Event ID: 2469192 Event Started: 10/14/2014 1:55:38 PM ET

Please stand by for realtime captions.

Hi, this is Jen Lawless an welcome to today's info session and thank you for joining us, I will give a description of the plan and then we would jump in. In today's session you will be hearing from Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts cultural counter -- counsel, Nora Nader from the Museum of Science, [ Indiscernible-muffled speaker ], and myself, the operations director at the NCC. This is the plan for today. We're going to walk through this plan, and we will try to save the questions for the end of the session. [ Indiscernible-distorted audio ]

Feel free to ask questions using the chat feature throughout the presentation, and at the end we will rephrase an answer those questions, or at the end we will have someone taking questions via audio. So you will be able to ask your questions in person as well and again I will be at the end of the presentation. I am happy to introduce Anita Walker who will kick us off.

Afternoon everybody. I am so glad to see you, with air quotes around that, joining us today with an exciting new initiative that we are calling UP it, I want to give a welcome to death the end of -- I want to give a great introduction to Beth Bienvenue, -- this is really aimed at making Massachusetts the most accessible place on the planet to participate in the arts and culture. We have been thinking about this because as we look around the globe, we recognize the fact that the United States is not the leader when it comes to accessibility.

Many other countries have eclipsed us and strategies around accessibility. We have built a lot of our strategies in this country around the Americans with disabilities act. But that is viewed by many in our field as big firms -- big bathrooms and ugly holdings and we see this as [ Indiscernible-muffled speaker ] an song concert with many of you meeting with focus groups and the national human design and some of the colleagues in the focus groups and who of gone on field trips with us, we are today launching a program that we call UP, it stands for universal laces and universal programs. We like the word UP because it really suggests a direction and not a destination.

We do not release the ultimate perfection. We see us all working together in the field and at the cultural Council to develop innovative strategies to make our cultural institutions in most accessible that they possibly can be. We will be building this effort on universal design strategy and we have wonderful work already happening here in Massachusetts and we want to call that out and recognize it. We also want to convene a cohort of learners to help us build even better strategies for the future. What I will do to get this started is to talk about what is UP, the goals and the benefits of participating, and then I will have you hear from some of our colleagues who are in our cultural portfolio to talk about some of the work they're doing and hopefully offer little bit of encouragement and enthusiasm and inspiration to become part of our new UP initiative veered Our goal is to make Massachusetts the most accessible place. In order to do that we need to build capacity in the field. Capacity means not just attention to ramps and bathrooms and facilities. It is really about a culture change within our organization am a the way that we think about accessibility, it is the way that everybody within our organization from top to bottom are all partners in an effort to be as accessible as we possibly can.

It is not about separating our audiences from those special people with special needs from the rest of us, it is really thinking about all of us in making our organizations accessible as possible. And not just from when they show up at the door, that from before they leave the house thinking about accessibility issues, the information we are providing, about the anxiety that might prevent a person from even participating because I do not know where it is, I don't how I will get there and I don't have a parking is him I don't know if I will be will part was enough or will I fit in when I get there? There are exciting strategies already being practiced in our organizations and want to explore even better ways to get people out of the house and entire organizations.

You are going to be designing these and we will be sharing these stories and successes and best actresses as we all learn about them together. The goal is really to support innovation and cultural change within our organizations to embrace inclusive in the as truly core to the work. There are three ways to participate in UP and we divided into three opportunities. One is an innovation in learning network. The second is an UP designation, and the third is our UP award.

Let me walk you briefly for them so you can have an overview of what each of the components are about a little bit later on Jen will walk specifically for each of the elements to tell you how to apply if interested. The innovation and learning network is designed in a copy of the participation learning network that the Massachusetts cultural Council did in partnership with the Wallace foundation couple of years ago, some of you may have participated if that. We know the one we learned together we really inspire each other and we really can make great strides.

We're going to be selecting 10 organizations to participate in the innovation learning network. These organizations will represent a diversity of size, discipline, geography, and these are organizations that will meet as a group over the course of the year, identify a specific access challenge within their organization, and works behind -- or to find a solution. By participating first of all you will find a full cohort of friends and people to get acquainted with and we found with the participation learning network that people years later are still meeting, even after the program has ended. We expect to see a lot of that happening here as well.

We know there is a certain amount of cost and expense involved in participating, even as a learner, so we will offer a small stipend of $2500 to each of these 10 organizations selected to be in the learning network for our first round. Each of these organizations have their very own coach or mentor to work with them in between our meetings and to help them move their initiative along. You will be provided with very specific, technical expertise depending on what your particular challenge is to help you achieve that.

You will receive an UP designation and I do not want to understate this, but we are really trying to brand our organizations in Massachusetts as being accessible. So UP organizations will be promoted on our websites and in our newsletters. And some of you may have been promoted in our partnerships with our public radio stations across the Commonwealth. This next year those radio spots, and there are something in the neighborhood of four or 500 of them that ran during the course of the year, those will be devoted to our UP organizations so you can let your opportunity or let your audience know that you're really in leadership on this area of accessibility, and of course on the website will be promoting a giving great visibility to our organizations.

You'll get a lot of organization information and when you become accessible you're working on development on top of everything else and I do not noticing organization who is not interested in growing their audience. When you think about it would have a huge generation of baby boomers who maybe do not walk as well as it used to or here's where it -- here as well as these two or see as well as these two. They were not self-described as disabled but they may stop participating because it gets a little harder as I get older and we do not want to lose those people from our cultural organizations peer so that is what we are talking all of us and not "special" people you're finally by participating in the innovation learning network and being designated as a UP organization you will be eligible for an UP award which is a monetary award will be awarded at the end of the year and I'll talk about that in a few minutes.

The second way, we can only take 10 organizations in the first-round. That is a good size learning cohort and we think that is what we can manage for this first effort. We know there are lots of other organ -- organizations out there that are doing great work and what to learn and advance their accessibility initiative. There is another doorway into the program and that is to receive a designation by virtue of applying through an application process. There are certain behaviors that we have identified that are characteristic of organizations that are inclusive.

They involve, among other things, having training for absolutely everybody on your staff top to bottom, it involves engaging user experts to assess the accessibility of your organization. You will learn a little bit more later about exactly what the user expert for Graham protocol is. And it is really making part of your vision for your organization part of this core inclusion and accessibility. And of course it involves innovation peered so we're looking for organizations who are tackling access challenges, and additionally, thinking about the culture of their organizations.

With a little field trip, I will digress slightly here Jen to make harder to follow, we took a trip to London and because by virtue of the fact that London hosted the Olympics they had an opportunity to invest a lot of money into their infrastructure and accessibility strategies because they also had of course the Paralympics. And we took with us an individual who uses a service animal and has difficulty with his vision and hearing.

And while we saw a lot of wonderful best practices in London, we also went to places that were not perfectly accessible to somebody under those circumstances. What he told us, in which I thought was one of the big learning evidence of the trip, was that it matters less to him the perfect, physical attribute of an organization, and more to him how he is treated when it comes to the door.

This is really were culture changes such a powerful component of this program is something that we will be looking at. And so our UP designated organizations will receive again similar benefits, you'll get the iconic UP logo which is still under design and development, you will be promoted on again on our way to -- on our radio in website and will be sharing what you're doing and learning with other organizations and with the field at large, and you also be eligible for the fabulous UP award.

So what is this award? We are still building this award but we really want to build it into something that has the kind of cachet and recognition that something like in the Carter genus award would have -- because we think it is that important. Start out by taking money that quite friendly felons overlap, the Massachusetts Cultural Council to see the key of excellence award from Phi Beta Kappa this year and they warded us $5000 and we said let's start with that and we will make our award. Lo and behold they call this a couple weeks ago that you know what, we decided to give you $10,000 instead of $5000. Don't you just love when that happens? Now we have $2000 for our award -- $10,000 for our award and will be looking for other resources because really think it is important that organizations that are really taking a step are innovating and demonstrating in having physical gender organizations, they should be recognized. Let's face it, this is a really nice way to recognize an organization that is doing excellent work and sharing it with the field.

Again the three components are the innovation learning network, the UP designation and the UP award. And we really believe the Massachusetts can be the leader in this work and it is already doing a lot of leadership work peered in one place that is happening is that the Museum of science and Nora has been working many years making this one of the most accessible museums on the planet as she is with us now to talk a little bit about why she's excited by this program.

Hello everybody. I am so glad I'm able to be here and participate in this. I would say here and repeat everything that I need a set already. I cannot tell you how the messages of this program really resonate, the fact that this is great for your audience development, and the message that the Americans with disabilities act, it is guidelines on how to design your bathrooms, not how to make your museum accessible. In doing that is really sort of breaking down the barrier between the "us" and "them" thought process. If you're thinking of people with disabilities as we can quote them" then you're not thinking about them as an integral part of the audience. To borrow -- people with disability signs credited to every asset of the community, whether it is your neighborhood, your child's school, or the source you go to.

And the expectation is also there that cultural institutions should also be integrated. Everybody should be welcome everywhere, and feel welcome. I want to give you sort of a little background on the journey that the Museum of science took because this sort of thing does not happen overnight, and that is not something that is expected. And so the question is how do you start and how you get there?

Back in the late 80s there were a few people at the museum who are interested in making exhibits more accessible, and one of them had it -- happen to be in exhibit designer with a disability. They took some stale, dioramas and added all sorts of multisensory features to them. Audio labels so if you were not able to access the text visually, whether it was because of vision loss or a learning disability, or lack of English proficiency, you could access it in another way. They added ambient sound behind the audio labels and they added tactile interactive to Mr. the educational concepts that the dioramas were hoping to get across. The most in trysting thing about it was only did the exhibits become more accessible to people with disabilities, the educational messages of the exhibits were received by so many more or such a higher percentage of visitors. It went from someone like 15% to 95% of the visitors now understood the message that the exhibit was trying to get across.

And that is one of the things about universal design. When you try to think about how different people, whether it is with different sensory concerns or learning styles, different physical attributes, and access something you actually end up improving it and making it accessible to everyone. By not giving a message in only one way, and by making the content of your cultural institution accessible through multiple avenues. You increase the overall learning and participation in satisfaction of your visitors overall.

So that is how it started. There were a lot of hiccups along the way. Universal design, accessibility, those were not something that were completely integrated into the museum culture for quite some time. There were people who are interested in it, it was seen as valuable, but there was not a coherent or cohesive approach to it. And what that took was actually a site visit related to section 504 of the Rehab Act from NASA.

They were not coming to DS or criticize us in any way, in fact they knew there were a lot of great practices going on at the Museum, that one of the things we try to realize and 20 other a coherent presentation to them on how accessibility is integrated throughout the building and programs and every aspect of visitor services and Museum of science was that we did not have a cohesive approach.

And so in preparing for their visit we did come up with an accessibility committee that is representative of many different aspects of the museum. There are representatives from senior management, visitor services, facilities, education, exhibits, communities relations, human resources and so on. And this is a group that meets monthly to ensure that we are all sort of aware of what is every -- what everybody else is doing and what is going on in the building so making sure that one one great ideas being implemented in one department, that is passed along to other departments that could benefit from the same information.

Said people do not have to reinvent the wheel and it takes time to get it integrated. But it is incredibly valuable because by having everybody on the same page and feeling that this is part of the overall mission of the institution, the mission gets across as opposed to individuals pushing it forward with their personalities. Now everybody at the Museum of science knows that accessibility is part of their job.

It has caused educators and designers to continually re-examine how they present material to visitors so that it gets across the most effective way possible. Sorry during. Having all the staff know what accessibility is, it really empowers them to pass along their knowledge to the visitors and feel like they are part of the solution. One of the experiences that happened recently which was really great, we recently redid our box office and one of the strategies, we used to have these sort of iconic colors for member lines, and nonmembers, and people who have reserved tickets. It occurred to us the people who are colorblind could not access those. So while the colors stay there because kids love the stripes, shapes were added so that if you had colorblindness or could not see color, you could figure out what was going on. And the staff person happened to be walking by the box office while some guy and his wife were completely excited, they were going bananas. And they were taking pictures of the stripes on the floor.

The guy was colorblind and he said I cannot believe this, I cannot believe this! He was so excited and yet the staff person walking by new with the stripes were and what the shapes meant and he was able to say to this visitor oh, we planned this and we did this for people with color blindness. And on top of that, the staff person within so excited and so empowered by the fact that he could see the positive results of this work that he was going around telling everybody. [ laughter ]

That sort of what it is all about. Having everybody on the same page at everybody understanding that there are benefits. It keeps the content of the exhibits and the content of the programs from becoming stale, it integrates it into everybody's work and it keeps everybody enthused and it lets people communicate with each other and it lets everybody feel like this is part of what they are doing. And that is super important. You do not want to have people think that has nothing to do with me because it has to do with all of us.

One other thing I would add is that there are a lot of people in Massachusetts at different institutions that are widely varying in Demon size, and the content -- widely varying in theme and size and the content of what they are doing that do work on this subject and one of the ways you can interface to other people and asked questions is a group called Cultural Access New England. There is a website, www.ca-ne.org and you can sign up to be on the mailing list. And there's also a listserv similar to the one associated with the Lead Conference and this is focused on people in New England so you can communicate with people in the local area about what you're access questions are in benefit from local experience so you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

There is plant support out there for you and this is a super important initiative. I really hope that you all embrace it.

Thank you Nora, that is a great story. First of all you need to know that those of us at the Massachusetts Council are learners to, nor has been a teacher but we have learned a lot about universal design principles, and here is a brief primer on what this is all about.

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us, I want to start by saying how excited we all are at the Institute to be involved in this project. I will give you a quick overview as to what universal design is and why it is important. Starting out with who we are, we are an educational nonprofit located in Boston, right by North Station, and really everything we do is about enhancing the experience of all people, all ages and abilities through excellence in design.

We have two core beliefs that drive all the things we do here in first the organization is largely made of designers I would dispute -- we believe that design powerfully and profoundly influences individuals sense of competence, comfort, and control. The second is the variation in ability as ordinary, it is not special. Sorted building on what Anita and Nora already talked about. Would you design consulting work, we do trainings, education, technical assistance and research.

I do want to mention that we have a project that we will be launching soon. It is going to be a new digital resource, really spelling out issues, accessibility, and showing what is universal design and how is a practiced around the world? That will be available for everyone. So quickly making a case for universal design and inclusive design thinking, we live now in a world where we are all living longer and where surviving more. This is kind of a beautiful, fabulous thing that is happening. And it is happening on a global trend.

On the slide you can see the aging art and it is going up and up. The second thing we did hit in 2011, we had the number of one in seven people on the planet have a disability. This is a pretty significant population. And what I am talking about with disability, or as we like to say him a functional limitation we are thinking about these three broad categories. Yes, physical some ability, dexterity and strength and stamina, but also sensory and brain based as well there it is sort of unfortunate, but all too often the brain based category can be left out of the conversation which cannot happen. We need to be thinking about these issues.

So sort of talking about what is accessibility versus universal design and how do they work together? Accessibility is really the floor, it is the baseline, were universal design is going above and beyond which Anita so elegantly said earlier, we are all building on each other's language. The accessibility laws are an amazingly important thing that we have in this country, and one of you that really did was it recognized the fact that design is a civil right or people with disabilities and it is hugely important legislation.

However, there was this unfortunate trend became out of it, which Nora touched upon and we run into far too often with clients. Worst they really put a sharp line or it can put a sharp line between us and them. And secondly, we get those who say Tommy what I have to do so I don't get sued. That is not up positive conversation. We want to try to change that so that they think positively about the full, human experience. As I pointed out with the aging trend, if we're living longer enough we will have a social limitation.

As would think about accessibility laws, the ADA, we like to bring people back to this idea of the integrated settings. We want to create spaces and environments in general that maximize everyone's integration together at once. And now touching on this, we know now what accessible design is, what is universal design?

Universal design is called a couple of things depend on where you stand in the planet. Basically it is a framework for thinking about the designing of things that focuses on the user. It is thinking about a widest variety of users operating within a variety of situations at the same time.

And the sort of relationship between accessibility and universal design, accessibility is the floor, this is what we have to reach to be compliant. Whereas universal design is thinking, it is an imaginative and creative process that really anticipates real human diversity and functional ability, as well as assuming the solution that will work for someone on the outer edges, it will work better for everyone else. As part of the universal design there was a development of these seven principles. These were created to try to get people to think about how can we be fully inclusive and universal design, is the space or program, is training flexible and equitable Aeneas, is it simple and intuitive? Is there perceptible information and have I created tolerance for error question mark is their low physical effort needed? And also constantly think about size of space and how people are moving and interacting.

In 2001, we always like to draw people's attention to this, the World Health Organization redefined his ability. First is that this is a universal human experience, if we are all lucky enough we will live long enough to experience some kind of functional limitation. It also equalized mental and physical notations which is a big deal. And it really said that disability occurs at the intersection between the individual, their functional limitation, and the environment. Actually I say environments plural, we take about the physical but also can medication, information, policy and guidance, and social and attitudinal. The other thing they did was they said that universals assign seemed to be recommended as the best framework to identify facilitators for people.

In conclusion, well, inclusive design really recognizes, and celebrates the diversity within the minute experience that we all have in the 21st century, and we also see as part of this project the potential to really create a model in Massachusetts for culture. All of us I am sure have these priorities where we want to create a bigger and broader audience, and we also want to offer the best possible experience for everyone, whether visiting your museum or going to see a show or be involved in one of your programs. You want to have the best experience.

Finally, we are happy to be part of it and working with you all. We really want to work with this community who believes that life and variety and social limitations, we have the good fortune of having this and also working with these people and thinking about these issues can be a vehicle for really enriching the experience of older users and people coming to our institutions group thank you very much.

So Jen give me an opportunity to speak again I didn't want to let it go by.

[ laughter ]

I did want to mention this because this was a theme that over you heard from her other two prisoners. When we first start thinking about developing a program around accessibility, we think about creating a certification program but then we realized that what we really want to do is aspirational area this is not a compliance/regulatory initiatives. It is an opportunity for all of us to be imaginative and to dream and to make things even better, and that is why it is called UP. Do not ever get done and you're never quite there but it is always opportunity to think you're an better and brighter. If we really think that taps into the strength of our field.

Our field is imaginative, innovative, and creative and I cannot think of a better set of organizations to help find solutions to accessibility and to continue to work on a wonderful and exciting project. With that, Jen we'll walk you through how to become part of it. I did just want to say that everything that we are going through is on the website. If you are at Mass Cultural Counter, or massculturalcoucil.org, will be looking through applications Friday through applications Friday, December 7, it will cover all of 2015 learning network sections of the bulk of it will take place between January and June. At the end of the calendar year is when people would complete the reporting and kind of rehab their designation -- and kind of re-up their designation. Eligibility is [ Indiscernible-muffled speaker ] so again there are two ways that you can become an organization geared becoming an organization, then results for participating in the innovation and learning network and the learning cohort, or just giving him -- just getting the designation. You can also apply for both. They are not mutually exclusive.

We will start with the innovation and learning network. This is the cohort we will be working with over the year. The goal of the network is to develop an initiative, identify and develop measurable ways for tracking progress in defining your own success, and basically at the end of the network you will have your plan and you will be ready to implement it.

I will walk through the timeline, and then I will go into a little bit more about the terms. The timeline for the network, in January they will be an opening evening reception followed immediately next day with a full, daylong learning session. This will give the overview and get everyone speaking the same language. Then each organization participates will get their user expert site visit. More on those visits momentarily. Also during the six-week timeframe you will share your experience about your site visit through a webinar.

You also view your other cohort webinars as well heard so you will learn not only from your site visit, but the site visit of the other participants in the network. The site visits are going to really shape the initiative. And I will go into that. Once we go through that will come together, every month will be a daylong session, March, April, May and the final one in June. In organizations will begin implementing their initiatives with continued support of some of the coaches they will be connected with.

In September we will have a reunion and we will launch the next cycle. And that will also be the timeframe for announcing the UP awards. At the end of the year the final report is due. So I will hand it back over to Willa to talk about user expert on-site visits.

So a user expert can be someone who has lived series with functional limitation and can tell us exactly when something is working and when something is not. We have broken it up so that we have primaries first which is the individual who is experiencing life with a functional limitation, and then there is a secondary user expert which is this friend or spouse or family member, someone who is lived and expressed with the individual or working with certain community who can bring insight to us that we would not naturally have.

This is a bunch of images of some of our user experts. We created this really because he saw an unfortunate trend of designers and engineers and people in general sitting down, and maybe they have good intentions like maybe we should try to think about or imagine having a blind person coming from gallery. Or imagine what someone would need if they have autism. We believe that you cannot actually get everything that you need just by sitting there and imagining. You need to be working directly with these communities so they can tell you what is working what is not. And so we have a database with a bunch of user experts. If you sign up and you get in, will be working with youth doing a review, and if you are placed with the physical environment will go in with some of our experts and user experts you have chosen for your community to go through and talk about the experience.

But also we are looking at the programs as well, so information design and website design, all of that can be looked at and reviewed. For those of you who do not have a BA physical building, are still lots of reviews and work with user experts that we can do with you.

And again, just bringing it back I'm a when you're thinking about working with users with the World Health Organization redefining disabilities, these design decisions that we make for our cultural organizations, you can really enable or disable people by that. It is empowering and you guys have the opportunity to really create inclusive environments.

Thanks. So as Willa mentioned, some of these experts will come from the [ Indiscernible ] network and you will also be identifying user experts from your own community. The intent of the webinar, as I mentioned before, is to learn also how other people's site visits are going. And MCC will provide all technical documentation so you really just be sharing for about 15 minutes and that will shape your initiative selection. The full staff or organization should come together around that webinar to also learn from the site visit.

And then back to be a point of conversation for the organization to say we want to work on these three things that surfaced during the site visit and we will start with improving the website. Whatever has surfaced, that's how you also select your initiative. We don't want people necessarily knowing what they are going to work on when they sign up for the network. You're going to learn a lot and that will influence your selection.

It will be experiential and it will be hands-on work environment, they are daylong and they will be a different organizations, you do not have to be able to host in order to participate. So the requirements, you need to commit at least two people and one should be in executive leadership position, and the other person can be a member of your staff or your board, the pending on the organization's size or structure. You can have up to four people if you want, but you need at least two people to count all the sessions. We would like a board member to attend the opening evening reception in the last half of the final session. In one of the requirements is you identify tasks or yourself to complete between sessions.

You also share with the network in the field at large. You'll commit to serving as a mentor at a future network and you will complete your annual reporting. The review criteria is all about the behavior. That is more than anything else. We will also look to make sure that you have engaged your entire organization and that you have thought about how you're going to manage the participation while running your organization. Will primarily make sure that there is geographical diversity and organizational person he. That is the network and if you don't want to do the network or do not have time to do it is here, but you feel that you want to engage you can just get a UP designation. Again this is all about behavior. What does it look like? This is touched on in the training for everyone. Engaging user experts, inform your decisions and inspire your organization.

Integration throughout the organization, which Nora really touched on it having a plan. And innovating in terms of problem solving, you see a problem you solve it. Those are behaviors, and if it sounds like you or your organization, you can apply just for the designation. If that sounds like you and you want to do the network am a apply for both. If you select by the network this time around you would participate there and if not you can still get the designation and you can participate in the future network. The requirements for the designation, putting the logo up, again it is all about sharing with the field and sharing with other of the organizations, and completing the annual requirement. So when you're designation, that re-ups when you complete a final report and every five years people have to reapply.

Criteria is entirely focused on the behavior we are talking about. There is no limit in terms of the number of designations and so we're really looking for you to make the case that you are an up organization. Once we get the first round designated in December will work with those organizations to best identify the ways to support and connect those organizations. How we interact with that report we determined the participants.

The way to apply is the same for both. Whether you are doing the learning network or designation, it is just a different form. You can apply online. If you already have a username and password for another program just use that. Complete an online application. I sent around in the reminder, there is an attachment that has the narrative questions. Or both applications is five or six narrative questions. You also need a resolution approved by your board stating a commitment to the program. If your board doesn't meet before December 7 just let us know when they will meet.

For the UP designation only you also need a testimonial. For the network you do not need a testimonial, just for the designation. And this is where a patron was the two situation where you demonstrate your commitment to learn and take action and embrace inclusivity. The reporting work permits are the same for both, one or two page sulfur flexion, multiple choice primarily, there will be a short narrative, I will ask participants that it is a three question survey that the audience members or patrons use. So now we will take questions. Donnie if you want to field any questions from any audio questions, Donnie will patch you in. We can also take chat questions.

And as we're waiting, a couple of things I would like to really emphasize. For the innovation learning network, we are looking for a mix of beginners and advanced. Do not feel like hey we haven't done a lot of this work, so we would not necessarily be successful coming into the learning network. Actually, if you haven't done any of this work and you really want to get involved please do consider being part of the network. We hope to have a mix of organizations within the learning network who are experienced and have accomplished something to help the mentor, and others who are just brand-new to it and really open to becoming a part of the initiative. Will not be evaluating on how much work it out already, we will just look for a nice, diverse mix of organizations.

If anyone wants to send a question through chat you may do it that way, and maybe some of you are queuing up for verbal questions through the phone.

One other comment I would like to make as well. I think it is important that when we think about the user experts, and quite frankly, our own experience here at the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Audience members will not come up to you and say I am having a problem. They will just stop coming. That is really part of the point of assembling and intentionally using a team of user experts. Because audience members do not feel comfortable or confident to come up to you and say I am having difficulty with your programming because I cannot see it or hear it or I cannot reach. They're just going to say you know, that is not an easy place for me to go so I will not do it anymore and I will just stay home.

I will tell you one story here at the MCC. We are learning about ourselves, we used to have one ADA coordinator on the establishment no one also the thing about this issue except that one person. As we started this a year ago we assigned 100% of the staff at MCC to be the ADA coordinator so now it is everybody's results ability during which of a year-long time of learning and field trip. And that was our second or third learning session in one of our staff members who'd been here for 10 years all means my office and they said I will tell you something about myself that you probably didn't know. And I said what is that question she said I am blind in one eye and I cannot see my computer screen and I have never been able to. What made me say why haven't you said anything question mark why? She did not think for some reason that it was okay. She did not think it was okay to ask. And she only felt empowered to ask, for something that she should have thought all along, as she felt that the culture of the organization had changed. And so that is why this whole cultural transformation of our organization is so important. It is really what is one to make audience members start coming to you and saying you know, I really have had a better experience here if you would fill in the blank.

We will turn the call over to Donnie will give instructions for the audio call. Sorry about that.

Not a problem and thank you. If you would like to register for a question on the phone please present one followed by the number four and you'll hear a three tone prompt to acknowledge the request if your question has been answered and he would like to withdraw him a please press the number one followed by the three. You may so ask a question using the chat feature in the lower left corner of your screen. One moment please for your first question.

And a chat question came in asking if the slides would be available. The content is up on the website but I can attach the presentation as a follow-up e-mail and I'll send it out the group.

As a reminder to register for a question, please press the number four in the number Josh -- please press number one in the number four. I'm sure no questions at this time on the phones I will turn it back over to you. .As great. --.Is great. You have on our screen the e-mail addresses of each of our staff and if you're like me I do not think of questions into the webinar is over. Usually in the middle of the night or on my way home so no worries. Feel free to follow-up if you have any questions. I think the application is pretty straightforward and it is not very time-consuming. We are really eager to see a lot of our organizations become involved. Some of the things that we learned when we took some of our theater -- -- field trips and study tours, not everything about accessibility involves a major capital investment. There is a lot of work that can be done that does not cost anything at all.

We're seeing theaters for example putting social narrative, or at museums, the social narratives on the website. What is the social narrative? It is a story about what the experience is like when going to an organization so if I having Zaidi or I've never been there before, what do other people where and what will it be like, I can read a story about it and it helps alleviate some of that.

When we were doing a tour of London, we learned a new term which is called relaxed performances. We have organizations in Massachusetts who position these as autism friendly performances. Basically they are good for about anybody who has difficulty sitting for two and half hours in one place in a dark theater. It gives them the opportunity to get up and move around and maybe the lighting is lower, it is not so sensitive about people speaking. There are lots of strategies that are decisions organizations are making. I remember that Nora you were talking about having a pad of paper at the reception desk.

Yes, at our box office, all of our people have pads of paper and pencils just in case somebody comes up and either cannot hear or cannot speak. People just think about that. And going back to what you were talking about on your trip to London, and what the other participants said about customer service, that is a huge part of it too. Making people feel welcome is not going to be accomplished with having a pristine, perfect rant. It will be a calm push by the interactions they have with staff people.

When somebody comes into your cultural institution and maybe pauses for a moment and looks around or is uncertain about where to proceed, regardless of the reason, having a staff person come up to them and say hi, can I help you? That makes anybody feel welcome regardless of what the reason is for them pausing. If the staff person comes up to you and says wow, you really look like you could use some help. That is a totally different message been sent. Or, as is more often the case, people just do not interact with the person and don't approach the person.

Creating a welcoming environment, as the person in London said, have a lot more to do with interpersonal interactions than it has to do with the physical environment. It has to do with attitude. If the staff are welcoming, the person willful welcome. It is funny, I know the person that you are talking about in one of the things he described where he works is that even if something is not accessible, if there is a physical barrier, the fact that the staff people were welcoming, and the fact that the staff people acknowledged the fact there was a barrier, apologize for it and expressed dismay over it, and a commitment to improve or remove it in future, it results in that person not filing a complaint and not feeling like they have been slighted or discriminated against. A lot of it is an attitudinal approach. That's why we feel so strongly about top to bottom and that is why we ask that our organizations early think of it as core to their work in court to the mission. And that is why the application asks for board votes because that tells us that the leadership, the visionaries, the stewards of your organization are on record saying this is good work and we also feel that the reception desk am the guy that sweeps the front walk him it does not matter who it is within your organization, any of your visitors can encounter any of your person there and everyone should be prepared to provide the level of customer service that was just described.

I think we're about ready to wrap up. Donnie any questions that chimed in?

No questions on the phone. Would you like another reminder?

No. That is a pack. -- That is okay.

Perfect. Like for those of you again if you do have questions you know how to get a hold of us. Application deadline is the seventh.

Thanks for joining us today.

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