 Hi, Jillian. Thank you so much for introducing this panel. As Jillian mentioned, I'm Marinda McGeley, the Law Help Interactive Program Coordinator at Pro BonoNet, and I'm the moderator of today's panel. So I'm very excited to briefly introduce today's panelists. We have Jack Haycock from Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Maine, where Jack serves as a client-focused technology innovator. Roger Rand joins us from Oregon, where he works as a technology manager for the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Terri Ross joins us as well from Illinois Legal Aid Online, or LAO, where she's Interim Executive Director. And I'm just very honored to have this great group present for us today and also thank all the attendees for joining us as well. So here's the roadmap for today's training. I've already introduced our panelists and will next cover some terminology and key concepts. So I want to reserve most of the time today to provide our panelists with an opportunity to share from their experiences and lessons learned. But I think it's important to start with key concepts and terms, so we're all starting with a shared understanding. After me, you'll hear from Jack Haycock, who will be covering gender-neutral language for client education materials and other content that populates legal technology projects. We'll then turn to Terri, who will walk us through LAO's process for developing and testing. The recently launched portal for victims of crime in Illinois. And last but not least, we have Roger Rand, who will cover plans to rebuild the courthouse in Portland to meet the needs of their growing and changing local demographics. So we will end with a time set aside for questions and comments, but as Jolene mentioned, we want to hear your questions we want to hear from you. So feel free to drop those questions in the chat box throughout the presentation and we'll pause between each presenter so that you can ask questions directly to that presenter based on what you hear. So first, I've moderated a few panels and webinars on a similar topic and was lucky enough to have Camille Holmes, who formerly served as the Director of Leadership and Racial Equity at NLADA present. So Camille does a really wonderful job of introducing and distinguishing these concepts that are sometimes conflated. So I'm going to borrow from her approach as I walk through some of these terms and concepts. So I'll start off briefly covering the term diversity. Its most basic meaning is the presence of variety among people or things and common usage tends to focus somewhat narrowly on racial or ethnic diversity, but of course diversity is much broader and sometimes intersectional. So when approaching legal technology projects, it's important to think about racial and ethnic diversity, but also diversity in terms of gender, sexual orientation, geography, ability in other areas. And only groups can be diverse. People aren't. So there's no such thing as a diverse applicant seeking employment at your organization, for example, but you can have diversity in the workplace. So you used a word there in the definition intersectional. Could you describe what that means for a second? Because some people figure that that's a new term. Sure. So intersectionality means different components of your identity that work together. So I may be African American, I may also identify as cisgendered. I may be Latino and identify as homosexual. I may be a Black male who has a certain educational level of attainment. And so those different parts of my identities affect the way that I view the world and I perceive in the world. So that's sort of a quick introduction to intersectionality. Thank you. Sure. So this next screen shows a tab that's available on llc.gov that has some helpful demographics of clients receiving services from llc grantees on a national level. And I check I encourage you to go to the site check check it out play with the tabloids on a state level on an organizational level and also review your organization's data because it's important when thinking about legal technology to think about the diversity of the particular target audience or users you're looking to serve. So if you want to look at these tabloids as an example, you can compare demographics in Hawaii to North Dakota to kind of get a sense of how diversity changes based on the local level and how you want to think about that when you're planning and maintaining your legal technology projects. So next I want to cover inclusion. Inclusion is distinguishable from diversity, which I just talked about. And that involves authentic and empowered participation in a true sense of belonging by diverse individuals within a group or structure. So then what do we mean by designing for inclusion? Well, Microsoft has done a lot of work in this area and considers inclusive design, a design methodology that enables and draws from the full range of human diversity. I've also noted a related concept that I appreciate a lot more now that I'm rolling around with this little guy. And that's a universal design, which has been defined by the center of universal design at North Carolina State University as a design of products and environments to be usable by all people to the greatest extent possible without the need for adaption or specialized design. So this term was created by an architect and will tie in nicely to what we'll hear from Roger regarding plans to update the courthouse in his county. For me it's important because sidewalks are difficult to navigate not having an elevator difficult to navigate as a parent with a child with a stroller. So that's why it's particularly relevant to me right now. Universal design is also relevant when thinking about legal technology projects and example can be something as seemingly simple as including images that are representative of the diverse populations you're looking to serve with your technology. So displayed as an image from immi.org and the sites developers when putting together this site look for sock photos to try and do this. So many of the sock photos weren't representative of the population they were seeking to serve and the few that were were actually used so much with similar community based organizations that it felt like they were just overused. So what they ended up doing was taking photos of staff members and including staff members of partner organizations and reaching out to modeling agencies to seek volunteers for the photos on their site. So another concept I'd like to cover briefly is that of cultural competency. And although the idea of cultural competence first emerged in the medical and social work field it's been thought about and written about a lot for the legal aid setting. So to be culturally competent and legal aid means having the capacity to provide effective legal assistance that is grounded in an awareness of insensitivity to the diverse culture in the provider service area. A cultural group generally has shared beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors that define what it is. So Camille introduced me to this concept of cultural humility which really resonates and I think is a powerful distinction particularly when you're thinking about trying to develop competence in a culture that you don't belong to. So cultural humility generally incorporates a consistent commitment to learning and reflection but also an understanding of power dynamics and one's own role in society. And there are three main components to cultural humility and they have to do with developing a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique, working to fix power imbalances and developing partnerships with people and groups who advocate for others. So our presenters will walk us through their experiences and plans around designing for inclusion with legal technology but I wanted to just kick things off with a few examples. So my first is around multilingual functionality within legal technology. The ME team that I referenced a few slides ago spent a lot of time on the Spanish language version of their site to make sure that it was meaningfully accessible. So this involved first undergoing a plain language review of the content on the site in English. That plain language English was then translated to Spanish by professional translators and then there was yet another round of review of Spanish by ME staff before final publication of the content. Also displayed on this slide are photo novellas excuse me that were developed for Connecticutlawhelp.org. I think these are a really cool example. They were developed sort of to share legal information in an accessible format that isn't too text heavy. The designers of these photo novellas took an example from public health information as a format because public health information sometimes used these photo novellas and they were made available in multiple language and what's powerful about this format is that it sort of supports the updating and maintaining of multiple languages for the organization. Another important consideration for designing for inclusion when it comes to legal technology projects is thinking about how involved are people from the backgrounds you're looking to serve at each stage of your project. So involvement can mean staffing, it can mean testing, it can mean focus groups and it can also mean partnerships with more representative organizations. So those are my introductions to some of the key concepts and terms we'll be using and thinking about throughout the presentation. I'll stop here to see if there are any questions or comments. Yeah as a quick comment I just want to say the photo novella stuff has worked really well for Northwest Justice Project. It cuts down on the editing time significantly and then you don't have to teach your lawyers to act, they just have to hold still long enough for a picture to be taken. Great thank you Sart. So unless there's anything else I'll go ahead and turn things over to Jack and thank you for listening. Hi everybody, my name is Jack Haycock. I'm the client focused technology innovator with Pine Tree Legal Assistance in May. So this presentation was originally a rapid fire presentation at last year's TIG conference but it's now a much more relaxed not crammed into five minute presentation that I really consider kind of a pitch about why you should be saying goodbye to the gender binary and your client education and forms materials. So gender what I really have to start with the basics here what do I mean when I say gender identity? Our gender identity is how we see ourselves as women, men, neither or something different entirely. We all have a gender identity which is different from sex which is assigned to us at birth by a doctor. Our gender identity is how we feel about ourselves no matter how we look or are perceived. The gender binary is really the idea in our society that gender only comes into varieties, men and women. And that comes with the assumption that gender identity should match the sex we were assigned at birth. Now this idea is constructed. There's nothing about it that's really inherently true or correct and in fact many other societies don't think about gender in this way. Now it's possible that you haven't spent too much time thinking about your own gender identity but it's something that we do need to examine a little bit. For many people your gender identity aligns with the sex you were assigned at birth. So that's called being cisgender which means basically you were for example assigned female at birth and you feel like a woman. You really feel like that identity fits who you are. It's how you see yourself. But that's not the case for everyone. For many people their gender identity doesn't line up with the sex they were assigned at birth or with the gender binary. And this can get really complicated because the gender binary is everywhere. It's in our language. It's in the signs on bathrooms and in our intake questions and a lot of our forms. And in all of those situations we are sorting people or asking people to sort themselves into the gender binary. And for a lot of people that's not just uncomfortable it can be really dangerous. So there's just a couple of other basics I wanted to cover before moving on. There's no set definitive list of gender identities trying to make some kind of exhaustive list will not end well because things are always changing and evolving. You can't see gender identity. It's how a person feels. It's not how they look or how you might perceive them. And finally gender identity can be fluid. It can and does change over time. And that doesn't mean that it isn't valid even if it changes a lot. So our client ed may be one of the first things that our clients interact with. And the language that we use and the assumptions that we're making with that language matter. They matter to our clients and how safe they might feel working with us or coming to us for help. And it really matters you know in whether or not our client ed is relevant for them. So when we write our client ed we might be making assumptions about our readers without even realizing it. And these are all examples that I have found in revising older client ed on our website. So for instance talking about the parties in a divorce as mother, father, husband or wife asking about gender or sex and only giving the options male or female on an intake form. These are all things that once you see them you kind of know to be on the lookout for them. And they're assumptions that we may not even realize we're making. Our trans and gender nonconforming and nonbinary clients are often forced to sort themselves into the gender binary. This can happen when someone is seeking shelter, public benefits, medical care. And it's really a barrier to people getting the services they need. This isn't how it should be. And it shouldn't be this way in our client ed or with our forms either. And while we can't really instantly change all of these systems that a lot of our clients have to interact with on a daily basis, we can change our own practices. Taking the gender binary out of your client ed doesn't take a lot of infrastructure. It really just takes a shift in your language. Some of the changes are pretty basic and we've already been moving in that direction for years. To be honest, a lot of readers won't even notice the change in the language, but it can make a really big difference for the people who will notice it. Here are a few concrete examples of what you can do. First, don't assume gender with families or relationships. This has always been critical, but with the legalization of same-sex marriage, it's really extra critical to not make gender assumptions about families or relationships. And even these blob people are guilty of making assumptions. It's subtle, but it's there. And it may be the same in our client ed. So getting away from these more explicit assumptions is a big step, but there's no reason for us to stop there. We also need to adjust our more subtly gendered language. Many courts are moving towards using non-gender terms like parent one and parent two on forms. And some of these changes might need a little bit of explanation, but with laws moving in that direction generally, that explanation I find is a good thing to provide anyway. And that's definitely been the case in Maine where within the last two years, our laws have gone from dealing with paternity to dealing with parentage. And that's something that we've had to explain in our client ed, but it works. Another place that we can make changes is in our intake or survey questions. Gender is one of the most common things that people are asked on those surveys or in those forms. And there are really two things to think about with that. First, do we really need to be asking the question? And second, if we do need to ask the question, how can we ask it in a way that respects our clients? So here are some of the things that I have seen in doing client ed and working with forms, asking people to select either male or female, or giving people options, male, female, other. Now, that's, other is something that I've gotten questions about. And the reason that I would advise against using it is it's kind of the definition of othering people is to sort everyone who does not fall into male or female into some other amalgamous category that is not really defined or validating. But there are a lot of things that you can do if you do have to ask those questions. And I know that in some cases, especially for LSE funded organizations, we do have to ask about gender to report to our funders. And so there are different ways that you can do that that are better for our clients. So asking how you would like us to report your gender or using blank boxes instead of trying to limit people to a small list. And if you can, make the questions optional. If you don't need to ask for a funder, if there's not a really good reason that you need to be asking the question, don't ask it. So another, another step you can take is using the singular pronoun they when you refer to people. This is a really simple change, but it can make your client much more welcoming for some of your clients with site visitors. It can be a little difficult to adjust your use of gendered language at first because, you know, old habits die hard, but you can do it. Here are a few examples of how you can swap out the singular day. So instead of, and I have especially found this to be true in client education materials where we are using kind of a hypothetical person, hypothetical judge or hypothetical landlord, instead of saying you should talk to her about this before making any decisions and kind of alternating with your pronoun usage, you can just sub in, you should talk to them about this. And that actually is, I find a lot less clunky to write and also not as difficult for a cumbersome to read and update as the, is slash her or the alternating pronouns. So the grammar question. The grammar question comes up a lot with using the singular day. You might be worried that the singular day is confusing or grammatically incorrect, but it isn't. They has actually been used as a singular pronoun in the English language since about the 14th century. So grammar sticklers you can rest assured the use of the singular day is grammatically found and historically grounded and you're already using it. So I've got a little situation for you here. So imagine you're leaving the office and you see that someone must behind an umbrella. You don't know who it belongs to. So what do you say? Looks like someone forgot their umbrella. You just use the singular day. You don't know the gender of the person who left the umbrella. So you use day as a singular pronoun to talk about them. You don't know your readers or your clients gender either. So why make assumptions? All right. Where do we go from here? I would say start small. Put some of these more concrete tips to work when you write your new client and or when you go back and revisit some of your most used client. Take a look at the pieces that people are using and see where you can adjust this language. It's really a learning and a growing process, but if it makes even one of our clients feel safer, I think it's absolutely worth it. Finally, and this is a big one, don't be afraid to make mistakes. You're going to make mistakes. We all make mistakes. It's a process and a lot like, you know, the website technologies that we're using. This is a moving target, but please don't let the fact that you will make mistakes stop you from trying this out, from doing this. It's really up to us to educate ourselves to better serve our clients. And this really isn't any different. It's just another way that we can deliver really high quality legal services. Thank you. If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them. Hi, Jack. It looks like we've got one question from Nancy who asked, what can you use other than a word other when you have to give a list of options? So if you need to give a list of options, like I said, it can be really hard to enumerate and kind of capture everything, but you could use more specific options. So if you wanted to use non-binary or trans or even kind of more, you know, I have a list of terms that we're using in one of our forms, and I think it includes non-binary, trans, genderqueer. There are, there's not an exhaustive list, which is why I would say don't ask the question if you don't have to, but if you, I can look up and kind of provide to the group a very broad list of gender identities, you'll find that there will be too many to list, but honestly anything that is not other, even if you just frame the question differently, so even if it's I identify as a different gender, or I have a different gender identity, anything that's not that kind of othering language would be better than. Great. Thanks, Jack. And I've also shared around some interesting comments by Caroline around the word they and how it's been named word of the year in 2016. You know, I kind of like Caroline with that. Thank you, Caroline. And she also noted the singular gender neutral they was added to this associated associated press style book as well, and you can see those links in the chat. That looks like that's all the questions for now. Oh, actually, I take that back. I do have a question from Pat that just came in. It says we have explained the question in a forms interview where there are only two options, for example, to say the government form gives these two options only. Are there any thoughts on that? Um, yeah, if you if you do have to use those very rigid forms, I think explaining it can always help and especially I would say letting people know what you're asking for, because in some situations like that, you know, the right kind of advice to give on that is answer answer this how you feel it should be answered in other situations where I'm especially thinking of some trans and non-binary folks having a mismatch between their official government identification and their gender. That can get a little tricky. So I think the kind of nuanced answer to that is a little mushy and it's either answer this question how you want to answer it. We're only asking because x, y, or z reason, or if it's a situation where what the form is really looking for where it's some kind of situation where it would be critical to not have a mismatch between a person's gender identity and their legally designated government-issued gender marker on formal ID. Yeah, it looks like we're actually getting a lot of questions on this subject, but in comments, but in the interest of time, I think we'll handle some of those in the chat. I'll just close out by from a quick comment by Hannah that said that they have started to re-evaluate their websites and that your quick fire talk at TIG was really helpful and that they've changed, they've already changed their award nomination forms. Hi everyone, my name is Terry Ross. I'm the program director at Illinois, the Galata Mine. Thanks Jack for that awesome presentation and Miranda for yours too. I will be talking with you about a project we did that attempted to be rooted in good design and user experience principles. So for about the next 15 minutes specifically, I'm going to give you some background on the project, then we'll dive into how we set out to design it. I'll discuss our development of user personas journeys and testing. I won't talk much about the development or coding phase, but I will demo the launched version of what we created briefly so you can see it and then I'll talk just touch on marketing and outreach. So let's get started. The name of this project was VLAM, it's acronym. The network is still in existence. It's a collaborative group of people from across Cook County, which is the largest county by population in Illinois, it's where Chicago sits. The network consists of representatives from a cross-section of government, health, social and legal services who are interested in offering more comprehensive services to victims of crime. The project was funded through a 2012 grant from the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime. It's called a wraparound demonstration project. Six organizations were funded to do this work across the nation. They were from Alaska, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas and Illinois. Illinois, in Illinois, the grantee was Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services. So Legal Aid Society is actually the second oldest legal aid organization in the country. It was founded in 1886. It is now housed in a social service agency, which serves all of Cook County. And for those of you who may not be familiar with the term wraparound services, it's another way of saying holistic services is the idea of treating the whole person rather than just their presenting issue, whether that be medical, housing, public benefits, mental health, etc. So the grant focused on four victimizations, which are listed on the slide you see now. It also encompassed an other crimes category, which included things like identity theft, financial exploitation, wage theft, discrimination, harassment and some others. Legal Aid Society contracted with my organization as its technical partner. So our work was to create an online portal where people could find help 24-7 from any internet connected device in English or Spanish. So let's talk about how we designed that portal. Our focus was on two primary audiences. The first one was obviously the victim or survivor. The second was the victim surrogate, or as we sometimes called it in the network a first responder. So we typically think of first responders as being EMTs or police officers, but we took a much broader, more broad view of that and looked at, you know, pastors at churches, a librarian, a school teacher, neighbor, family, friend, really anyone who can advocate for the victim when they are unable to advocate for themselves. So online resources are not in-person resources to state the obvious, right? Your interaction is with a device, a phone, a tablet, a laptop, rather than a person. So for crime victims, it was particularly important for us to overcome the initial and personal nature of the interaction. And to do this, we used good design practices. We knew from experience and data that crime victims can feel violated, unsafe, angry, terrified, scared, uncertain, stupid, dumb, helpless, worried, unsupported, the list goes on. They may experience a loss of independence, independence rather. They may experience unsympathetic authority figures, causation questions, frustration and finding resources, being overwhelmed by lingo, confusion and fear and trying to sort out the multiple entanglements of their lives in that moment. And so they seek to find support, validation, to gain protection, to get consolation and in some cases redemption. So we wanted to create an online portal that attempted to offer some of those things. So to do this, we started with user personas. For those of you who may not be familiar with personas, there are tons of good resources about them online. I've included one at the bottom of this slide, but really a Google search will give you a lot of great resources. Personas are data-based representations of a user or client or customer. They help to focus your design and development efforts. They put a face to who you are helping. They help create consensus from the various people working on the project. And they're used to make decisions about where to concentrate your efforts. We created a persona for each of the four victimizations that were at the focus of the grant. And we did this by using the massive data that Legal Aid Society had collected as part of its initial research and planning phase of the grant. So this included surveys of crime victims from around Cook County and also some several focus groups that they did. So we've created the personas through a series of workshops with advocates who help crime victims on a day-to-day basis. This includes people from the state's attorney's office, sexual assault hotline counselors, immigration lawyers, church pastors, homicide response groups, legal aid advocates, social workers, and so on. The first set of workshops were done on personas and the second set created user journeys. So these user journeys are narratives that tell the story of the victim or the survivor. Again, there are lots of tools available on the web about mapping user journeys. I've linked again to one at the bottom of this page. So let me talk about the workshop process. To do it well requires a lot of planning and research. It requires good facilitation skills and even then there are things that will happen that you didn't expect. An example of this is when I did a workshop to map a journey for our human trafficking survivor whose name is Maria. For those of you who work in trafficking or familiar with it, you may know that there are two distinct categories here. There's sex trafficking and there's labor trafficking. And I could not get the group of experts, advocates in the room, to agree which one Maria should be because nearly every advocate in the room primarily or exclusively served one type or the other. So rather than creating a single narrative in the workshop, I used the workshop to gather a lot of detailed information about common scenarios that are experienced by trafficking victims in both categories. Decisions and turning points for each. And I ended up creating a narrative based off of their responses and also the data that we already had. It's important to note that workshops are just the starting point. So a lot of refining went into the narratives that we created. We continue to engage the workshop participants throughout the development of the stories. The workshops helped to create a sense of ownership in the subject matter experts and the advocates and they continued to help us throughout the process as a result. They were really invested in the outcome. So if you do nothing else that I'm talking about today and designing and developing your products and services, do this one, test. The most critical thing to test is your assumptions because they are probably the most frequently things that are most frequently wrong. So you may have to do some thinking and digging to get to your assumptions. They're not always immediately obvious to us or sometimes they're so obvious that you don't even think of them. They lie underneath the tip of the iceberg which is my metaphor here on this slide. So you need to keep exploring them until you feel like you've exposed them and then test them. The most critical thing that we wanted to test about the portal before we started coding it was whether victims would relate to what we had created. We were particularly concerned about whether our personas and journeys would have the effect of re-traumatizing survivors. So we created some simple clickable prototypes to test the journeys with actual crime victims who had already had appointments scheduled at the Legal Aid Society. So we went over to their space. We hung out in a room and when they were either before or after their appointment with their attorney we met with them. And the results were very positive. So six out of seven survivors said that they related to the stories and thought they were very important to share. A few said the narratives were hard for them to read, not from a plain language standpoint but from a trauma standpoint, but they thought that they were accurate and helpful and important for people to know about. Later we tested our labels with a broader group of users. So of note there is the use of the terms victim and survivor. So you may have noticed that I use them interchangeably and so does the portal. This is because we wanted to be inclusive. In testing we found that some people will identify as one or the other and some as both. And this all depends on the category of the victimization where in the process the user or client is at and what their personal and cultural preferences are. So we designed and we tested and we coded and we tested again. And here is the first version of the victims of crime portal. I'll click on the link in just a moment. But these are our personas. So from left to right we have Dante, Anna, John and Maria. And the portals is also available in English and Spanish. So let's take a look at it. Okay. Can you see my screen now? Are you looking at the Illinoislegalade.org homepage? Okay, great. So I'll go out and look at the portal. So this is the portal itself. So one thing to note is that this is really a sub portal, right? So we still have the main navigation for Illinoislegalade online, which appears on the global header. And we have sub navigation below the hero image. So the survivor stories appear here just as you saw on the last slide. And they each have a narrative. And so let's go in and look at one of these. And so the survivor stories are essentially put along a timeline. And so it's one part narrative. And each part of the narrative is supplemented by helpful resources and options for help, as we call it. So that's what you see here. So each step along the way is the narrative. And it's supplemented with some options for help. And so right now this is a very, it's entirely linear. And so this is obviously the first, our first iteration of the timeline. We would love to expand this to encompass decision points. And so you can actually branch. So if, for example, in the trafficking example, and also in this particular one, right, we made a decision to go with domestic violence rather than sexual assault. They're related, but they're not the same. And, and we could easily branch in a story into multiple stories. If we could just get, get the technology to, to display the way we want it to. And so that's, those will be subsequent iterations that we'll attempt with the timeline. But I encourage you all to look through, look through the timeline, the narratives. There's also another crimes page, which looks a little different. So we did not create personas for this one. But we do have a set of resources. And for each one of the victimizations, we include the local, national, and statewide hotlines if they exist. And then to see it in Spanish is here. We have an exit, a safe exit button that's also there. So we didn't translate the four services providers. That is, because it's not, it wasn't, it's geared towards our secondary audience, right? Which is the, the advocates who are helping victims of crime. So, so please take a look at this when you get a chance and, and give us any comments you have. We, I tell everyone that the, the feedback that we get is the most valuable way of us trying to improve our services. And so please don't be shy about sharing it with us. So can you see my slides again? Am I showing my slides again? Yes. Yes. Okay, great. All right. So let me just say, so, so marketing on a final note. So, so this, this webinar obviously isn't about marketing and outreach and engagement, but I think it's important to note that marketing is really important, right? So you may get the reference here. This is a picture of the field of dreams in Iowa. And my point here is that marketing and outreach is critical. You can't assume that because you build something that you think is good, that people will find it or will use it. So you need to create a plan and implement a plan to tell people about it. And they need to evaluate your efforts, right? But again, that's all for a different webinar. So I can take questions now or later. My email is on the slide if you want to reach out to me to learn more about our process. Great. No questions, but a comment from Hannah says, thank you for all that you do. Terry, you guys are rock stars at ILAO. Thank you. So I'm not seeing any more questions. Actually, we just have one that came in and then we'll, we'll go over to Roger, but a question from Alex. Have you gathered any data about how the stories lead visitors to resources? So we, we, I haven't looked at the Google Analytics. The portal launched two and a half weeks ago. And so we do have Google Analytics set up and we would be able to see, we'd be able to track paths of users through the tools that we have in Google Analytics, but I have not done it yet. I think that's, that should answer the question. Let me know if it doesn't. Great. Thanks, Terry. Great. So we'll go ahead and transition over to Roger. Thank you so much, Terry. Roger, can you see my screen? Yes. Yes, we can. Okay, great. My name is Roger Rand. I'm the technology manager for the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Oregon. And today I'm going to share our plans to improve access to justice as a new county courthouse is designed and built. I'll also discuss our courts diversity and equity awareness efforts. So our courthouse, like many other courthouse structures across the country, continues to operate and structure built over a century ago, serving the needs of a growing, changing and diverse community. Let's see if I can get my slide to progress. There we go. So here's a picture of our existing Central Multnomah County Courthouse that was built in 1914. This courthouse is one of five Multnomah court locations that has courtrooms. The structure was originally six floors and has been modified multiple times over the last century. It currently stands at eight stories tall with 36 courtrooms and three hearing rooms. The building suffered damage from an earthquake in 1994 and hasn't been seismically reinforced. Circuit Court judges, employees and security officers face day-to-day challenges to assist court patrons who need ADA accommodations. The building has outdated electrical, lighting and audio systems. The audio, video presentation equipment is limited in supply and generally lit against bear the responsibility to provide their own evidence presentation equipment. The population of Portland and Multnomah County has outgrown this courthouse. Do you see here on this chart from the U.S. Census Bureau that the population increase in Multnomah County has been significant since 1960? The most significant population growth has happened just since 2000. Part of this is due to our growing reputation as a foodie town and wine town and through popular TV shows that have been filmed here. That's also helped, but we've had a huge influx of new residents just over the past 10 years. Our two bordering counties are Portland suburban communities and when you take into consideration the size of these counties, you'll see that you'll have a much more accurate representation of our area's population. So Multnomah County in partnership with the State of Oregon and the Oregon Judicial Department came up with a plan to replace our existing courthouse to better meet the needs of a growing and diverse population. The new courthouse is currently under construction and expected to open to the public in the spring of 2020. The new Multnomah County courthouse is positioned front and center in the Portland skyline. The courthouse serves as a symbol of our city and county to show that access to justice is at the forefront of our community. The new building was designed with asymmetrical lines. The design is meant to remind us that justice is not symmetrical. Multnomah County Circuit Court welcomes all members of the community and we're working to improve access to justice. The court is rethinking how to manage the flow of court patrons through the new facility and working to broaden access for all members of our diverse community. Here's a picture of the entrance to the new courthouse. Right now it's a crane and a big hole in the ground, but this is what it's going to look like in a couple of years. And this entrance to the courthouse is centrally located so that court patrons, including attorneys, treatment providers, law enforcement, and other community members have access. The new courthouse is on a bus line and four blocks from light rail trains that connect the court to transportation lines that serve all areas of the tri-county area. Payment kiosks will be available prior to security screening to allow patrons to make court payments without having to navigate security screening. Digital announcement boards will be displayed in the queuing line to begin guiding court patrons in Spanish and English. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language after English in the Portland metropolitan area. So court schedules and announcement boards, as those listed here, or those shown here, will assist court patrons on court operation floors available to the public. Technology is used throughout the courthouse to improve the court patrons experience. Kiosks, public terminals, and signings are designed for inclusion. Kiosks and wayfinding allow court patrons to select English, Spanish, Russian, or Vietnamese menu items. These are the four most commonly requested languages for interpreters here in our courthouse. Kiosks and terminals are also designed with accessible options for patrons who have hearing or visual impairment. And non-binary bathroom signs will be used throughout the building. Our centralized public service center will have an ADA accessible queuing kiosk. The interactive kiosks will allow court patrons to select English or Spanish menu guides, identify the purpose of their visit, identify accessibility needs, and secure a place in line. Court patrons are called to a service window with both visual and audio announcements in either Spanish or English. ADA accessible computer terminals are also available for patrons who can begin or complete their business using online resources. Kiosks, public service terminals, and customer service windows are designed to accommodate patrons in wheelchairs and patrons who are audibly or visibly impaired. In Multnomah County, at least 85% of family law cases have at least one self-represented litigant. In our existing courthouse, court patrons seeking assistance for family law-related matters wait in the long lines. There is little separation between patrons discussing sensitive matters with court staff and those waiting their turn. Court patrons who seek assistance with family law-related matters will find service improvements in the new courthouse. The new layout and queuing system will help decrease wait times and offer additional privacy. The family law section will have three areas for court patrons to get the assistance they need. A family law wayfinding and queuing system, similar to the one in the central public service area, will be available to guide court patrons. Court patrons who receive assistance from an agent in the central public service section can be automatically placed in a line to speak to a customer service agent in the family law center so that their wait time is reduced. Digital court schedules will help direct court patrons to the correct courtroom. The courtrooms in the new courthouse are ADA accessible. Courtroom doors allow for easier access to those with physical challenges. Courtrooms will be equipped with infrared-assisted listening systems that should include compatibility with Bluetooth hearing devices. There are seating areas for people in scooters and wheelchairs. Audio and video presentation equipment will be available in all courtrooms. This equipment includes large and clear digital displays in state-of-the-art sound systems. Video and teleconferencing will be built into the courtroom's sound system, improving the digital record of proceedings. Connections for audio and video evidence presentation will be built into the council table. It will be improved courtroom security in our existing courthouse. Jail inmates are escorted by armed personnel through public corridors. In the new courthouse, inmates are escorted to hearings through separate and secure elevators and holding areas. As we develop the systems that I've mentioned in the presentation, we will evaluate their effectiveness. The public will also help us test these systems prior to moving them into the new facility. Digital schedule displays, announcements, and queuing will be tested by the public in the existing courthouse, and feedback will be solicited. The Multnomah County Circuit Court also strives to raise awareness of diversity and equity issues, both in the community and in the workplace. I'll briefly go over these recent efforts to introduce diversity and equity topics to judges and our court staff. In 2015, we had a new trial court administrator that took the helm, and they established the Equity and Diversity in the Workplace Committee. It's a committee of judges, administrators, and staff committed to raising awareness related to diversity and equity issues. The Multnomah County bench held a series of three community listening sessions. One of the judicial members of the Diversity and Equity Committee headed a community outreach program to listen to community concerns. These listening sessions were held in three different parts of town to allow community members easier access. None of the sessions were given in a courthouse or government facility to ensure an open and non-intimidating setting. The presiding judge, along with the chief criminal, chief civil, and chief family law judges, went before members of the community and solicited community feedback. Many other judges, the court management team, and members of the district attorney's office and law enforcement representatives were present to listen. Members of the community were allowed to speak to the panelists and those present for three minutes each. The Diversity and Equity Committee wanted to begin the process of exposing staff and judges to various cultural topics. They chose to begin with a mandatory presentation of a video called Cracking the Code. Cracking the Code is an informative film focusing on the subject of white privilege in American history and current culture. The sessions were moderated and feedback was solicited from all those that attended. The committee determined that rather than porting cultural awareness on staff and judges, and this was based on feedback we received after our employees and judges watched the Cracking the Code video, that a softer approach would be better a way to start increasing awareness and start a dialogue about diversity. The committee decided to offer a series of lunch and learn educational opportunities. These sessions would be 60 to 90 minutes over the lunch hour and be optional. Each committee member takes a topic, finds presenters, and organizes the session. Topics so far include the history of Islam, LGBTQ issues including an introduction to non-binary pronouns, race and the law, immigration and foreign-born residents, a panel discussion on disabilities, Native American culture, and Russian cultural insights. So complimentary to the Diversity and Equity Committee, another committee was also established called the Court Education Committee. This committee was put into place to offer mandatory training. The training offered by this group are typically two hours long, and the first training was on security awareness, and it was given by a deputy Marshall with the Oregon Judicial Department's Marshall's Office. The second training was given by a doctor from the Oregon Health Sciences University. Her talk was about brain science on how trauma affects the brain chemically and physically. The next mandatory training session is coming this fall, and an organization by the name of Resolutions Northwest will offer training on implicit bias and racial awareness. The combination of optional lunch and learn sessions and periodic mandatory trainings offer the judges and employees of the Multnomah County Circuit Court an opportunity to grow as professionals and as culturally aware members of the community. So in closing, Multnomah County Circuit Court strives to be aware of the changing needs of the community. Our goal is not to offer only the appearance that we are inclusive and accommodating. Multnomah County Court Administration with support of the bench is continually looking to reassess and improve how we serve all members of our diverse community. We value feedback from court patrons such as yourselves and do our best to incorporate processes that improve the court experience for all. If you have suggestions for me, I'm here now to listen. I'm also available for suggestions suggestions by email and I put my email address up on the screen if you want to jot that down. Myself and the diversity and equity team would love to hear any feedback or suggestions you may have for our court. And for those of you who've had experience in the Multnomah County existing courthouse and would like to provide input on what you'd like to see in the new courthouse, I'd also like to hear that. So if you have any comments for me, I'm available now. We do have a question. Roger from Caroline asking, does Multnomah County court system have rules about smart cell phones, tablets, mobile devices? Are they allowed in the courthouse? And if not, is there a way litigants can check their devices for no fee? Good question. So the mobile devices are allowed in the courthouse hallways, etc. They are asked to be turned off when you go into a hearing room or a trial room. And that's at the discretion of the judge who's hearing the case, but yes, almost always they're asked to be shut off. People can check their devices out in the hallway and we have free public Wi-Fi to assist those users. And we're also actually planning on integrating the queuing systems in the new courthouse so that you can use your mobile devices. So rather than getting a ticket for lining with actual paper, we have it sent to your phone. And we also hope to include the ability to even text your phone when it's your turn to go up to the public service line. Great. Any other questions? So I'm not seeing any additional questions. But just comments from folks, thank you for the great presentation. I'll go ahead and turn it back over to SART for any closing comments. I think that brings us and just to see if there are any questions that trickle in during that time. Thank you all so much for attending this webinar. This has been one of our most popular webinars. The recording for it will be available on the LS NTAP website and on our YouTube channel. There's a link at lsntap.org to our YouTube channel, but I'm getting the direct link also to put into the chat right now. We've got a great group of individuals here. I did have one question myself is, in making some of these changes, what are really some of the tips on the social or change management side of things when presenting these ideas? And any other panelists can cover it who've worked with committees, groups, the public generally, that type of stuff. Change management is so, so, so hard. And we should probably do a separate webinar on that in and of itself, I think. As humans, our nature is, well, I shouldn't generalize, many of us have, our nature is one towards inertia, right? So what a body in motion stays in motion about it, rest stays at rest, right? And so change management is really important and critical. I think that you need to get buy-in from all of the parties and you need to do a really good job and use data. I think if you, the more you can use research and data to back up your case, the better off you are. I mean, I think it's also a really compelling point to say that we have to be mindful of our users and think what walk in their shoes, look through their eyes as best we can. And to recognize that every question we ask may be a trigger for someone, right? And to think of it in those terms. So how can we be as kind? And that goes sort of to the point of this idea of humility, right? And humanity. So those are my thoughts. I think that the user persona idea coming up with those types of users and making the case from the user perspective does have a pretty good amount of sway with people. I think it's also just customizing your presentations towards the particular audiences. Some people, the stats really matter. Others, it's the stories or other things. Yeah, that's true. It looks like Roger does have some input on that. Yes. Yes. And this is, this is Roger. Another issue is inclusion, as was mentioned earlier in the webinar, including people who are the target audience. And when you're going through the change, any employees that have can offer suggestions or input for that change is so important to listen to. Oftentimes when management tried to go forward with an idea that a leader has, it may be a good idea and the vision may be there, but the practical, you know, implementation isn't there. And we really need buy-in from our users or the public, anyone using these systems so that we know that they work. And having an avenue for them to give feedback, whether that's comment cards or whether it's online feedback. And then also we've learned that not only is it important to ask for the feedback, it's important to then post that you got the feedback and what you're going to do about it. And that's oftentimes the harder piece is how do you communicate to those people who have given you that feedback so that they know that you heard them and that you're going to do something about it. Right. It's as important to share that you've listened and that this has affected your design strategy. Definitely agree there. And this is Jack. And just from an internal standpoint, we've actually been going through a PTLA and looking at and revising all of our client education materials as part of a website redesign. So on a much smaller organizational scale, we've done quite a few trainings. Both kind of optional lunch and learn type trainings and more mandatory all-day staff training, incorporating just raising general awareness of a lot of many things having to do with cultural competency and working with diverse client population that we have, but also more particularly on as it pertains to client ed using gender neutral language. And that's been a lot of like hands-on demonstrations of how to do that. And so far, I think I can tentatively say that it's been pretty successful. People have really gotten on board with it and are definitely doing their best. Excellent. So I think that's all the comments and questions that I have seeing coming in through the box. I think we can probably end a little bit on the earlier side here today. On behalf of Pro BonoNet, and I wanted to thank all the presenters and the attendees and also Sart and Ket at LSN TAP for co-producing this with us. Thank you so much for putting it on. This has been a wonderful topic. And I think this is one of those that is going to be very useful as the next year or two goes on through the online recordings. Thank you to all the presenters who came out today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thankful. Have a good week.