 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining today. Welcome to our disability etiquette and awareness training webinar for nightlife businesses. I'm Jose so guard deputy director for the office of nightlife. For those of you who don't know, we are a liaison between the city and the nightlife industry of businesses, workers, performers and patrons. If you have any issues or questions you can always feel free to reach out to us at nightlife at media.nyc.gov and that address is on the screen. Today's webinar is part of a new series of courses that we've created called night school or nightlife industry training and education. This is a series to share resources and trainings for businesses and workers and patrons with sessions on how best to engage with city agencies. Learn tips for proactive harm reduction addressing quality of life issues and more you can find out more information at nyc.gov slash night school. That's n i t e school and we will put a link in the chat. Today we're very happy to share with you a presentation from the mayor's office for people with disabilities or m o p d. They are here today to present some tips and strategies for how you can get started, or go further toward creating a more inclusive environment for all New Yorkers. Empower you and your staff with best practices for interacting with people with disabilities. We're so excited to have them here today. Thank you for joining us. Before I introduce them to conduct the presentation, I just want to share a few quick housekeeping notes. First, please use the q amp a feature in zoom to let us know your questions throughout the meeting, as well as after the presentation will have some additional time for q amp a. I also want to acknowledge that we are joined by a cell interpreters, you can use the interpretation function at the bottom your toolbar Alyssa and Andrea thank you so much for being with us today as well. If you would also like to use the captions function, you can do that in your zoom as well. And this meeting is also being recorded and live streamed to Facebook, recording will be available share with anyone you know would like to view this webinar at a later time. Again, you can also visit NYC dot GOV slash night school and I te school to find information on other schedule trainings and webinars that are part of this series. Now without further ado, I'd like to turn over to my colleagues from MOPD Eli Ramos and Arthur Jacobs will be conducting a presentation today. Thank you both for being with us here today, and for sharing this important information with our nightlife community. Thank you very much. Welcome everybody to the disability etiquette and awareness training. We're going to skip the access check because we just did that and move straight into the presentation so we are the mayor's office for people with disabilities. My name is Arthur Jacobs. I am a Caucasian male white male in my mid 40s with blonde hair and blue eyes and I am blind. The mayor's office for people with disabilities is a liaison agency between the different city agencies and the disability community. We try to work with the city agencies to make sure that their programs and services are accessible to all New Yorkers including those with disabilities. This is our contact info on this slide, including our social media and the slide deck will be available so you don't need to furiously be writing down these notes, you'll get this info. So today's agenda we're going to start off with an introduction to disability. We're going to move into laws and statistics, talk about language around disability, some of the basics of interacting with people with disabilities. We're going to then move into the real meat of the presentation and talk about different disability types and how to interact with those people and then talk a bit about resources. So enter to disability we're going to start with the models of disability, a little bit about disability justice, and then level set with a disability glossary. So the level of disability we'd like to discuss is referred to as the medical model of disability. This is really focuses on what an individual is unable to do. And it aims to kind of normalize quote unquote, the person with a disability so to make them fit into what society sees as quote unquote normal. For instance, if I as a blind person was to meet somebody for the first time who who viewed disability this way, they would probably ask me questions like, oh, have you tried laser laser surgery. How about that bionic eye solid on a TV show that works right. So, you know, asking me things about ways that I can fix myself right or to become quote unquote normal. And again the emphasis really is on what people cannot do, as opposed to the social model of disability, which really focuses on what a person can do. So it views disability as a social construct. So people with disabilities in counter disabling conditions based on the barriers that they encounter in society so if let's say I was a wheelchair user. I went into a job interview to building and I get there and there's a bunch of steps to get in, and there isn't a ramp or any kind of accessible entrance, then I'm experiencing a disabling condition at that point. You know, before then I was able to get to the building no problems, but it's that barrier that causes the issue. There's that building and there isn't any kind of steps, or there's a ramp there are steps but there's a ramp. Then I'm not encountering a disabling condition and I'm able to go for that job interview, and have the same kind of opportunities that everybody else would have. We really try to think about disability in a way where, you know, when you remove those barriers, you empower people with disabilities to reach their full potential. And so as a blind guy, if somebody encountered me for the met me for the first time and saw disability this way. Their questions would be more along the lines of, oh, how do you use a computer how do you use a smartphone how do you cross the street, right they start from that perspective of, well he can do these things and I just wonder how he gets them done. Then there's the disability justice movement, which came out of the disability rights movement, and really focuses on the fact that we as people with disabilities have a bunch of different aspects of who we are that is more than just our disability. So, depending on our gender on our ethnicity on, you know, our upbringing the different experiences that we have, there is intersectionality there, and that that affects the way that we experience our disability we're not just disabled. And here's some terms that we're going to be using or that you'll hear around disability accessibility when we say accessibility we're taught really talking about not just as something is available but that it's actually usable to everyone including those with disability. Then there's ableism which oftentimes comes out in the language that we use. This is the view that me as a person without a disability, or just that people without disabilities generally are better than or more capable than people with disabilities. So again it comes out a lot in the language that we use. And you know that the way that we think about people and inspiration oftentimes people with disabilities are seen as inspirational just for the kind of ordinary things that they do in life. And as a person without a disability sees them as, oh well this this whatever it is they're doing this blind guys crossing the street, oh wow, you know, that's for me that's an everyday thing it's normal thing it's not anything special. It's really not that inspirational just takes some techniques. So, you know, we prefer that you see us as inspirational for the really cool things that we're doing that you know anybody would be seen as inspirational hey, I just climbed Mount Everest right that that's inspirational I just, you know, ran a three minute video call, you know, which is, you know, incredible. That's like Superman speeds. So, you know, those are the kinds of things we want to be seen as inspirational. And there's this idea of interdependence and independence, and these aren't mutually exclusive right to be independent, you're going to be interdependent, we all are everybody in society is we have family and friends that we rely on, you know our support is even society and government as a whole right, we rely on the police department to keep us safe and the fire department to, to keep us safe, you know, all these things that we rely on and we're interdependent on even just our neighbors so being independent is really about agency. It's about having the ability to be in charge of what happens to you for you about you and making decisions around those things without other people doing it for you. And then interdependence I'm not going to spend any time on that because we just talked about it in the previous slide. All right, we're going to move into laws and statistics we're going to look at the definition the legal definition of disability and then talk about a little bit about what disability looks like here in the city. So the Americans with disabilities actor the ADA was the really the first law that defined disability. And it says that it's a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. I'm going to stop there's like, you might ask yourself what's a major life activity will think about all the things that you do every single day, you know, throughout the day so walking talking running breathing, eating, working, sleeping, you know, all of these things that we just do on a normal everyday basis. These are major life activities. It also covers having a record of such an impairment or being regarded as having such an impairment. So those are the kind of the three ways you can be seen as having a disability. And then the New York City human rights law also defines disability, and it basically uses the same definition. The major difference is it doesn't use substantially in it, but that it just limits a major life activity. And so the New York City human rights law is actually more protective. It's one of the most protective human rights laws in the country actually. So that's good to keep in mind. Alright, some statistics about disability here in the city now, just as a note, these are based on self reporting through the Census Bureau. So these are people who are self identifying as having a disability. You'll notice there are different categories here. If you added up all these numbers it would end up being more than this 945,000, because oftentimes people identify as having more than one type of disability. People deaf and blind, for instance, or use a wheelchair and also have a hearing loss, right? So there are all kinds of different combinations. I'm going to talk a little bit about the last two categories just to help identify them a little more. So self care disability is something that impacts your ability to take care of yourself physically, right? So think about eating, toileting, bathing, these kinds of things. Whereas an independent living disability is something that affects your ability to live on your own. Think cooking, cleaning, doing your laundry and shopping, you know, running a household, that sort of thing. And again, these are self reported. So it ends up being about 11% of New York City's population. We actually think that's about half the actual number. We think it's closer to 20% or even as high as 25%, depending on who you ask. So, all right, so I'm going to pass it over to Eli now to talk about. Great. Thanks, Arthur. I'm trying to toggle the video, but it seems to be stuck. But in any case, I am a Latino male in my early 30s. I have a black hair, brown eyes, olive skin. I'm wearing a gray plaid shirt. And I have the same New York City skyline that you see on this slide as my background, virtual background. Anyways, so we're going to go over some language tips here. First, a little overview. Then we're going to go into the notions of people first versus identity first language. And also, just thanks to avoid in interactions moving forward. One second here. Okay, great. There we go. Hello everybody. All right. Next slide. All right. So, empowering language. So, again, as I was saying, there's the notion of identity first versus people first. And with identity first language, just as it says, it's leading with the disability and, again, it's not that one of these is more preferred than the other. It basically has to do with the way you were raised your cultural background, perhaps the, the sort of upbringing that you had here in the states we tend to prefer person first language it's the same reason you might say person of color as opposed to colored person which, you know, has become the same way to say the very least. But again, and it's not to say that one is more correct than the other, you should just gauge whatever is being used in that situation and just try to mimic it as best you can. Both are used by the disability community depending on the circumstance again. This is just a passive language. I mean, this is just language that we'd like to stay away from in general, but it comes in the form of slurs. Euphemisms that are used to kind of replace disability, usually created by folks without disabilities to describe folks with disabilities, and that has more to do with them than us really. Kind of using our community as the punchline to a joke or an argument, and also negative language that we just would like to avoid in general. Next slide. All right, so with people first language. Again, you lead with the person so you would say person with the disability. Right. And for specific disabilities person who is blind person who is deaf person with autism person person person. Right. And if you're not sure what to use, you can just ask again you just want to gauge whatever is being used. But you know, quickest way to get my attention is just by saying Eli, but if you need to embellish this is the way to do with person first. So identity first it's the same thing we're just going to flip it on its head here. Disabled person disables people blind person deaf person autistic person, etc, etc. And again, just ask. I think we will just appreciate the fact that you're trying your best right and, and so, yeah, just feel free to ask in that given scenario. Next slide. All right, so some outdated terms and metaphors here and some of them you might have been using up to five minutes ago and that's fine we're not here to wag a finger in anybody's face that's the last we want to do we just want to inform educate, hopefully discuss if there's time at the end right but here's some outdated terms handicaps. You'll see that still being used pretty prevalently we're trying to change that. We have condescending word to use the implication is that will always need help right. And as you'll see that's not always the case crippled. I grew up in Sunday school so I used to see that one in the King James version right but again, it's something that we don't really use in modern times. Okay, the next one but it starts with our just try to eliminate that from your vocabulary in general wheelchair bounds I'm not bound by my wheelchair. My wheelchair is the reason I'm in front of you right now. You know, so again this concept of being bound by a wheelchair is something that we disagree with visually impaired hearing impaired it's the word impaired that we take issue with. I'm not going to use in the definition purely an illegal sense but in interactions this is a word you want to stray away from. And metaphors, you know, blindsided falling on deaf peers as sort of like a metaphor for ignorance or, you know, it's just using our community as sort of the punchline to to a joke or to an argument as I was saying before, you might pick up a newspaper and say oh the economy was paralyzed by the coma 19 crisis. Again, I mean I just feel like they're just more eloquent ways of of writing a newspaper headline. Right. So, negative language as well victim sufferer you'll find that folks with disabilities don't see themselves as being victims or suffering from anything really it's just another aspect of what makes us who we are. And that's not all across the board of just saying in general, it's, it's not a great way to start off an interaction anyway. Right. So, and not to that point physically challenged as well. Pretty vague. You asked me, I think we're all physically challenged right we're all bound by the laws of gravity. So again it's not really addressing what's really trying to be meant by this and if you're going to do that might as well just call it for what it is. I think the community nowadays just appreciates a bit more directness. So person with a disability right disabled person if it's identity first, usually the best way to go there. And insults. I've heard all these stupid dumb idiom or crippled spaz. I'll probably hear him again. Maybe today, but I just don't want to hear from any of you. That's all. Next slide. So victims again this sort of beat around the bush way of addressing disability, usually created by folks without disabilities to describe this community. But again, it leaves a lot of room for doubts here, differently abled, not really sure what that means special needs. We tread lightly with this one because the DOE uses it but you know, no mother wants to hear that their child is in special. So we try to leave that one alone but I think in general it's something that we would like to avoid handy capable, apart from just sounding pretty, you know, corny let's say is just again not really the way you want to start off an interaction slang. There's a hard word again, there's crazy there's lame. You could say that you had a crazy weekend or crazy commute right. You could say that, you know, the cat's movie was lame or that the Elvis movie was lame but again there are better ways to illustrate that same points. You could say you had a wild weekend or ridiculous commute, or you could say that the Elvis movie was lackluster. Right. There's no need to sort of throw us under that proverbial bus, just to get your point across right. Next slide. All right, so some disability etiquette basics, when it comes to interactions and accessibility concerns as well. Next slide. So with interactions for one you want to, you don't want to assume that everyone with a disability needs assistance back to my previous point. You want to ask before you help. And no means no even if you think differently. It's more important that you ask how. And it's also important to realize that the struggle is important for a lot of folks. From my first hand experience. The way I learned how to move around in society at large was through those growing pains and trials of error. So that's very important to a lot of folks. Similarly for the sensory disability community to that ability to go about on themselves and do those things is to empower them. Right. So, again, no means no, even if you think it does, and you need to respect them. Right. So, you always want to speak directly to the person with a disability, not to the companion or the interpreter, or their dinner dates, or whoever they met that night at the nightclub right always to the person with a disability. Don't ask personal questions either it's this could be a tough one because most of the time that requires a personal answer and you have to consider. Are you going to be in the right state of mind to receive that personal answer. Are you just being nosy. Are you just being rude on the two and three platform at 930am. You know, these are all things you have to consider and also the level of trust they have with the individual so it's best to just avoid these personal questions right. Don't assume that someone does not have a disability just because you cannot see it. Big reveal. My disability is a mobility one and my wheelchair is out of frame so surprise. I don't think you would have known unless I told you right so again, don't assume someone does not have a disability just because you cannot detect it. So, accessibility considerations, you want to think about access and all your programs and services like we did today, we're doing our image descriptions we have ASL here today thank you very much ASL. And you also want to be mindful and scheduling events and meetings such as we did today making sure that all these things are in place in the virtual sense but even in the physical sense. This is place going to be easy to get to how are the restrooms. Is there an accessible train station nearby. Is there a process with security at the front desk when you sign in. Do I need to do xyz right. Do I need to talk to this staff member outside be it a bouncer or or a major D or whatever it is. So, having that information readily available is very helpful. And in the virtual sense, it's not a product endorsement but zoom is the best platform when it comes to accessibility. Everything else is a far second third fourth place. So, zoom would be the way to go. Also include access language and all your events and promotions. So again, not just in the sense of letting people know what to do and when and how but also in the way that it's written to is there folks with cognitive disabilities. Folks with some learning disabilities dyslexia would have you that would need to digest this information in simple, clear language, right. So, keep the SAT words out. Also be prepared to hire accessibility professionals such as we did. And we have resources to that effect on our website to our next slide. All right, so we covered the basics we're going to go into some more specific examples here with different disability types. So starting with mobility such as my own. And again, I mean, the international symbol of disability is someone in a wheelchair we definitely recognize that but it could come in different forms to wheelchair, roll later crutches cane, even some of the more ergonomically designed ones like you'll see at the top left. Right, this is all. Again, it's not always the wheelchair it's a broad spectrum of devices being used and manifestations of those disabilities. Next slide. So, for one, we see a disgruntled gentleman here it seems like he's not having a good time. There's a young lady who probably comes from a place of empathy. But back to my previous point I don't think she asked how she could assist she just inserted herself right. And to that point a wheelchair a person's wheelchair is part of their personal space I certainly consider it to be what this young lady is doing by pushing him. It would be the same as as being just coming up to somebody and pushing them aside just to get through to a particular room or space right. It's inappropriate. It's rude, potentially dangerous potential potentially litigious lawyers are expensive. So, if you haven't been asked to assist with pushing or touching these mobility devices. If you don't do it. It's considered inappropriate, and it could create a disabling condition as Arthur was saying before, moving these devices without permission. All of a sudden you're in a doctor's office and your cane is halfway across the room. Creates a disabling condition. Right. Next slide. So, when interacting, and you know this is going to be tough and some of the more crowded spaces but just do the best you can here. We see two scenarios to individuals one is a wheelchair user one is not, and they're sitting down. In the second scenario, the non wheelchair user is standing but he's doing so at a slight distance and why is that it all has to do with the eye level. So one, the literal meaning of the word condescending is to look down on somebody. So we want to avoid those kinds of interactions, but also lifting your head up to somebody who's standing two and three feet above you for 45 minutes while you talk to me about the pretty serenuous. Right. I could do about 15 minutes. But after that I might ask you to sit down or again just stand at a slight distance, as you see here. Next slide. Accessibility of the space. Yeah, so this is very important we see a young man here trying to reload a staple or any pants why the staples are all the way at the top. Now granted am I going to load up the copy machine with 1000 count of paper probably not. Everyday things like staples, telephones, computers, mice keyboards, fork, knife, spoon, napkin, tablecloth. These are all things you want to keep within reach. And being aware of desk heights and positions as well. Keeping aisles and walkways clear, especially to and from the facilities the restroom is the laboratories right, and the entrances and exits. Very important. Next slide. Keeping accessibility accessible. I know some of you on this call might have, you know, service ramps and ramps to get into the businesses but it's no use if it's blocked right so we have a wheelchair user here trying to access the ramp here at the edge of the sidewalk and who's blocking it. Well, what did you know it's a cop car that says Polysia. Last slide check that's the Spanish word for police. And you know this happens sometimes but again, just try to keep these entrances clear doorways open and unblocked if possible security allowing right. This will just create a better situation for everybody. Some accommodations we won't get to into this but you know ergonomic equipment. There are some folks who might benefit from ergonomic kitchenware for example, in these situations, maybe an ergonomic glass, or cup, you know, what have you. Maybe going for the Tom Collins glass as opposed for the wine glass. Just an example there. But yeah, these are all accommodations that you see in the workplace and academia at home for a lot of folks. And again we'll be sending this slide that so you'll be able to explore that a little more yourselves. Next slide. I'm going to pass it back over to Arthur. All right, thank you Eli. We're going to talk about the blind and low vision community now. And then we have a couple of stereotypical images of blind people, but just keep in mind that not all blind people use a cane or a dog. Not all blind people wear sunglasses, etc. It is a wide range. And with that in mind. Here are some blind and low vision basics. So blindness has a wide range. Most blind people actually are have some level of vision, people who identify as blind. Most have some amount of vision. Many wear glasses, you know, that sort of thing and they're still considered considered themselves to be blind. It doesn't mean absolutely no vision just means that you operate and do things in a way that you know somebody without vision would do. So you use a cane you use a dog you use large print you use you know whatever. So our hearing and our sense of smell are not better. They're, we just pay more attention to them we get information, we get more information from them. And so they're not inherently better we just pay more attention. I'm your guy if you're in the mall and you want to find said a bun. I can help you there. So, and you know what the biggest barriers for people who are blind is access to information and low expectations and I think access and low expectations are really the biggest barriers for all people with disabilities so are interacting with blind people. When speaking to a person who's blind, you want to identify yourself helps them to know that you're talking to them specifically. So if you're walking with a blind person want to stay on the opposite side of their cane or their dog, I just gives more room to maneuver and makes it things easier. You can offer to read written materials or assisted filling out forms. So for instance, if you have a menu and you don't have a braille version or large print version or it's not online or whatever it is, you can offer to read that. So if you are going to guide a person, be prepared to give either verbal directions or offer an arm, but it is their choice you're going to want to find out which they prefer. Don't assume it's one or the other. And it's best to have print materials available in some in an alternate format, large print braille and accessible electronic formats, etc. So if you see a blind person in public, there's no need to make a scene or call attention to them. Nobody really wants to be called out right. If you think that somebody needs help. That's fine, go up to them offer them help, you know can help you is anything I can do. But be prepared for them to say no. If they do say no, no means no. There's no need to continue to try to help them anyway, or just yell at them, you know, directions or instructions as they as they move along. And if they do say yes you want to give them options or ask how you can best help don't make an assumption about what they need. So, one of the two ways you can guide a person is human guide. So physical guidance, you're going to want to find out which arm that they prefer to use and this is which of your arms. They're going to grab a hold up so it's not you grabbing them. It's them grabbing you, unless they specifically ask for you to take out their shoulder or their arm or something. Generally speaking, you're going to, they're going to hold on to you again it goes back to that agency. And we talked about earlier you want to give them the options. Your arm should be straight down and against your body. So not bent at the elbow and not out away from me like a chicken wing. One of the reasons for this when it's straight. It's gives the person more to hang on to it's easier to hold on to your arm than when you're it's a bent elbow. And when it's down against your body, it gives them the immediate feeling of your body as it moves, you know, if you're turning or moving left to right. They're going to feel that immediately as opposed to you have your arm away from your body. That movement gets telescoped out and there's a little bit of a delay. If you come to a narrow space you just want to announce that put your arm behind you so they can grab your wrist and walk behind you. Try to keep your arm is as far away from your as you can comfortably to give them space to walk behind you. And then for, for your steps, you just want to announce that they're coming up, you know, coming to some stairs going up or coming to stairs going down. You don't need to give them account of how many there are anything that they'll have a mobility device they're using or techniques that they're using to figure that out as they go up or down them. They don't even know they're coming into know which direction they're going. There's nothing worse than going up downstairs or down upstairs. Very uncomfortable. I know from experience for chairs, make sure that you orient them to the seat right so you want to show them the back of the chair, as well as the seat of the chair so that they understand its orientation can sit appropriately. The option is to provide verbal guidance a lot of blind people are very proud of their independence and that agency right, and they're, they're going to want to not be physically guided but get those verbal directions. I personally prefer it. I'd like to know my environment I like to explore it and I can't do that if I'm just being led around. Right. I'm going to bypassing all the things that I'm going to be encountering if I'm exploring myself. So I'm going to want the directions. So in that case, you can provide the verbal directions. And, but you don't want to use vague language you want to be precise. Imagine if you were using your GPS right, and you put in your destination and it said all right, navigating to wherever you're going and said okay first go over there. You're probably going to look at the thing cross Lee and toss it out the window because it's broken right now that's not helpful at all if you want, you know, turn by turn directions you want specific instructions on how to get where you're going. So you want to use things like turn left to you know go left go right straight ahead it's behind you. If it is kind of a complex situation it's not directly left or right or in front or behind. So if you think of the face of a clock the person is standing in the middle of the face of a clock, and whatever direction they're facing is 12 o'clock. So, based on that orientation you might say you know oh it's the, the bar is, you know, off to your 10 o'clock, right or whatever it is. You know, make sure that the directions are just major way points so think it like a GPS it's not giving you every single obstacle to avoid. It's just giving you major way points go to the end of this block turn left walk three blocks it's on your right. You know that sort of thing. Go to the end of this walkway. You know until you get to the last table and then turn left. Right so just major way points you don't have to point out again every obstacle because their cane or the dog are going to help them navigate through that individual obstacles they might encounter. So, some blind allow vision accommodations is common things that people with vision loss can benefit from large print which we define as 18 point font in a sans Sarah family 4.5 to one contrast ratio Braille which is a series of dots that represent letters or groups of letters. Electronic documents. So we're documents PDFs PowerPoints that are created in an accessible way. And then audio description for videos this is an additional audio track on top of the regular dialogue music that describes the important visuals within the video. If you are interested in checking out audio description you have Netflix, pretty much all Netflix originals have audio description in them. So you just turn that on and experience. There are some recent actually there aren't any reasons going to pass it on to Tony to talk about that's a part of your opinion. Hello everyone. My name is Tony. I'm Tony wooden. I'm a direct program supervisor for MOPD Mayor's Office for people with disabilities, and I focus on participants who are deaf and hard of hearing. I'm an African American male in my 30s. I am sitting in my office. And I'm just doing a visual description I'm wearing like a blue cardigan, and I'm here in my office. So a little bit about me. I am born deaf and generationally deaf. I'm actually part of the largest African American deaf family in America. And I am very comfortable as a deaf person and that is my identity next slide please. So a little bit about deaf and hard of hearing basics, not every deaf person communicates in the same way. It's important to remember that people have preferences of how they communicate for example ASL gesturing writing notes on paper, they might text on their phone to communicate that way so please don't make assumptions that all deaf people communicate in the same way. Also, a capital D as in deaf with a capital D denotes a member of the deaf community and having a deaf cultural identity, much like an ethnic identity because we have our own culture, jokes, performers, language and traditions. People who do not use a capital D for deaf they use a lowercase D and that denotes not being involved in deaf culture, not using ASL as a primary language, they might just have a hearing impairment. They might not be doing any signing or spend time with other people who are deaf. So I wanted to explain that about capital D deaf versus lowercase D deaf, I identify as a deaf person therefore I use a capital D as deaf because I'm part of a cultural and language community. People in the deaf community, a little bit of information we do tend to be very direct and blunt that's often said about people who are deaf and the reason for that is because we have a lack of access of information. And so we often just will ask questions that might sound blunt or direct because we just want the information. For example, if a person were deaf would say how much do you make at work. I understand that for greater society, that's not a question that gets asked. But it's really because of a desire for knowledge, and not an attempt to be rude or nosy. And again, because we don't have the same access to that kind of information that other people might have. So if a person appears to be blunt or direct, it's not meant to be rude, it's just inquisitive. Now for most of the deaf community, English is not their first language, which is something important to understand and remember English and ASL are not the same. And ASL sign language like I'm doing right now is not English in the air. It's not at all. Additionally, ASL is not universal. And I know most people are surprised to hear that, but ASL is American sign language and each country has their own French, Russian sign language. And because the same way there are spoken languages around the world such as the same for sign languages around the world so ASL is not universal. It's important to understand that ASL is not just the hand movements I'm doing, it's also a facial expression. It's also speed, it's size of the signing for emphasis, body language, there are many components besides just the signs. Next slide please. Interacting with the deaf community. You may need to get a deaf person's attention, how can you do that without calling their name. If you're in the same room, you can get the light switch turn it on and off to flick the lights that's acceptable. You may also tap a person here on the shoulder like I am. And then that person can turn around and see you where they are, especially if you're coming from behind or the side, and they don't see you it's appropriate to tap them on the shoulder. Now if you see two people who are deaf standing and chatting with each other. They have their own way of getting their own attention, for example, pounding on the table. If you're standing a person's foot, just, you know, kind of pounding your foot into the ground or into the table will create a vibration. Sometimes a deaf person might also use their voice to verbalize like just a quick little vocalization to get a person's attention without actually speaking to them. So those are ways of getting attention. I ask a person what their preferred method of communication is sign language just during writing or speaking in lip reading. If a person says you may speak I'm going to lip read you, please speak normally, please don't speak slower, please don't shout talking louder will not help me because I am deaf. It actually will make your speech come out a little different and it'll be easier to understand. Please make sure you're communicating in an area with enough light not a place it's too dark, and that is applying for sign language or lip reading or writing on notes, because if it's too dark we won't be able to see. Next slide please. Now communicating with people who are deaf. People do not all know sign language and we understand that that's fine. Like I say type on your phone and a person can see that but if you're going to use that method keep it short and to the point because remember English might not be a deaf person's first language. And also when you do have an ASL interpreter and this is very important I want to emphasize maintain eye contact with a deaf person with the person you're talking to that's deaf. Please do not just look at the interpreter and ignore the deaf person. I've seen that happen where the person wrongfully looks and talks to the deaf, I mean sorry to the interpreter. It ignores me now the person you're really talking to. So please make eye contact and continue speaking directly to that deaf person so they feel included, and it does not appear to rude. So you maintain the eye contact and speak directly to the person that's deaf through an interpreter. And as well. You know, sometimes it can take a little bit of time to understand each other and obtain that way to communicate and having some patients is something that we really appreciate. Next slide please. And we're going to just switch interpreters really quick. Switch, thank you. Sorry. There's some deaf and hard of hearing accommodations that some people prefer to use the first one is an ASL interpreter, like I have here today. The next is an assistive listening system that would be connected to an FM unit that someone would wear, and you could hear a person speaking through the sound coming through the FM unit with earbuds in your ears. The third is an induction loop. So that concept is used with your own hearing aid or cochlear implants and connected to someone using a microphone and the same concept is that the sound comes through the microphone into your either hearing aid or cochlear implant. The next is cart captioning. Which is communication access real time translation so someone speaks and at the same time it is being typed what they're saying. The next is close or open captions so you know if you're watching TV or a movie, you would see the words coming on the bottom of the screen, you can enable that. The difference between closed and open captions is that closed captions means you could either have them on or off you could switch up the settings the size. There is a transcript through them, as opposed to open captioning, which means that the captions are going to be on screen the entire time you do not have the ability to turn them on or off, or change the settings for them. So as a deaf person, it's important to know their preferred accommodation you can assume that all of these will apply to any deaf person, every deaf person has their own preference, for example, me personally, I prefer to use the ASL interpreter. I will also use cart if needed, open captions closed captions depending on the situation, but an assisted listening system, and the induction loop would not work for me. I can hear, yes, some, but I would not understand the words and I would therefore miss the meaning, and it would just come in as sound in general, not words that I could differentiate. So you really just have to know to keep in mind who you're speaking with and their preferred accommodation. And next we're going to turn it back to Eli. Thank you. Thanks, Tony. We only have a few minutes left but essentially the rest of the presentation is basically reiterating the same points of, again, asking how before if right, or instead of if. And just, you know, living by the golden rule, I think is pretty much the most important thing here is treat others the way that you would want to be treated right and especially if they're patronizing. If they're offering business to your establishment right so and then so because our money is green as well. Right. So, I don't think we're going to have time to go through the slides, but again, everyone will receive a copy of this presentation. And again if there are questions, you could contact us, maybe we could throw up the, the contact slide there. Because unfortunately, we have run out of time, but again, questions, feel free to reach out. Yeah, that's that's our contact info there. There's a wonderful website that I will put in the chat called ask Jan.org. For accommodations. So, if you're not quite sure what accommodations are right for what disability. Ask Jan.org allows you to simplify it based on disability type, or even in reverse by accommodation, and then determining okay this accommodation works best with these population segments right so a wonderful resource for all of you to use. And with that, I just want to thank you all for being here on behalf of MOPD. Hopefully, we'll get some questions via email, we're always willing to answer any and all questions and concerns. But with that I'm going to pass it back over to Jose and Francesca. Thanks so much. Thanks Eli and thanks everyone for coming. You know we hope everyone's been able to take some very helpful and useful information from your session and your presentation and that everyone can start to take some steps to put some of these tips and resources and behaviors into practice, both, you know, in their businesses and venues as well as their everyday lives. And as always, if you have any other questions about your venue or your events you can always contact us via email at nightlifeandmedia.nyc.gov or on our social media accounts at NYC Nightlifegov. So we will leave the chat open for just another minute if folks want to pull down any of those web addresses, and we wish everyone a wonderful day. Thanks again to Eli and Arthur and Tony for their excellent presentations. Thanks, it was a pleasure. Thank you all.