RantWoman is again heeding the call to deliver unsolicited moments of accessibility themed technical assistance / sojourns to Planet RantWoman
Reprinted from the newsletter [with annotations in square brackets]
GLEAMINGS DECEMBER 2020
3 Reopening the Meetinghouse Report from CORM (the Committee on Reopening the Meetinghouse)
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| Reconfigured Worship Room Chairs bearing witness to pandemic resilience? |
Worship Room reconfigured to offer well-spaced seating and paired chairs around the perimeter for individuals from the same household.
Our committee continues to work on preparations for reopening the meetinghouse. We have made good progress and have also had some setbacks.
We are close to being ready to have one in-person worship service in the meetinghouse on a Sunday morning in the near future (we hope). We have nearly all necessary procedures in place; we will:
• Use a web-based reservation system to fairly limit the number of attenders to 25 and keep track of who attends, in case public health authorities need this information.
Those interested in attending in-person worship will have to go to the UFM website and make a reservation, including giving contact information and accepting the “fine print” conditions.[Here would be an excellent place to request accommodations to participate in in-person worship]
• Meet in the worship room, with chairs spaced appropriately and the room’s excellent ventilation system keeping the air clean.
• Increase ventilation through the hallway and bathroom while we are there.
• Sanitize the spaces we use before we meet and provide disposable face masks and hand sanitizer.
• Have teams of two greeters and closers with an expanded job description that includes helping attenders follow the necessary guidelines.
• Install signage to help guide attenders while inside the building.
• Direct movement through the hallway to the worship room and bathroom in a manner that minimizes close social [you mena physica?] contact.
To ensure that we reopen safely, we are limiting our first use of the building to one in-person meeting for worship with no extras. No more than 25 people will be able to attend, and there will be no children’s program; no access to the library, social hall or downstairs; and no coffee service before or after the meeting. Attenders will be required to wear masks at all times on the premises and to avoid lingering in the courtyard or hallway before or after meeting.
We are optimistic that, once we have held a few “bare-bones” meetings for worship, we will be able to safely open other parts of the building for other activities. How quickly we can expand our use of the building will depend, to a significant extent, on the caution and compliance of those who attend during the trial phase.
Sadly, although we are about ready to have an in-person meeting for worship, the current alarming spike in Covid cases has sent the message that we should wait. We are monitoring the data closely, and as soon as we see the numbers coming back down, we will schedule a meeting. Once we are able to set a date, we will announce it in the bulletin, through the UFM google group listserv, and on the web site.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Nora Percival (norajpercival@yahoo.com), clerk of CORM. Until we meet again, we hope you stay safe, sane and thankful for what we have during this holiday season.
RantWoman blindness tourism comments:
1. Software accessibility for signup software? Did anyone think about software accessibility? Please excuse RantWoman for harping about the topic. It's just that, even after the great "I hope it's accessible Moment with Signup Genius, Friend who added the Zoom question to a recent survey did not think to add anything about software accessibility. Zoom software accessibility is very good but not all accessibility issues are solved. For instance screen share is completely inaccessible to screen reader users. But RantWoman digresses.
In this case RantWoman did get asked to preview the preferred software. The first time RantWoman tried it on her phone, results were weird and unsatisfactory. When that happens, RantWoman usually comes back another day to allow for the possibility that problems are in RantWoman's head.In this case, RantWoman did not come back before the tool was selected. But, RantWoman was relieved when looking up the software on a desktop machine, she discovered not only that it seemed to work fine, but also that it has been vetted by a number of large corporations, at least a couple of which have probably tested it well for accessibility. A good sign especially since the website had none of the accessibility checks RantWoman has previously suggested as simple options for people who know nothing about accessibility.
2. What if there are more than two people from a household? What if no one wants to sit next to the wall because... mold or light streaming in inconveniently or...?
3. The physical layout looks like a nightmare for someone trying to navigate with a white cane and for well-meaning sighted people trying to do sighted guide. RantWoman is glad to be able to commiserate with other blind people about sighted people who cannot tell their right from their left, a problem for anyone trying to offer verbal guidance. In this case, instead of nice rows to follow, navigating among these appropriately spaced chairs could be kind of difficult, so difficult that RantWoman, because she is familiar with the room might confuse everyone by just trying to find a wall to follow instead.
Ahh, but blind people are probably all high-risk and should just stay home? Um, NOOO! And it is hard to do sighted guide and stay socially distanced? RantWoman can usually just follow. Other blind people might need a guide's elbow or shoulder, but it's winter. Everyone is wearing multiple layers of clothing and of course masks. As long as no one is blowing streams of droplets in each other's faces, as long as people keep any contact as brief as possible it should be possible for a greeter to be safe helping a blind person find a seat
4. But what about wheelchair users? Ummm, RantWoman has offered enough unsolicited technical assistance for one night. Plus RantWoman would like to think that greeters MIGHT have enough awareness of disabilities etiquette to think of options on the fly if needed.
ask and ye shall receive
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