 night to go ahead and come up, introduce yourself, talk about the materials that are at your table, and then we'll get started with our conversation. After the conversation this evening, you can go back and visit with the exhibitors again, and they will be open and available for you. So you want to start, Ashley? And I know you're participating in the conversation too, but come talk about what you have available on your table. Good evening, everyone. I'm happy to be here. So I am with the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, or TCDD. So TCDD is established in state and federal law to promote systems change and to improve the services and supports available to individuals with developmental disabilities and their family members. And so I have some materials on our table that talk about how you can become a council member. So TCDD consists of a governor-appointed board of 27 members. So it states in law that at least 60% of our members have to be individuals with developmental disabilities or their family members. And so this really aligns with the whole notion of nothing about us without us. And so if you're interested in applying to become a council member, I have information on that. We also have an email sign-up sheet. We frequently send out advocacy opportunities information during legislative session, how you can go advocate at the legislator on bills that could impact you and with state agencies as well when they have pertinent hearings or advisory committee meetings. I also have some information on the grants and stipends that we offer. So we offer quite a bit of funding opportunities for people to have a speaker come to their event or if you're needing help paying for travel, so you can attend an event to learn more about how to be a better advocate on disability-related issues on a whole host of things like that. So if you're interested in any of those opportunities or resources come and see me and I'd be happy to help. Next. Who wants to tell us what you brought? Hello. My name is Matteo Trevino. I'm with the Office of Councilwoman Ana Sandoval. The councilwoman unfortunately couldn't make it here tonight, but I'm here in her stead. I brought some flyers for the SA Speak Up Budget Input Campaign events that they're hosting. So they're hosting seven input events in the next two weeks. Two events are in Spanish. I have plenty of flyers for that, so that y'all can provide your input on that process. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you. Matteo has his table right over here. Glenda? Hi, I'm Glenda Wollin with the League of Women Voters. We have applications for you to register to vote. That is the most important thing we have. We really want everybody to register to vote and then to go vote on election day. Other than that, we have take-home mail-in applications. If you know somebody at home that needs to register, you can take one of those home for them. They can mail it in. We have yours. Vote in your best interest. It's the same thing that you heard Larry talking about up on the screen. We have some other things. We have a request for disability exemption, which lets you vote with just your voter registration card if you can provide documentation that you're on Social Security Disability or you have at least a 50% disability from the VA. It's just a form you fill out and mail in. I have the application for a ballot by mail that you fill out and you can have all your ballots sent to you at home rather than go to the polling place. It's just a form you fill out and mail in. We have a Texas Voters Bill of Rights. It's just a nice thing to have that explains what your rights are at the polling place. It's a document that was signed by the mayor and county judge and election supervisor that we had made up. There's things to look at back there on that back table. If anybody needs registering, we'll be here after this is over, so please come by. Hi, everybody. If I knew I was going to come up to speak, I would have brushed my hair, so please excuse me. I am with Disability Rights, Texas. We're a federally mandated program to exist in every state in the United States to provide free legal services to people with disabilities. It's legal services. They're free. We provide services in the areas, and we have them in a brochure on our table, but I'm just going to read them out loud just in case you never thought about that's an issue that I needed some help with. I need some folks that needed some help in that area. Let me call them next time that I confront that. So accessibility, community living, education, anything from K through 12 or higher education, employment, people's rights in employment, healthcare, housing, protection and civil rights, transportation and voting rights, but if there's any area where you feel that your rights have been violated or a person with a disability and the rights have been violated, you can contact us. I'm an advocate with our agency. I provide services to folks who are receiving services from Texas Workforce Vocational Rehab Services Agency and or the Independent Living Services that transferred over to Health and Human Services. You'll find publications in our table on voting rights today. We also have brochures on programs like protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security, which is a program that helps an individual understand how their benefits could be impacted by employment. We also have brochures on CAP, which is what I do, and we have a really nice handy dandy calendar that has from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation that lays out the different areas of law and what you could do and resources that you could access. Thank you. All right, and then we also have in the back a demonstration of the audio output voter registration machine that we currently use, where it has it that by hopefully next May's election, they're going to have some new equipment, which will have a few more bells and whistles, but that's what we're using right now. I'm Melanie Cawthon. I'm with Disability SA, and we have the check-in table that you passed by this evening. I would just like to highlight that we did charter a bus and we have 21 seats to take as many people that will fit in that bus up to Austin for the Texas Disability Issues Forum on August 27th. So if you need a ride, we've got one for you, and let's go make an impact in Austin and ask questions of the legislative folks that are up for election this coming year. Let me introduce Joana Valenzuela. No. Yes? Did I get that right? Okay. My Spanish is a little off. She is with Alamo City Consultants and a huge advocate for individuals with disabilities in our community, and she is going to moderate and facilitate the conversation this evening. And I welcome all of our exhibitors to go ahead and move forward so you can join the conversation. You're very much a part of the perspective that everybody brings to the table, so feel free to come and join us, get out from behind your tables, and then if we could have Larry and Ashley... Yes, sorry. I need notes. I should have notes. I should not be relying on my brain power. Go ahead and join us up on the stage, and we will begin the conversation. Yolanda? Welcome everybody to Voting and Disability Essays Forum, and we do have some resident experts up here, and obviously all along the walls here. I'm hoping that when this is over that you can visit with all those tables. I know there's two tables that I'm going to visit with specifically. I'm a huge advocate as well. I'm a consultant, and I was with a non-profit CASA for 14 years, and I was vice president. Now I do consulting for lots of non-profits in San Antonio, and I thoroughly enjoy it. We have amazing non-profits. Drew's here. We just have great non-profits here, and I love working with them. But Disability San Antonio, I really love working with them. I have a son with autism, and so I've been an advocate for a long time, or at least since he was little. And so this tugs at my heartstrings, and I really enjoy these conversations. Sometimes there's a lot of people, sometimes there's not as many, but every time we have one, all the people that show up are very interested in the particular topic, so it makes it for a great conversation. We have a couple of panel experts here, and so I'm going to start out by introducing Larry. Larry Johnson is a disc jockey. I guess he wears different hats, and that's awesome. Human resource manager, author, and more, but most of all, Larry's an advocate, and that is a very broad term. When you're an advocate, boy, you're all over, so I love it. With vast experience in advocating for those who are blind, with a wide variety of elected officials, Larry will speak to the importance of voting, and why everyone should get registered, educate themselves on it, and get out to vote for every single election date. So I'm going to let Larry take it from here and speak a little while on his expertise, and I know that there's very specific things that he wants you to know and in regards to voting. This is problematic. I've got to read this. Right there. You have to back up a little bit. Yeah, I know, but you're good right there. Oh, okay. You need something to set the mic down on? Yes. Or I can hold the mic for you. You can? Do you mind? Oh, here she comes. Come on up. All right. You're good to go. You can let go. Thank you so much. Okay. Usually, I like to put my papers on a podium, but that's okay. All right? So I have a question for you. Do you care? Do you care about social security benefits, Medicare, SSI, SSDI, food stamps, the cost of prescription drugs, healthcare services, broken sidewalks, or potholes in the street? Does it matter to you how much you pay in taxes, or how safe you and your family are here in San Antonio from gun violence and crime? Do you vote? Or are you one of those people who thinks voting is a complete waste of time and you just keep on complaining about how the government is a total failure and that nothing you can say or do will matter? You know what? You're right. And nothing will get done to make things better because you don't care. And if you don't care, why should the politicians, their attitude reflects your attitude. And if you don't give a damn, why should they? It's a lot easier to do nothing and then complain. Your inaction, your apathy, your failure to speak up and speak out gives the politicians and elected officials the permission, the excuse to do nothing. Last month, the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, turned 28. So, you may ask, what has it done for me? Has it gotten me a job? Installed ramps at the restaurant across the street from where I live? Made the power companies send me my bill in braille, forced the city's emergency management operation to create a system to notify and assist me in emergency disaster situations? Convinced people to stop treating me like a helpless pitiful burden on society? No. It hasn't done hardly any of those things. So, why should I care about the ADA? Why should I bother even to celebrate it? Whose fault is it anyway? The government, politicians, your parents, your neighbors, the court? No, none of those. It's your fault because you didn't care. Ask yourself, what have I done to help the ADA live up to its promise? Did I vote in the last election? Did I tell those candidates running for office what my concerns were? What programs I wanted them to protect? What policies I wanted them to change? How many phone calls have I made? Emails or letters have I sent? Meetings have I attended? Hours have I spent speaking up and speaking out on behalf of myself and other individuals with disabilities? How many elected officials have I approached to tell them about my personal concerns, about the injustices that I have experienced? We have a choice. We can focus on all that has not yet been accomplished by the ADA. We can lament the lack of affordable housing, the high cost of healthcare services, the continued high unemployment among persons with disabilities, and we can surrender ourselves to apathy, complacency, and inaction. And who would blame us? It's easy to give up. It's easy to listen to and believe the politicians when they say nothing can be done. It's easy to tire of the struggle, the never ending daily struggle of trying to deal with the accumulated barriers and injustices experienced by persons with disabilities. But still, we have a choice. It's a hard choice. It's the choice to have the desire, the courage, and the commitment to be willing to be advocates for change. Being advocates means believing that our efforts, that our vote, can make a difference. Things will get better for people with disabilities only when people with disabilities themselves are convinced that it's up to us to make them better. We can no longer afford to waste our time or energy in blaming society, public officials, or our families or friends for the state of affairs that we're in. Nor does it serve any useful purpose to see ourselves as helpless victims of a cruel society. We are in charge of our destiny. We have in our hands the power for change. So here we are, just three months away from another important election. What will we choose? The road of apathy, complacency, and dependence, or the road of advocacy and self-determination. It's up to you. And it's up to me. In the last midterm election in Bayer County, just 12% of registered voters cast their vote. Just 12%, a little over 100,000. Will we let a small minority of voters decide our future? There are some 267,000 persons with disabilities of voting age in Bayer County. Our vote could make a difference. Your vote could make a difference. Will you vote? Thank you, Larry. You can go ahead and have a seat, and then we are going to introduce Ashley, and then after Ashley, then we'll take the questions all at the same time. Ashley Ford is a public policy and communication specialist for TCDD, Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, and she has expertise in the rights of individuals with disabilities around the issue of voting. And so if you'd like to stand up and play your spill. Absolutely. It's kind of hard to follow that, right? I think he deserves another hand. So you basically stole all my talking points. It's fine. So I just kind of want to provide a perspective on voting and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD, because individuals with IDD are actually two times less likely to vote than all other individuals with disabilities. And so if you're talking about poor voter turnout among all people with disabilities, it's even lower for individuals with IDD. So why is this? A lot of theories are out there. Some people say it's because a lot of people with IDD are under guardianship. However, most, if not all, I don't want to say all, I would say most people under guardianship with IDD can still vote. They still can retain the right to vote. It doesn't eliminate their right to exercise their democratic privilege, right? And then we also see that individuals with IDD are more likely to live in institutional settings. And so among individuals with IDD, they are found to be eight times less likely to vote if they're living in a state operated intermediate care facility. So an example of that would be a state-supported living center. I believe there's one here in San Antonio, correct? So just to show with hands, how many of you guys voted in the last primary? Wow, like the majority of you. How many of you voted in the 2016 general election in November? Wow. So part of the issue with events like this, I love this event, but it's almost like I'm preaching to the choir, correct? Everyone in this room can understand and recognize the importance of voting. And so I think we have to really ask ourselves how can we reach out to those people who aren't members of the choir, right? Who aren't active participants in the political landscape of Texas? And so some ideas to do that. So one untapped thing are families. So studies show that if you have a family member who votes, you're more likely to vote. And so we see this ripple effect, right? And so if one person, your family votes, they'll encourage another person in the family to vote and then another person and it just goes on and on. You know, another thing we can do is talk about allies, right? And so people who maybe don't identify as someone, as someone who has a disability coming into the scene with us. And so I like to think of during the civil rights movement, you had a lot of young, white, college-educated kids going to Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Summer. And what those, you know, white, upper-class college kids could do is they spread awareness of the brutality faced by a lot of African Americans trying to register to vote. And so we can see opportunities like this and look at what other successful movements have done as far as increasing the opportunities for political participation throughout our country's history. And, you know, tonight I decided to wear this white shirt to represent the women's suffrage movement. We can also look at what the women's suffrage did and their efforts to educate women and encourage women to be active members of our society by voting. I think that's kind of all I have to say right now. I also wanted to mention that whenever we're looking at how to improve the voting participation rates of people with disabilities, I think it's important to also think of young millennials with disabilities. So it's a frequent piece in the news. So I wanted to find a millennial real quick, though. So millennials are defined as people between the ages of 22 and 37. So we're seeing low voter turnout rates among millennials. Well, we're also seeing low voter turnout rates among people with disabilities. So one can presume that young people with disabilities probably have like the lowest voter turnout rate in Texas. And so I think that that's an opportunity there. I think we have to look at how we're trying to engage with this community because they are the future. And so, you know, when you're looking at millennials with disabilities, they're the first generation of young people who have come up and been primarily educated after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA. And so maybe you were talking about all of these wonderful things that have happened since, you know, the passage of the ADA and the community integration that we've seen. However, it may be easy for these younger people with disabilities to not realize how far we've come, and to not maybe realize how much that previous generations of people with disabilities, how hard they fought to get where we are today. And so I don't want to say that that may be the cause of voter apathy, but one could presume that that could be a correlation there. And I'd love to answer any questions you guys have for me. Thank you. All right. So you heard from Larry and Ashley. We did have some questions come through, but I'd love to hear some of the questions that you all have out there. Does anybody have a question for either of them? I know there was a lot of questions, and so anybody? What kind of supports are available for people who need assistance to vote at the voting machine? Is there any? That's a really good question. So one thing that is available to people is that you can have an interpreter come, and you can also have a support person come. A support person can be anyone of your choosing. It's important to know it just doesn't have to be an election worker. So if you want to bring someone that you're used to having help you and support you in your life that you can bring them and ask them to help you, they can't tell you how to vote, but they can be your support person. You can also have an interpreter of your choosing. And if you don't have an interpreter there that can communicate with you using the language or the communication that you use, the county election officials have to supply you with that interpreter. So Ashley, so as an example my son can't really read, and so if I wanted to take him to the polls, are you saying that I can stand right next to him as he votes so that I can interpret what the ballot is saying? If you say, if he says, you know, I want to choose her, he's nonverbal, so. Okay, well, he won't be saying that. If there could be a way that he could communicate otherwise to the poll workers that you, he would like for you to be his supporter, then absolutely. Okay. And this is in correlation with the Help America Vote Act or HAVA. And for any information about voting and supports or accessibility with voting, Disability Rights Texas, there's someone here from Disability Rights Texas, they are the best contact that you can have for that. Is there anybody in the audience that has used this before? You've done it. And so what was your experience with that? What I remember you can do, you can stand by them, read it out to them. You just can't touch the machine. As if I remember correctly, or at least that's the way it was with who I was helping was my grandmother. I don't know if it's different for visually impaired people or how it's handled in each situation. They just told me I couldn't touch the machine. That sounds right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So and I think it's important to note too that studies have shown that people with disabilities prefer to vote in person versus all of the other options that you have for voting. And so it's important for our county election officials to understand that. And so maybe it would improve the accommodations that they are providing. The reason that I'm here is because I would like to know how I know how the deaf community gets their communications across. But does somebody come for like different foreign languages like for Spanish or for German or for anything? How do those people gain access to voting? Not, you know, people from other countries? Yeah, that's a great question. So federal law says that you have to provide an interpreter for people in the language that they're most familiar with. Does anybody here know how you go about requesting that interpreter? You just call the elections office and going to the location and then they have to send an interpreter? The interpreter, by the city, they're required to have like an area set up for the deaf so they can, they should have an interpreter there at each polling site, you know, because you don't know if there's a deaf person there or not. And, you know, it's required that the deaf people have that right to access for an interpreter at that time. So it should, we should set up something related to that. Now, I was looking for Jackie, but right now in Bear County, she had to leave. Oh, okay. In Bear County for if someone who's deaf wants to vote right now, the only accessible voting place for someone deaf is at the courthouse, and it's downtown, you pay to park, and it's only for early voting. You do not have the option of going somewhere near your home. So this is, this is what Larry was talking about. Like, how big is Bear County? And we're almost 2 million people. And so there's one place that she's referring to and it's at the courthouse that has that accessible piece of equipment. Now, is that fair? Most of you all would say that's absolutely not fair. And so this is what Larry was talking about when it comes to advocating for yourselves or your relatives or somebody you know that doesn't want to pay $20 to park at the courthouse, then make their way in and find that handicap ramp, which it's on the front, which we call the back, and blah, blah, blah. You know, you want to speak to that, Larry? Would you like to address that? Would you like to address that? Well, first of all, we have the responsibility to let our elected, our election office know what it is that we need. And some of that might be anticipated by what other communities are doing. But in the final analysis, the best resource for an accessible election are the people who are the voters. So that means that, for example, for me, when I go to the polls to vote, I want to vote privately and secretly and without assistance. That means that I want to use an audio ballot. Now, what that means is that the election officials need to know how that audio ballot operation functions. Sometimes they're new. I ran into a situation this last primary where all the election judges were brand new. I go to the same site each time. And these were new people. Well, instead of being frustrated or annoyed or angry, I said, let me explain to you how it works. And they were very grateful that I explained to them how to put the module in and then to put in the precinct and then not to touch it. Because if you do touch the screen, then the audio goes away. So explaining what your needs are when you show up at the polls is really important. If you explain to them that you need assistance in being able to sign the book, maybe they have to put a card above the line so you can feel where the line is. Or if you're a person with a hearing impairment and you need them to speak up, you just simply say, I need you to speak up. If you're a person who is deaf, then you say, I am bringing my interpreter. Or I would like to use the tablet to make a connection with the, I forget the name, but anyway, they help me. What's it called? Yes. So that they can use that particular mode to be able to give them guidance if they need guidance when they're using the ballot system. And the judges are going to be made aware of these things because I've been told by Ms. Kellenin that there is going to be a sensitivity training before the election of all the people who have qualified and expect to volunteer to be judges at the various polling sites. So we'll be able to tell them about these things. So they won't be stressed or nervous when somebody with a disability comes in. So it's a cooperation. It's being able to inform and educate the elected officials, but be able to do so in a calm and helpful and courteous manner. And that way everybody can participate as they should in exercising their right to vote. And by the way, don't just go to vote. Take somebody with you to vote. My children don't like to go to vote, so I take them with me. I just wanted to say one more thing about polling places is that I'm not sure about what's happening here in Bear County with you having to pay to park and all of that. That kind of sounds like a poll text to me. I'm not sure. However, under the Help America Vote Act, HAVA, which I was talking about previously, all polling places must be ADA accessible. And so this should account for most elections. It really is specified for just federal elections, but the way we do elections here in Texas is most the time you have your federal elections along with your state and local elections. However, I would imagine if there's maybe a runoff or something, HAVA may not apply in that case. But all polling places should be ADA accessible and they should comply with ADA standards. And so if they are not, then you need to let your Disability Rights Texas office know I have a phone number for Disability Rights Texas if you are experiencing voter issues. And if you're a person with a disability and I would be happy to give you all that number, do y'all want me to say the number now? Or they can go pick, yeah, go pick up it for sure. Yes. And they should help you with those matters and get you help. And so they'll have that hotline open. If it's a voting day, they have that hotline and they'll have somebody to pick up the phone during all voting hours to help you try to work out the situation immediately. So there was a question, somebody here sent in a question in regards to something like that. So they said, you know, as far as them showing up in a wheelchair and the accessibility is there, they're able to get up and up and down the ramps and all that stuff. The concern is that they're intimidated by individuals approaching them, you know, going up the ramp with campaign materials. So what is the rule of law on that? So the ramp to the voting site and they're being greeted with you know, there's like a 350 feet or whatever the the footage is, you know, before that point, you know, they're coming in their wheelchair and they're all approaching them with all their different materials and they're intimidating and sometimes that makes them draw back from even wanting to go to the election sites, you know. So is there some type something that either needs to be voted into put into place some type of policy or something? So I'm not familiar with the issue with this issue. And I don't know what the specific amount of feet you have to be away from a specific polling site with campaign and I have people raising their hands so they may know. However, I think all people who are about to enter a polling place may be subject to something like that and so you just want to make sure that it would be an equal thing for all. The rule is no campaigning within 100 feet of the door to the polling place and that applies to anybody going in and I don't think you can have any kind of a law that says you can at beyond 100 feet, you can campaign, you can throw pamphlets at able-bodied people and not people with disabilities. It's annoying and intimidating to anybody, but if they're doing it closer than 100 feet, they're breaking the law and they shouldn't be doing it. So I brought that issue up in front of Senator Menendez at your voice matters session and he is one that seems to be open to putting legislation through that also protects the access of the ramp in addition to that 100 feet restriction so that people who cannot get into the voting location because the access or you know without the use of an access ramp would still be protected just as much as somebody who could walk up the curb. But as Larry has pointed out, it's going to take people following up on that and advocating for that. I'm sure one voice and one conversation on one day of so many different things may not stick with him, but I would encourage, I mean he stated it, I would encourage the community to follow up with him on that. We did have a post from a viewer at home who states that in Harris County, the mobile voting units have speakers that will read the ballot in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, or Chinese. So if there isn't an interpreter for that language, they can use the mobile unit. The interpreter is based on population of precinct and it is working, Judy, so you don't have to tweet it. So Shishi was also going to tweet it to us, but that was interesting piece of information to add from a different county. I just wanted to share a piece of information since we're talking about deaf voters and just for the general public and a lot of people are not aware that sign language has no roots in English. It's the third most taught foreign language in our colleges today. So it's not when and I've seen the situation happen where someone said well no, you have to bring a friend or a family member. A lot of times family members do not have the skill to interpret a ballot and that's a challenge and it is a challenge giving that access. We promote access to voting and registering for voting for the deaf community, but them going to vote, they might as well, that ballot might as well be in Swahili once they get there. So without an interpreter such as the two we have here tonight that are certified, that ballot just doesn't mean anything and there's a huge, I think the last census from one of the representatives from the state, from DARS, was 8% of our population in San Antonio. So thank you. Larry and Ashley, is it to be connected with your legislators, your representatives, your senators, your councilmen? How important is it to approach those individuals or to collaborate or have some type of communication with them in regards to this and all other? It's tremendously important. A lot of people are apprehensive about approaching a senator or a representative or a congressman thinking like, oh gosh, I don't know how to talk to him or her. I don't know if they would even listen to me and it's just the opposite is true. They really do want to get to know their constituents. They really do want to know what's on your mind, what are your concerns, what issues you want them to bring up when they are in session. I have had the pleasure of meeting and making friends with the great many of our state legislators and visits to the capitol and here in their local offices and I have found almost to a 100% that they all welcome you into their office. A lot of times you may speak to a staff member instead of the actual legislator but that's okay because the staff member is the key. The staff member is the one who actually helps draft any bill or piece of legislation that that senator is going to introduce or that representative is going to sponsor. They know more sometimes than even the legislator, him or herself, what the status of that bill is, who is in favor of it, who is not in favor of it. So if you make friends with the staff, that is a very, very good step to getting your particular concern or issue into the hands of the legislator but if they're available they will meet with you and the best time to meet with them is before the election, before November because now is when they want to win your vote. Now is when they want to be able to persuade you that they can help you the most so now is when you want to go around and visit their offices here locally and let them know hey I am interested in this or that and then you say and I'll check back with you if you're elected to see if you're going to do what I say they will remember you and they will appreciate your coming to them and they will appreciate your voting for them and then if they do get elected then you go back and you knock on their door and you say remember me remember me and you told me this and you told me that that really does work. Importantly is first of all know what it is that you want to say kind of rehearse it ahead of time don't go in there and say well you know I kind of would like you to be more interested in health what do you mean health well I mean health for me well what do you mean health for me so you've got to be really specific about what you're talking about if you want oh I want you to find a way to lower the cost of health well can they do that is that part of the responsibility of the Texas legislature or is that the US Congress if you've got an issue about potholes for example you're not going to talk to the senator you're going to talk to your city councilman so depending on what your issue is depends upon whether you're going to talk to the councilman or you're going to talk to the state legislature or you're going to talk to the US congress representative so you have to know where does your issue belong then you have to be able to very concisely say what it is that you want and then you have to say why should they do it why is it important not just because you want it but there has to be some compelling reason it's going to save lives it's going to save money it's going to provide better education it's going to do this it's going to do that so you give them reasons for why you want them to do what you want them to do and you do it in in very very short one page a one page fact sheet should tell them what you want why it's important and why they should support it and you be prepared to give that one page to the staff member and to the legislator and you follow up with an email and you tell them again and then you tell them again and then you tell them again and you keep telling them the same thing don't go in with a list of 10 or 12 or 15 things you want them to do no they have got so many people knocking on their door so if you can be very specific very precise and very factual and very very courteous in your presentation they will remember you and they will help you that what you wanted yes I just want to tell you one little episode because this is also important it doesn't happen overnight it may not happen the first time you ask maybe not the second time you know one of the really really important pieces of legislation we wanted to get done was to ban texting while driving because it's dangerous if you text on your phone while you're driving you increase the chances of an accident by four to six fold it's very dangerous so we wanted to get that done we got it done in san antonio through the city council but we wanted to get it done statewide in texas and you know how long it took 10 years 10 years and every legislative session I went to austin and met with legislators and we had some really strong support from san antonio san antonio had some really good legislators and they were behind it but not enough votes and it failed and we tried the next time not enough votes and it failed and we can only do it every two years every two years we tried and finally finally last year finally it passed it passed and then we had to hold our breath to see if the governor would sign it and he did and he did but it took 10 years so sometimes things do take a while to get done but that doesn't mean that they won't get done it just means you've got to be patient and persistent never ever give up okay absolutely and just to kind of piggyback on that whenever you are meeting with decision makers it's important to also offer yourself as a resource and everyone in this room has had an experience that would make them more of an expert on something than the actual legislator or their staff member you need to go in there and own it and you need to say this is an issue I really care about if you have any legislation on this topic I would be more than happy to offer myself as a resource for that staff would love that because if that bill comes up for hearing later of committee hearing through the process and they're needing someone to testify on that piece of legislation you're the first person they're going to call and then you really have an opportunity to take it to the next level it's also important that when you're meeting with your legislators if you just keep talking about these problems it's good to talk about solutions right so maybe you don't have all of the answers but maybe you can come up with some you know suggestions maybe this maybe this could work um but just really offer yourself as a resource and tap into your own potential because your lived experiences are not their lived experiences and they can't know everything about everything in the world um but you can really be that expert that they call on as a resource um for let's say it's potholes and they're like you know I worked for a legislative office and you know we may say oh that's the pothole guy we have this pothole bill coming up we know he's our constituent we know that he's really passionate about it this is a really good chance for us to call him and invite him to give testimony at at the committee hearing on this piece of legislation so since we're talking about staffers and how important they are to the process we do have three staffers here today from district 10 district three and district seven and so I'm going to let them oh do we have another one sorry in district 123 Diego Bernal's office so I'm going to hand the mic to those staffers to kind of talk about how do you approach that office what are some good ways and maybe some of the information y'all are looking for people to come to your office about who wants to start um hello everyone um Raul Ubedes and I work with uh Councilman Perry's office uh district 10 and real quick I can note to uh what Mr. Johnson was saying about standing out a couple weeks ago he did email a councilman about um some issues through disability and I decided to take this initiative myself and I honestly didn't know too much about like the voting process or what had to go you know how hard it was for people with disabilities um but he did stand out to me and I decided to take on that task and I've learned and I'm still learning um so when he does make a point of saying you know try to make yourself stand out one point or two you don't want to do too much to overwhelm but it's the little things that count and they do remember um so Mr. Johnson I'm here hi my name is Nina Parker I'm here for city council district three uh representing the south and the southeast side of San Antonio um the best way honestly is just coming into our office our office is located at Sydney Brooks for district three residents um we'll set you up with whoever you need to talk to if you need to set up a meeting directly with the councilwoman we can arrange that through her secretary if it's a pothole concern like mr. like I had mentioned we can take care of that for you in office if it's any type of policy issue we're more than happy to sit down and have a meeting with you talk to you and see what type of um policy issue or concern or suggestion that you have um but really it's just taking that first step and taking that initiative to come in and and meet with us it all begins with you so I'll be here if y'all have any questions hello it's Mateo again hello um again from city council district seven city council district seven runs from Woodlawn lake um all the way up bandera road to Silverado centicos out at 1604 and bandera road um it's a pretty long district though it's fairly thin um for engaging our office if you would like to speak directly with the yes sorry uh for engaging our office if you'd like to speak directly with the councilwoman we do have a coffee with Anna series I know via grons office has it as well and that is a saturday conversation it's a one-on-one with the councilwoman for 20 minutes um those are scheduled so those are by appointment only if you don't if you're not seeking to speak directly with the councilwoman you can walk into the office that's typically going to be the fastest way because once you're there we have to we have to attend to you right um there's no arguing with your presence if you're looking just as uh as Nina said if you're looking to discuss a policy issue we do appreciate a call ahead on those because that ensures that we have the proper staff to meet with you because not all of our staff works on policy issues that we can all assist with with basic city services and and community improvements so walk-ins of course calling the office is great if you want to speak directly with the councilwoman we have coffee with Anna that's as simple as a as a call give us your name and number an email address if applicable and we'll reach out and schedule that with you uh as those are available hi guys i'm daniella and i'm sorry i was late i was at a neighborhood association meeting um so we do have a town hall coming up actually august 18th and it'll be with congressman docket as well as district one Trevino um representative Bernal as well senator menendez so if you guys have some concerns that you actually would like to speak to them all this is a perfect opportunity it's on august 18th at san antonio college in the veiler room i'm actually gonna run out to my car after this to get the flyers to bring for you guys um it's actually at uh 10 in the morning so it's an essay college in the veiler room and i'll bring the flyers right now they're in my car i'm sorry i'm all over the place i've been running to different meetings but as far as representative Bernal goes he's a huge advocate for um individuals with disabilities as well as people who are dealing with chronic pain i'm actually a uh vp of chronic pain resource center of south south texas and so we're i'm always talking to him about people dealing with disabilities and so this is a conversation that we do have often so if you guys would like to sit with him and meet with him he's always willing to sit and talk to anybody who would like to sit with him so i do have cards with me you can always call our office anita franadas is our chief of staff we're always setting up meetings with constituents that's what he likes to do um we do have session coming up in november but he's always willing to make time for anybody who wants to speak to him so again if you all do would if you would like to set up a meeting or anything you can also come up to me and i will make sure that we can arrange that for you guys and i will be getting those flyers out okay thank you yes ma'am so uh congressman dogged is hosting the event and normally he does uh provide that but i'm actually i was about to send a message out to our uh team to make sure that that's something we can arrange yes ma'am oh that's a good question i do yeah so she asked where the veiler room is and i'm not too sure because i've never been to the veiler room in the victory center and we'll have um i mean we'll have four different offices out there so we'll be all over the place some of us will probably be outside directing traffic and so if we see you all coming in we'll make sure to direct you guys thank you so much so athelete we'll get information and make sure good directions are posted on our face on sorry on our website and so we'll announce the town hall and we'll give better description of where that is so that um if you rely on transportation to drop you off somewhere they know where they're going to be taking you and so as a reminder on august 27th is that when you're going to austin melanie august 27th so all this stuff that was just spoken about you can actually get a free ride up to austin via melanie and disability essay and um talk about those issues you know with your different representatives and senators up there and it's a it's a good time to do it and there's power in numbers sometimes when the bigger groups show up together um it's it's it's seen as something a lot bigger yolanda can i just clarify that for a second um so have y'all heard about the disability issues forum if you have raised your awesome that's great i have been doing a lot of work um trying to plan for and organize the texas disability issues forum and i would just like to kind of briefly give a description about that um because actually there will not be an opportunity to speak directly with texas legislators um so what we're doing is we have invited all major candidates who are running for lieutenant governor governor attorney general and us senate um and so that's four different offices um and we have had all current democratic candidates for each of those offices agree to participate for the event we are still working very hard on getting commitments from the republican candidates running for those offices so basically how it's going to be structured is it's going to be a one-on-one interview with each of the candidates individually and we're going to have the texas tribune um be a media partner for the event and they are providing a moderator um his name is pat and i'm going to screw up his last name that's something with s um and so they're going to be actually live streaming it through all of their social media platforms and so if you can't actually make it to austin you can watch it from the comfort of your home just like this event it's a ten dollar registration fee um and it's going to be from nine a.m. to two p.m. so basically what we did is for each of the candidates this planning group that i've been working with we developed questions specific to the office in which the candidate is seeking and so we have surveys that really touch on a variety of disability related topics um some of them can be as simple as whenever you are considering a service a program or a law that could impact people with disabilities who do you turn to for advice and counsel right so are you actually asking individuals with disabilities how this could impact them or it could be as something specific as community integration so the onstead um act was passed what are you doing to ensure that people with disabilities can live in the least restrictive environment possible um and so each of the candidates received um these survey questions i think so far we've only received answers from one candidate who is participating even the candidates who um have agreed to not come they still also receive those survey questions so maybe they can kind of know about the issues that are important to people with disabilities as well and if any of y'all would like information on how you can register for the event i would be happy to help you um with that if you have any other questions please let me know yeah by the way those ten dollars for registration also cover the cost of a lunch so so you get your ten dollars in food so that's a good thing it's important to go for two reasons number one because you'll get to meet a whole lot of other people from across the state people with various disabilities who are advocates who can share with you what they're doing in their local community also it's interesting to see which candidates don't show up that's a good indication as to whether or not they really care about disability issues i had two other things i wanted to mention one is i want to especially recognize again the league of women voters for their presence not only at this particular event but at one that we held last month at at the echo center they have shown a tremendous interest in wanting to reach out and help register to vote persons with disabilities if you know someone who is not registered uh you can contact the league and they will make sure that that person does get the help to fill out the paperwork and and become a voter you know you are really special people for being here all of you because you have an interest in this and i would venture to say that probably all of you will vote in november but what i really want to ask you to do is to volunteer to be um recruiters i want you to go out and recruit people to vote in november i don't care how they vote but we want them to vote 12 percent turnout in 2014 is disgraceful for bayer county 12 percent we need to do a whole lot better than that and believe me if the disability community can respond in the way that it could we could double that 12 very easily and we could have a tremendous impact on just who are the representatives from our area so you are charged now to be officially recruiters so you're going to go out and you're going to find five people who don't normally vote i mean if they vote that's okay that's fine that you don't count them but you got to find five people who didn't vote in the last election and you got to work on them you got three months to work on them and convince them why it's important for them to go and vote and if necessary you're going to arrange for transportation there are lions clubs and other clubs and i think even the league of women's voters sometimes will will provide some transportation or knows how to get transportation if people need that via trans of course is available for people who are registered with via trans so that's your charge you got to find five people who didn't vote in the last election and you're going to persuade them that they must go and vote okay you agree will you do that will you do that yes all right and the last thing i want to say is somebody mentioned here about all of our voting sites are ada accessible you know that can be true physically but what's even more important is to create a climate of a climate of of understanding and of support and and and of comfort so that a person with a disability regardless what that disability may be whether it's an intellectual disability a hearing disability a vision disability or mobility disability whatever that may be that when they come into the polls that those election officials are going to feel comfortable in interacting with them you know one thing is we can say yeah yeah you can go it's accessible another thing is to make them feel like they are welcome and if they need any assistance a lot of times people with disabilities are shy about asking for help we don't want to ask for help and so you know we'll struggle however we can possibly do to to do it but sometimes say can i help you don't assume that they want help you don't assume what kind of help you ask can i help and if they say no thank you i'm fine that's good but if they say yes i would like some help then whatever what how can i help and whatever that help may be whether it's they need they need you to provide them with assistance to sign their name put a you know put a a a card or an envelope or something so they can they can guide it some people are not blind maybe they just got poor vision you know they need a little extra help that's okay some deaf people may really really be surprised and and delighted if you say hey we've got a uh we've got an ipad here with with cart would you would you like to use that wow yeah i sure would you know okay uh we've got uh we've got somebody here who knows how to put the banjo in so the so the voting machine will talk well maybe this person has never ever ever used that talking aspect of the voting machine so you don't assume that they know how but so you say look well the instructions are audibly given to you but if you need any extra help i'll be right here just ask and i'll help that's what you do you ask do you need any help and even if you're not working at the polls but you see somebody in a wheelchair trying to get in or you see somebody who's blind trying to get in offer do you need any help that's what we can do for each other we all need help darn it doesn't matter some of us need help because we're too short my wife was only five foot she needed help reaching the top shelf and she beat it cooking so that's how i helped you know other people need help for other reasons so uh we all do need help we are interdependent we're not dependent we're not independent we depend upon each other and that's why we are you know a society that's why we are a human a human concern so remember that and don't just do it at the polls do it everywhere offer a little kindness and a little thoughtfulness to everybody you meet thank you and one other thing i should have mentioned about the texas disability issues forum is that last week we actually sent out letters inviting all of the current office holders and the texas legislator so state representatives and state senators we invited them to attend the forum not to participate necessarily but just to learn about the issues that are impacting texas with disabilities and to hopefully you know affirm their commitment to the texas with disabilities community and so there's an opportunity there for you to maybe follow up with your state representative or your state senator and just maybe ask them hey are you attending the forum if you're not maybe you really should because it's important for me for you to know about the issues that my family and i care about all right any more questions out there comments does anybody have a comment maybe not a question but maybe a comment no don't forget to visit the different tables don't leave without visiting the tables you have women voters you have my tail with essay speak up and Diego Bernal's office is going to have some materials as well and disability rights texas is over there she's just waiting for you look at her free legal services that's all I heard free legal services and then also TC DD with Ashley she's going to take that hat off and come over here and but here's Melanie the executive director of disability San Antonio thank you so much Yolanda for facilitating the conversation tonight and we want to put a few more shout outs out there again now cast is covering us streaming live into people's homes or just people's phones or people's computers wherever you're you stream and then also San Antonio Lighthouse for the blind stepped up to sponsor the now cast coverage for today so we want to give them a shout out and as we have some applause yes and then as always the brick here at the blue star has lent us this space so that we can have these conversations and so we want to give them definitely a shout out our venue today is the brick at the blue star I want to thank the representatives who came out from the district offices and Diego Bernal's office today because it's important to us that when you participate in the conversation to that you're here to listen and yes we can come to your office and each make individual appointments but look at how many hours you guys saved just by being in one room with all of us so we invite you to continue to come we do this every other month on a Tuesday evening we have housing and disability coming up on October 9th is our next conversation 360 and we'll be talking about some of the issues people with disabilities face in living independently in finding housing and in finding the funds for housing and so many other things so we have a group of individuals who are actually working on putting that together and it's going to be a good conversation so please take some time to visit with our exhibitors and for those of you who are streaming from home I am going to go back and do a demonstration on the audio output voting equipment so hopefully Larry I'll be able to put the PED in appropriately and push the buttons I've only had one training session but I'm going to do that demonstration and then we may walk you around to some of the exhibitors so you can look at the materials and reach out to those organizations to get more information on their services so thank you all for coming I hope to see you in October October 9th 6 o'clock p.m. we will not be in this venue so make sure that you watch for the venue change for October but we'll get that out shortly and y'all have a wonderful and safe evening thank you I am so sorry they've become a part of my family because they're already always here but we do have deaf interpreter services by deaf interpreter services Inc. here with us this evening and they have done a fabulous job so thank you oh you want to watch you can watch I'm just going to do the demonstration here I have to turn the volume on I think let me get it back to the beginning are we rolling oh okay I wonder what happens oh it's speaking to me in Spanish I'm not sure that this is going to communicate well over the streaming but basically when you put in when they select the precinct then it asks you to press the diamond if you want the audio output and once you press that then it goes across currently we have some speakers plugged in here but there is a set of headphones at the voting locations so then it switches to an audio output that reads to you everything that goes across the screen and it it suggests whether you scroll down or up to select and it reads you every single option there is Braille here on the machine to kind of indicate which what the buttons are so this is the green diamond and then the arrows and so there is Braille on this machine and it will talk you through the entire ballot I just can't hear it in here I selected English and so it also uses shapes so it talks about the diamond shape button and then the arrows so it talks it tells you instructions in in shapes for communicating what what steps to take so unfortunately we can't really hear it but this is what an audio output system looks like and you vote by using the diamond button and the arrows up and down so that's that if you have more questions or input or comments that you'd like to add to today's feed we at Disability SA will do our best to get back to you with the responses that you're looking for we have a wealth of individuals who are here this evening who probably know the answer and we're happy to connect you with the resources have a great evening thanks so much for joining us and if you're watching this as a recording we'll still try and get you responses to your answers so go ahead and tweet them go ahead and post them or visit us on our website at disabilitysa.org good night