Few questions were answered about Cambridge’s disability practices during a March 11 meeting of the Human Services and Veterans Committee, which heard from city departments about their accessibility practices and efforts to support residents with disabilities.
The committee is co-chaired this session by city councillors Marc McGovern and Ayah Al-Zubi. At the start of the meeting, McGovern said he called it because of concerns raised by residents. “It was brought to my attention by a number of folks who, rightfully, were concerned that we [may] think about disabled residents and their problems, but we don’t actually talk about them publicly that much.
The primary presentation came from Rachel Tanenhaus, the city’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator and executive director of its Commission for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD), about the role the group plays in citywide disability policy and programming.
Tanenhaus presented on the commission’s work and its role in ensuring accessibility across city government, including working with the city to perform accessibility design reviews on all new city buildings.
“I want to be really clear that this is not abstract for us, these rights that we work for are also our rights,” she said.
Tanenhaus discussed CCPD’s support for the broader Cambridge community, saying that CCPD acts as the go-between for disabled residents or concerned groups and any city department who can appropriately answer their questions.
“Sometimes city processes are not transparent, they are just not intuitive,” she said. “We often get people calling and saying ‘I am having this particular access-related difficulty, and I’m not sure who to talk to about it,’” which is when her team intervenes.
City departments discuss actions
Presentations were made by representatives from several city departments. Highlights of these included:
- The Department of Human Service Programs applauded the achievements of the Cambridge Warriors Basketball team, run by the Cambridge Program for Individuals with Special Needs, which has won 93 straight games.
- The Cambridge Community Development Department, the city’s planning agency, mentioned the city’s storefront improvement and retail interior grant programs. One recipient was Central Square Florist, a short walk from City Hall, which used funding to remodel its sales counter, lowering part of it to meet ADA standards.
- The Department of Public Works spoke about their snow cleaning programs and new practices of ‘shaving’ down raised edges of concrete in sidewalks, to remove tripping hazards and increase accessibility to mobility devices.
- Department of Transportation officials spoke about coordination with the MBTA and efforts to make bike lanes wider and crosswalks more visible to improve public safety.
Cambridge residents who commented voiced their concerns about the city’s accessibility practices.
CCPD Advisory Board member Nieta Greene pointed to the city government’s use of paper documents for various applications and other interactions, which she said made them inaccessible to many disabled residents, especially those with mobility issues who had trouble bringing paper documents to City Hall or any other city departments.
She also criticized elected officials for their inattention to disability issues. “I am really disappointed that the city council does not take an interest in our meetings, except for when it’s election time.”
Several parents spoke up, as well.
“Access and accommodation are important, but I hope we don’t pat ourselves on the back too much for complying with federal law,” said John Summers, who spoke at the meeting about his experience as a father of a son with disabilities (disclosure: Summers is also a senior editor at Cambridge Day). Summers said the city’s efforts to accommodate neurodiverse and disabled residents barely scratched the surface of what was needed.
That sentiment was echoed by others, who called for deeper investments. Cambridge resident Mai Lu called in via Zoom with questions about housing and employment opportunities for her nearly 18-year-old neurodiverse and disabled son, soon to be out of school and on the job market.
“What are the job opportunities? I know the city of Boston has residency [requirements] for a lot of basic jobs, but the city of Cambridge does not,” she said. Boston’s Housing Authority includes disability-related priority categories that can help move applicants up waitlists, including for public housing, but the Cambridge Housing Authority instead maintains an entirely separate elderly/disabled housing list rather than prioritizing disabled residents in any general queue.
McGovern answered her question about residency by saying “[t]he reality is that with the cost of housing in Cambridge, having a residential work requirement might be a challenge.”
Councillors raise questions
Several councillors also asked questions of the gathered department heads, but many were deferred.
Al-Zubi asked Housing Director Christopher Cotter about how disability needs are handled in the city’s shelter system, Cotter could not answer but promised to follow up with an accurate account separately. Al-Zubi told Cambridge Day she had not received a response a week later.
Councillor Catherine Zusy shared, through tears, the story of her late brother with special needs and how family support served as his safety net. “Not everybody is as lucky as my brother was,” Zusy said. “I do wonder how the city may support our residents with special needs in helping them find work?”
McGovern asked about the accessibility of the city’s online resources and parking passes for home health aides that were earmarked for follow-ups.
“We didn’t really get to next steps,” he said. “It is important to acknowledge the good things that are happening, but we can’t lose sight of making sure we critique what is not going so well.”
It is unclear when the committee might follow up on the questions raised. The committee is next scheduled to meet on April 8, but its agenda is to discuss a report on Rise Up Cambridge, a program that made cash payments to low-income families.
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