Minutes
Accessibility Advisory Board Minutes / Date 20 May 2026
Present: Johanna Halbeisen, Mary Jo Stanley, Barbara Black, Ben Kalish, Molly Moss, Mary Biddle, Robin Williams
Announcements / updates
Stipend for meeting attendees
All members participating in advisory group meetings will receive a $40 stipend for each meeting attended upon completion of a W-9. Members may opt out of the stipends.
New Hybrid Meeting System
We have a new hybrid meeting system. Ben asked that folks in the room keep in mind the camera is in a new location and that they speak clearly, look at the camera while speaking, and be careful not to cover your face. He also encouraged folks to speak up if they noticed any accessibility issues at any point.
Construction updates
The front patio is approved to be fixed this summer.
The front doors are in bad shape. The metal frame is deteriorating, leading to binding which results in squeaking and can make the doors difficult to use. Replacement is approved for later in the summer.
Air conditioning is not available until the HVAC renovation progresses. (We anticipate cooling being available in July.) The Coolidge Museum is the only cooled space in the library until the work is completed.
In-library Chromebooks
Chromebooks will soon be available for use by patrons in the library. This will be helpful when our regular computers are all in use, but also will give folks the flexibility to work wherever in the library is most comfortable. For example, folks using library Chromebooks might seek out quieter areas of the library, more comfortable chairs, or locations where they can stand while working.
These will be small laptop computer designed primarily for browsing the web.
Owl Bar for hybrid meetings
The new Owl Bar is fixed below the television display in contrast to the Owl which was a freestanding unit in which sat in the middle of the table.
We have new accessibility guidelines for hybrid meetings, which are now included in the “Using the Owl for hybrid meetings” document used by library staff. Suggested revisions are welcome. The guidelines are:
- Tell everyone at beginning of meeting to speak clearly, look at the camera while speaking, and be careful not to cover their face.
- The facilitator should print their agenda and notes and keep them between themselves and the camera, so that consulting them doesn’t require looking away from the camera.
- Whoever will be speaking most should sit so that the camera and the display are in line, so that they can see the remote folks on the screen without looking away from the camera.
- Someone besides the main speaker/facilitator should run the Zoom (again, so that that person doesn’t have to look away from the camera)
Other topics?
We discussed how to make joining Zoom meetings easier. Currently there are two ways to get the Zoom info: Ben sends an email with a link, meeting ID, and password to the email list, and folks who register using the online calendar get an automatic email that includes a link, meeting ID, and passcode as well as phone numbers and join instructions. In general, if you use one of the links you should not need the other information, but the meeting ID and password are valuable if you are joining on a different device or calling in by phone.
We decided that a calendar invite would help some folks. In the future, we will send a calendar invite with the Zoom info to folks on the mailing list.
We closed the meeting with a discussion about tech help at the library. In addition to Drop-in Tech Help and Classes [link to event calendar] folks can also sign up for an appointment for one-on-one help from a librarian. Appointments can be in-person or remote. Topics have included learning how to use a phone, tablet, or laptop, email, ebooks, and Google docs.