Ending Homelessness, One Person at a Time
by Clarence Schadegg
Project Homeless Connect
held their second exposition to provide information to help homeless
people find alternative living conditions. What I don’t understand is
why none of the organizations who attended had alternative formatted material
to hand out to people with disabilities. The mission of Project Homeless Connect
is to “end homelessness one person at a time.” If so, then how
were the one thousand two hundred who were in attendance helped one at a time?
And how would people who were illiterate or blind read the printed materials?
There were approximately
sixty-one booths set up to help with housing, legal and employment
concerns. The three workshops on self-esteem, criminal expungement
and tenant training were well attended. As I walked around the
Convention Center, I wondered how homeless visually impaired or
illiterate people would read the printed materials that were being
handed out. Though I am not homeless, my disability of blindness
is obvious. So, I wonder why all of the organizations that participated
did not provide any alternative to print information like Braille,
large print, cassettes and/or CD’s. If cost of
these products is the reason it is not an acceptable argument because
alternative formats to print are inexpensive.
The people at the booths
could not communicate how they planned to help homeless people
with disabilities, especially visual impairments. If people cannot
read the material, how will they know where to go to get help?
With my service animal at my side, a volunteer escorted me from
booth to booth and filled up the plastic bag with the printed
materials. The volunteers were given two hours of training prior
to the event. The one who walked with me did a great job of introducing
me to people at the tables. I hoped to educate the people who planned
this event, that as good as this project to end homelessness
is, that more work needs to be done to get the information to the
people who need it.
As I visited the different
booths, I came up with many more questions regarding the process
of communicating with homeless people with disabilities. I asked
the same question to each participating booth: Did this agency
have Braille, large print, tapes and/or CD’s
for blind and visually impaired people? My concern is how a homeless
person with any type of visual condition could read the regular print
handouts. Then another question that arose is how a homeless person
could attend this event if no accommodations were made. Lastly, wouldn’t
it be cost efficient and practical to put the information from the
handouts on CD’s or tapes which could be more widely utilized
by people without exception to their disability or literacy?
The printed documents would be extremely difficult or impossible
to be read by somebody with vision impairment unless that person
had access to Braille, magnification or assistive technology. I have
a Kurzweil 1000 program, which is an audible program that reads what
is scanned into a computer, therefore, I was able to read some of
the printed materials. However, the Kurzweil 1000 is a text only
program: it reads a page that has graphics as a blank page. A homeless
person may not have access to a computer, a screen reader program
or a Kurzweil for that matter. Libraries are a good resource and
place to use assistive technology, provided that the staff at a respective
library knows how to use the programs.
In the brochures some organizations stated their compliance with
the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). I wonder how the dissemination
of printed hand outs to people who cannot see or read it for that
matter, constitute compliance with ADA? Privacy screens were set
up to provide privacy to people who filled out forms with the people
assisting folks in the application process respecting data privacy
protection The concept of Project Homeless Connect is a good one.
The representative I talked was genuinely concerned with the issues
I brought to her attention. She stated that many of the people who
attended the event were illiterate. I have offered to work with the
Steering Committee to assist them for when they hold this event again
in December 2006.
I would like feedback from the Access Press readers. What, in your
opinion, can Project Homeless Connect do differently to bridge what
appears to be a communication gap to the population of people with
disabilities, literate or illiterate? Send your answers to me at
cschadegg@mn.rr.com.
