Highlights from the Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities
By Christina Clift
The Housing, Accessibility, and Recreation committee is busy working to amend the city of Memphis ordinance that was passed two years ago that ensures all newly built single-family housing be visitable. Visitability is a no-step entrance to a home and all doorways must be at least 32 inches wide.
This ordinance is often refereed to as the Visit Ability Ordinance. The committee hopes to amend the ordinance to include a usable bathroom on the first floor also. To get more information on how you can become involved with this committee please contact chairperson: Louis Patrick via e-mail at lpat@aol.com.
The Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities Employment and Education Committee was proud to partner with Shelby County Schools to make this year's Disability Mentoring Day a success. This has been the best year since the beginning of observing Disability Mentoring Day with 500 high school students and 39 companies participating in the event.
DMD was held on Wednesday October 26, 2016 and students from across Shelby County were given the opportunity to get a glimpse at possible jobs. Companies that participated in this year's Disability Mentoring Day included: Marshall's, Gordon’s Body Shop, Goodwill Industries, Memphis Humane Society, Palazola Produce, Deaf Connect, At Home, Incredible Pizza, FedEx Ground, Lit Restaurant Supply Co., Hicks Convention Service, Spring Creek Ranch, Medtronic, Memphis Zoo, Marriot Hotel, Ave' Maria House, Hilton Hotel Memphis, Sam’s Club, Well Child, WalMart, Workforce Investment Network, Shelby County Schools Telecommunications, WMC TV, Sweet Potato Baby Cafe, 6 Home Depot locations, 5 Lowe’s locations, 2 Nike locations, and 2 Memphis Redbirds areas.
A big thanks to those companies who've partnered for this event since the beginning and welcome aboard to those companies who participated for the first time. To become a part of this committee please contact chairperson: Veronica MacKinney via e-mail at vmac@utk.edu.
The Disability Awareness Committee is currently awaiting official approval of a new brochure that will inform individuals about who and what the Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities is and does. They are also currently developing a town hall listening tour to provide information about existing policies that impact people with disabilities and to gather feedback from the community about problems they encounter in their everyday lives. The town hall meetings will be held at locations around the city to ensure maximum participation and input by the disability community. For more information contact chairperson: Christina Clift via e-mail at christina@mcil.org.
The Transportation committee is working with MATA to begin gathering information and reports on how MATA is doing. They will look at performance indicators such as on-time performance, hold times, late trips, and more. This partnership is new but exciting to watch. To become involved with this committee contact Chairperson: Louis Patrick via e-mail at lpat@aol.com.
MATA to select members of the Transit Advisory Committee
By Tim Wheat
MATA is looking to riders to advise on system changes starting 2017. The Transportation Advisory Committee will work with MATA staff to provide feedback on the quality of MATA’s transit planning, service delivery, and operations.
MATA claims that people with disabilities will be on TAC and they will include MATAplus riders and explore ADA issues. The committee will be comprised of eleven members, and will meet at least four times a year. Each member will serve for a year, and will have an opportunity to re-apply to serve for a maximum of five terms.
TAC has no real authority and does not set regulations or policy. Volunteer TAC members will make recommendations to MATA staff for solutions to problems that are identified and acting as a sounding board for policies and plans.
MATA asks that to apply you should read the TAC Bylaws. The applications to MATA may be submitted in person or via US mail to MATA headquarters at: Memphis Area Transit Authority, Attn: TAC Application, 1370 Levee Rd. Memphis, TN 38108. Applications may also be submitted to the customer service desk at any of MATA’s three main transit centers during normal customer service hours, or via email to TAC@matatransit.com. All applications must be submitted or postmarked no later than Friday, December 2, 2016.
MCIL is aware of one program to help eligible households get low-cost web service.
By Michael Heinrich
AT&T is offering low-cost wireline home Internet service to qualifying households:
- With at least one resident who participates in the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and
- With an address in AT&T’s 21-state service area, at which we offer wireline home Internet service, and
- Without outstanding debt for AT&T fixed Internet service within the last six months or outstanding debt incurred under this program.
Find out more at https://www.att.com/shop/internet/access/#/
If you qualify, you will pay either $5 or $10 per month (depending on the speed available at your residence). The offer includes:
- No commitment,
- No deposit,
- No installation fee,
- In-home Wi-Fi gateway and access to the entire national AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spot network,
- No equipment rental.
If the residence already has AT&T internet, you can still get the lower rate by switching to this program.
It appears that this offer is real. One friend of MCIL who met the qualifications and already had AT&T internet service made the switch and not only got cost savings but also a faster internet connection at the same time. Another friend of MCIL who did not have internet service at all signed up for the program. She verified that there was no charge for the installation and equipment and now has internet service in her home.
USDOJ finalizes rules for theaters and captioning
By Tim Wheat
Earlier this week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed a final rule related to closed movie captioning and audio description that will enable people with hearing and vision disabilities to have access to movies. The new rule revises the Justice Department's Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III regulation to further clarify a public accommodations obligation to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services for people with disabilities.
The Final Rule requires movie theaters to: (1) have and maintain the equipment necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description at a movie patron’s seat whenever showing a digital movie produced, distributed, or otherwise made available with these features; (2) provide notice to the public about the availability of these features; and (3) ensure that theater staff is available to assist patrons with the equipment before, during, and after the showing of a movie with these features.
The rule does not require all theaters to provide captioning. Only certain movie theaters that contain one or more auditoriums that are used primarily for the purpose of showing movies to the public for a fee. The specific requirements of this rule, however, do not apply to any movie theater that shows only analog movies in all of its auditoriums. IMAX produced movies are typically “analog” and do not have description or caption tracks. Additionally, drive-in theaters are excluded in the definition.
Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations, including movie theaters, to provide effective communication through the use of auxiliary aids and services. This rulemaking specifies requirements that movie theaters must meet to satisfy their effective communication obligations to people with hearing and vision disabilities unless compliance results in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. A single auditorium should have 4 captioning devices and a multiplex should have increasingly more so that a sixteen screen theater would have at least a dozen captioning devices. Description devices are less frequent. One description device for a single screen and at least eight for a 16 screen multiplex.
An advance copy of the final rule, as well as an FAQ on the rule, are available on the Department's ADA website. The Department intends to publish the final rule in the Federal Register in the near future, and the final rule will take effect 45 days after publication. For more information about this rule, please visit the Department's ADA website (www.ada.gov) or call the ADA Information Line: Voice: 1-800-514-0301; TTY: 1-800-514-3083.
