Interpreting Forward 2030, Collaborative Experience Conference, Voters Outreach Season, Accessibility at the Airport, and more
12/20/2024 9:38:02 AM
If you are DeafBlind or prefer to watch the video in a high contrast format, watch the DeafBlind friendlier ASL version instead. To adjust the video speed, use YouTube's playback speed tool.
Hello everyone! My name is Darlene Zangara and I’m the Executive Director of the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing. We do not use an acronym for our organization anymore so I will use ‘the Commission’ for short.
I will start with a visual description of myself. I am a white woman with blonde hair, glasses, and wearing a black shirt.
I’ll update you about some of the things my team and I have been working on these recent months.
The Interpreting Forward information gathering process resulted in 114 potential solutions from the community. Right now, we are working on a new website that will be released shortly. The website includes ASL videos with captions and voiceover.
Community members will be able to comment on any of the 114 potential solutions and make recommendations on which potential solutions to pursue.
Some solutions are easy and will take a short time to complete them, about 6 months or less. We can call them “low hanging fruit.” Some are mid-term, meaning it will take a few years to accomplish them. Other solutions are long-term, which means they will take many years.
Some work that is low-hanging fruit has already happened or is in progress. Here are a few examples:
The soon-to-be-released Interpreting Forward website will also be used to communicate about the activities that are taking place and encourage individuals and organizations to participate in the solutions.
The Collaborative Experience Conference was a great success! From November 1-3, it was a gathering of parents, DHH teachers, and professionals serving students who are deaf, deafblind & hard of hearing in Minnesota. We networked and learned new things together. We received fantastic feedback from conference attendees, and we are already excited for the 2026 Collaborative Experience Conference! Here are a few quotes from the conference evaluations.
“It was amazing to meet other parents at the event. Having a MN H&V breakfast was super nice and helpful to meet their staff and other parents. I am so thankful that I was awarded a parent scholarship and was able to attend this event.”
“The conference staff were efficient and pleasant. The restaurant, luncheon and dinner ballrooms were all abundantly staffed and people were well taken care of. As for sleeping accommodation: our sleeping room was too warm- even set to 63.”
“Thank you to the collaborative for the great opportunity to connect and learn. Was great learning.”
We had a great Voters Outreach season. Here are some of the things we accomplished.
The work was completed by the Voters Outreach team, which consists of 12 contractors.
We received comments and stories about how this work made a difference. For example,
In October, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) announced two new pilot technologies available at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).
The first is Aira ASL. Aira is an on-demand visual interpreting platform available for individuals who are blind or low-vision. They recently expanded to provide on-demand ASL interpreting. ASL users can use the Aira ASL app on their personal devices at no charge while traveling at MSP.
The second is talk-to-text, which broadcast real-time announcements at all gates at Terminal 2. A few gates at Terminal 1 also have this technology, and there are plans to add talk-to-text at additional gates.
I want to thank the members of the Travelers with Disabilities Advisory Committee (TDAC) for their advocacy and the staff at MAC and MSP for their commitment to serving travelers with disabilities. I especially thank Andrew Palmberg for representing the Commission at TDAC.
Save the date! There will be a Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on January 20, 2025. We are working with the Governor’s Council on the MLK Jr. Holiday to provide a cultural and accessible experience for all. The Commission’s contractors will be working at the event to welcome all deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing participants. At the time of this filming, the event site is not yet live. However, we will share more information about this event as soon as it is public.
We are also planning to host a Public Policy Agenda Q&A with Government Relations Director, Alicia Lane. This will take place on January 18th, 2025. We will soon send out a separate announcement about this event.
Simultaneously, I will be representing the Commission at the Hearing Loss Association of America, Twin Cities’ chapter meeting on January 18th.
As you know every two years, we do Lobby Day during budget years. This year, we decided to make some changes. With our experience managing the Collaborative Experience Conference and with it being so close to Lobby Day, we decided to move our Lobby Day to policy years. This allows staff to give the needed time and attention to adequately support both major projects.
This year, we will not have Lobby Day, but we will have a rally. The rally will be the kickoff for the Commission’s 40th Anniversary celebration! Come join us to honor and celebrate the 40 years of work the Commission has done in partnership with the community.
More information to come soon.
Here are pictures of recent events.
We are getting ready for the upcoming legislative session and putting together our public policy agenda. Our board meetings are open to the public and I invite you to attend. Our next board meeting will take place on Zoom on January 24, 2025. Our event calendar will be updated with additional information, but we will reserve time to discuss our public policy agenda, which will be presented by Alicia Lane.
Email me (darlene.g.zangara@state.mn.us) at any time if you would like to discuss barriers that impact your quality of life in Minnesota. I would also love to learn if there are any topics you would like me to discuss in my updates. Thank you!
Featuring Dr. Darlene G. Zangara, Executive Director. The Minnesotan Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing thanks:
Hannah Merren for voiceover.
Keystone Interpreting Solution for film production.
executive director updates
voting
legislation
education
