Indianas latest fiasco

Once again, the Indiana Council on Independent Living showed they are not
about helping people with disabilities in the state of Indiana.  I went to
their illegally scheduled meeting yesterday.  You see, last month, they were
run out of the building they were meeting in because they kept calling
security because a member of the public who had a disability wanted to
introduce herself.  They then decided to go meet somewhere else.  It was at
their moved meeting that they made the decision to have a meeting in April.
It is a violation of Indianas Public Access Law to have public notice of
where a meeting is going to be held and then move it.  You certainly cant
make decisions at such a meeting to have a meeting that was never approved of
at a legal meeting.  Their approved schedule for the entire year did not have
a meeting in April stated.  They also emailed a member of the public telling
her there would be no meeting in April.  So, I went anyway because I had some
things I wanted to say.  However, in the back of their agenda, they made it
clear that they did not want to hear from the public.  They had the following
statement:   Text of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised, 10th Edition,
page 93-94. PUBLIC SESSION (quoted) This type of meeting is the opposite of an
executive session. Many public and semipublic bodies are governed by sunshine
laws--that is, they must be open to the public.Normally, such laws have no
application to private, nongovernmental bodies.  In meetings of many public
bodies the public may attend. Similarly, in some private organizations
parishioners may be permitted to attend.  These attendees are not members of
the meeting body and ordinarily have no right to participate.  Some bodies,
especially public ones, may invite non-members to express their views, but
this is done under the control of the presiding officer subject to any
relevant rules adopted by the body and subject to appeal by a member.  Often,
by rule or practice, time limits are placed on speakers and relevance is
closely monitored. (quoted) If this doesnt say, sit quietly and keep your
mouth shut, I dont know what does.  More evidence that ICOIL only wants to
speak about giving money to each other and not about real issues that are
going on in the state and country. Ok, so I got off track, anyway, so I go to
the meeting and at the very beginning of the meeting, Teresa Torres, a member
of the council who has requested an audio loop for the meetings as an
accommodation for many years now, was approached by a sign language
interpreter and said that she was requested by Dee Ann Hart, the chair, to
see if she would need an interpreter.  Teresa said no and asked Dee Ann if she
had the audio loop that she had been requesting.  Dee Ann said that it was not
her responsibility and that the ADA would require that but the public access
law did not.  (Excuse me!)  There were then two people who told Dee Ann that
Teresa was well within her rights to make this reasonable request.  One was a
member of the audience who holds high esteem in the state and is well versed
on the ADA, and one was a council member who stated that if the council could
not provide this accommodation, that the meeting should not go on since Teresa
could not participate.  She also stated that Teresa was standing on firm
ground in her request. Dee Ann finally decided that she needed to do this and
everyone went outside to have a mini meeting in the hallway and security was
called.  A microphone system and speaker was brought in and at least two
people were trying to put the audio loop together. Dee Ann came in the room
and just suddenly announced that the meeting was not going to be held.  When
Teresa asked why, Dee Ann responded that it was because of your behavior.
Yes, Teresa was angry.  Wouldnt you be angry if you used a wheelchair and the
meeting was held in a building with nothing but stairs?  Wouldnt you be angry
if you repeatedly asked for large print and all you got was regular print?
Wouldnt you be angry if you were blind and the meeting was held using nothing
but sign language interpreters?  Yes, Teresa was angry and she had every right
to be because her rights were being violated.  The very same rights that the
council was created to uphold. Indiana continues to be in dire straits.  It
was bad enough when the public was not allowed to be heard or even introduce
themselves, but now it is moving to their own council members.  Something must
be done.  We will be back next month to continue the fight to correct the
problems in Indiana and to build a disability community that they will have to
listen to. You can watch the meeting soon at
http://www.everybodycounts.org/icoil.htm.