people could fill out the survey for someone if they know someone who needs help or someone who cannot do it themselves.

There is no date set for the survey to be available to residents, but it will be added to their action plan once it is out.

If someone needs to get a hold of the commission, you can email Bagg at jbagg@easthamptonma.gov and Baker said while she does not have the same power as Bagg, people can also reach out to her via email at lovemykids312@gmail.com.

The commission meets every first Tuesday of the month, meetings are open to the public, and agendas can be found online at www.easthamptonma.gov/agendas-minutes.

The commission has one seat available, and they are looking for someone to fill it. Interested people can find the application online at www.easthamptonma.gov/government/boards-committees/application.