MCB‑Boston
2020 MCB Virtual Town Hall
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
4:00 p.m.

CONFIDENTIAL ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME FILE
		This file was created in real time by a Certified Realtime Reporter for the purpose of communication access.  It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim.  It is intended for use by the consumer only as notes of the proceedings.  A consumer should check with the presenter for any clarification of the presentation.

>> COMMISSIONER D'ARCANGELO:  Good afternoon!  
>> CARLA KATH:  Hello, everyone!  Welcome to the MCB Town Hall.  We will get started shortly.  We are letting everyone into the meeting room here.  
>>  Hi, everyone!  
>> COMMISSIONER D'ARCANGELO:  Good afternoon. 
>>  How are you?  
>> COMMISSIONER D'ARCANGELO:  Good.  Thanks for joining us.  
>>  Thank you.  
>>  Good afternoon.  
>>  Hello. 
>> CARLA KATH:  Hello, everyone.  Thank you for joining us for another virtual Town Hall.  All right, everyone.  
We will shortly get started.  We are going to mute everyone now.  Here we go; all right.  
We have ASL interpreter services as well as CART real-time captioning services here for the meeting today.  And we'd ask, if you're not using ASL interpreter services, to please turn off your video.  
We will turn off everyone's audio, we just muted everyone, we'll continue to make sure that that happens, and it will help turning off the videos so that the videos that are on are only the ones using ASL interpreters and the ASL interpreters communicating with them.  
The ASL interpreters with us today are Jenna Jacek and Kerri McSwain.  They have "Interpreter" next to their name on the video.  And participants who wish to view the ASL interpreters should select Pin Video in the contacts video.  
If you hover over the interpreter, you will see three dots, the contacts menu, and you'll be able to click there to pin their pictures.  
To access real-time CART captioning, you can select Closed Captioning on your Zoom screen, or use the Stream text link that is in the chat for you.  We will post that again in a minute.  
If you need to have your video on to use ASL services or you need help with pinning a video, we have Kamilia Drogosz with us; she is our ADA coordinator, and she has "ADA coordinator" written by her name as well.  
We also have my colleague, Samantha Linden, here with us from MCB and next to her name she has "Questions," so she will take your questions during this meeting, as well as myself.  I'm Carla Kath; I'm the director of communications for MCB.  
We are thrilled to have all of you with us today.  We have a great presentation, a great lineup from our Central Registry team, and we're going to be talking about registration and benefits.  And with that, we will introduce the Commissioner for MCB, David D'Arcangelo.
(Pause) 
>> CARLA KATH:  David, you are muted, so you might have to start over for us.  
>> COMMISSIONER D'ARCANGELO:  Hello; good afternoon, everybody.  Welcome and thank you for being here for our fourth virtual Town Hall.  This has been a successful way for us to interact with our consumers.  We're trying them at different times to make sure consumers have access as much as possible.  
So welcome; thank you for joining.  
We've been grateful to continue connecting and providing services during the time of COVID‑19.  The pandemic has presented many challenges, but we're there for you.  
And we're trying to ensure that we're reaching all our consumers across the Commonwealth, so we're reaching out as many times as we can with as many different topics as we can to try to keep you all inform.  
At the end of the day, this is your MCB, and we're here to serve you.  So, if you have any questions or comments, let us know.  
Many of our consumers have been impacted in some way by COVID‑19.  We're hopeful that our MCB team has been helpful and able to assist in some way during these difficult times.  
Again, if you need specific assistance, please, reach out to us.  We want to be there to serve you.  
As I mentioned, this is our fourth virtual Town Hall since we left our offices in March.  So, we closed our physical offices, but we didn't stop giving MCB services at all.  We hit the ground running, and we've adjusted well.  
So, first, I want to thank my team here today for putting this together, and throughout the entire pandemic, as they've really been working hard for you.  As consumers, you should know that your MCB team has really been working well during these challenging times.  
So, the topics that we've selected have been based on the feedback of you, our consumers' interests, questions, and challenges that we've gotten; so, we're going to continue to try to do that.  
So please, send us input of future topics you'd like to hear about that because we want to talk about that for you.  
We're looking into other areas for Town Hall broadcast capabilities as well.  So, we're looking at a system you can call out; all you must do is answer your phone and you press one button and you're joined into the Town Hall.  We're looking at that and other services, too, again, all with the intent of providing as good communication and having interactivity with our consumers.  
Again, any ideas that you have on increased access for the phone or these online meetings, whatever it is, please share it with us.  
Additionally, MCB is in process of procuring a new phone number.  So, we want to hear from you, if you have any ideas or features that you like from any phone systems that you work with now that you find are accessible or easy to use, please, let us know.  We want to be there to serve you and put that into our specifications for the next phone system that we'll continue for MCB.  
MCB is continuing to provide remote services and programming during these challenging times, and please keep up to date on the lateness guidance issued by the Governor, the Secretary and MCB.  We'll continue to provide remote services and provide further guidance when that guidance becomes available.  
Our first thoughts all along, and continue to be, the safety of our consumers and staff.  So, the decisions we have been making have been led by that, first and foremost.  So, I want to be sure that you know that the people we serve, your safety is our highest priority.  
With that, our orientation and mobility unit has begun providing some in‑person services.  These are being done on a case‑by‑case, priority, as‑needed basis.  
We're looking into having our assistive technology team on the road to be delivering more devices as well.  We've been doing that all along and we're trying to expand upon that.  We're waiting for guidance on how best to be able to open that up even more.  
So again, if you have questions and comments about these services, please contact us; we're there to serve you.  
We are anticipating a busy month.  October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.  It's also White Cane Awareness Day.  We usually have big events at the State House and around the Commonwealth on these.  This year we'll be doing them virtually.  
So, we'll be kicking off the month with our annual job fair which will be virtually, on October 2.  If you're interested in a job or know someone who is, please contact us.  If you'd like to attend or learn more, visit our website, mass.gov/MCB, or call us at 1‑800‑392‑6450 ‑‑ again, 1‑800‑392‑6450 ‑‑ or email us, MCBinfo@mass.gov.  
You'll be hearing about other virtual events and opportunities during the month, so please sign up.  Opt in to get our emails if you use emails or opt in if you would like to receive telephone notifications as well.  If you haven't done so, please do it; that's the best way to contact you and all the events that are going on at MCB.  You can find that form on our website at mass.gov/mcb, and yes, it is accessible.  
Today's presentation, we have a great lineup:  Our terrific team here in the Central Registry.  Our Central Registry is led by our director of policy and strategic initiatives, our ombudsman, Mary Otiato.  
Mary and the Central Registry team have done a great job in reviewing our registration process to make some changes that improve our service delivery which we hope you will enjoy.  We think it's going to make your life a little bit easier, particularly when it comes time to getting Certificates of Blindness.  
We've heard from many of you regarding this process, so thanks for filling out the form that we shared via email.  We learned many of you were satisfied with our process but did have some questions, and really wanted a little bit deeper understanding of some of the services that we can provide upon registration.  
We also learned that it has been a long time since many of you were registered, so this is a good refresher of the benefits that we provide.  We hope it's valuable.  
You'll hear from Mary and learn about these shortly, and then after that, stay on to hear music from one of our consumers who is a senior studying voice and accordion at the New England Conservatory.  He provided us with an original composition for a mini‑musical he created called The Confidence Academy.  
Thank you again for joining today.  Please contact me directly if I can be of service to you.  We're so pleased to have this presentation.  
Take it away, Ms. Mary.  
>> MARY OTIATO:  Good afternoon, everyone; thank you for joining us today.  
As David started with this, someone reminded me that there's no "I" in team.  So here are the members of my team. 
I have Karin Butler, who is the registrar in charge of registrations.  
I have Luis Nolasco, who is the director of central registration and data management.  
And Beverly Jean‑Baptiste, who is our central registration specialist, in charge of everything else, including Certificates of Blindness, ID cards, MBTA information referrals, MassEDP applications, et cetera.  You name it, I'm sure most of you have heard her voice and had a chance to talk to her.  
I'm Mary Otiato, and I started in this role June 1st of this year.  And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Susan Lavin, who was the former director, and who did a wonderful job getting us to this point. 
I will provide an overview of some of the changes that are going on, and I will let the rest of the team talk about the day‑to‑day, because they are the subject‑matter experts.  
So as you are aware, Central Registry is a great way to get MCB services.  We have filled many calls during COVID pertaining to consumers who wanted to be registered, and for some reason we could not find their eye reports.  The doctor said they faxed them, but MCB did not get them.  
So there's a black hole between the doctor's office and MCB registration.  And one of the things we're doing now is to fill that hole so we don't lose any more registrations.  
To the doctors and prospective consumers, family members, and our stakeholders and staff, who sometimes field these questions on behalf of the registry and MCB as a whole, I offer an apology, and assure you that we are doing something about it.  Things are going to change.  
We are engaged in a central registration business process for design, or as we call it, Central Registration 2.0.  The process started in the fall of 2019.  We're looking at ways to make the process more efficient and effective.  
We've been working with Konica Minolta Business Solutions for a system known as OnBase.  Right now, about 90 percent of the registrations, and if there are any doctors on this call will know, that they are sent by fax.  
Now, as you can imagine with COVID, when we were all home, the central registration team had to coordinate on who was going to be in the office to pick them up and make sure the registrar and the director of registration got this information.  
I remember being in the office one time and getting about 61 pages, and I scanned them, I sent them to Karin Butler, the registrar, and she called me and said, Mary, what am I supposed to do with these?  
So she had to print them out and start entering them in.  As you can tell, this just adds on more time to the time that has already come in.  
So we are hoping that the new system is going to help streamline some of these things.  
So, as I said, we started in 2019, fall of 2019, and so now we are approaching the user testing phase, and we will be looking to some of the eye doctors, if you're on this call, please indicate in the chat, or email us at MCB Info, to let us know if you would like to be included in the testing.  This is going to be really essential.  
The new system is going to result in faster registrations, since most of the information will be automatically populated into the case management system.  
The current system is very heavy on manual data entry, and just tends to delay things.  
Also, the doctor will receive an electronic verification of an eye report submittal as well as notification after the individual has been registered.  So that's our one way of plugging that black hole.  
A big change to the new registration in addition is the addition of a survey.  So we believe in good first impressions.  When somebody is newly registered, there will be a followup call from Central Registry welcoming them to MCB, and we'll follow up with a little survey just to get some information, demographic information, and a little bit more information to see how things can go.  
So, for example, if the consumer coming in is in danger of losing employment, we want to get to that consumer as soon as possible.  
Also, if a consumer is in dire need of services, we need to get that information, to get the test escalated into the region, so that those services can be had as soon as possible.  
The survey is entirely voluntary, and it really is just going to help us get the right services at the right time.  The survey, if you're wondering, was developed by Human Services Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it's picked by other national surveys for comparison.  
So, at some point, let's say two years from now, after we've had enough data, we will be able to look at our consumers coming in, and we will be able to see what trends are happening so we can best prepare for our services and service delivery that way.  
Other changes:  Some of you may have experienced this.  We tried a new way of sending Certificates of Blindness.  We did our best to preemptively send Certificates of Blindness to what we thought was a list of all those who had received them in the previous year.  
But I think we underestimated, and even though we initially sent out about 4,000 Certificates of Blindness, we had a couple more calls coming in, at least 1,500 more calls coming in, from those who did not receive the certificates.  
We sincerely apologize as well and appreciate your patience as we try out this new thing.  Next, we're going to start early, and hopefully you will receive the certificate without much hassle.  
Another change in the central registration is the addition of an ombudsman role.  The ombudsman introduction to the agency is, for any complaints, we are going to be able to track them through the ombudsman.  
And you will receive this number at the end of the presentation, but I just wanted to plug it in now.  The phone number is 617‑626‑7408; and the email address is MCB‑ombudsman@mass.gov.  
Now, we anticipate that each complaint will be logged and reviewed to help MCB analyze trends, gaps in services or service delivery, et cetera.  
The central registration team will provide some more phone numbers and email addresses at the end of this presentation, as I had let you know.  
So, looking back, I have given you a lot of information, and I would like to thank you for your continued patience and partnership.  
So now I'm going to introduce Luis Nolasco, director of central registration and data management.  
Luis?  
>> CARLA KATH:  I believe, Mary, I'm going to get the presentation going here.  I apologize that we didn't have your great slides to share, but we will be sharing those for everyone that participated with us today.  And everyone will also be able to see those presentations on www.mass.gov/mcb.  
I will go ahead and share that presentation now, and we will introduce, I believe, Karin.  
>> KARIN BUTLER:  Yes.  Thank you, Carla, and thank you Mary, both of you, for the introduction and, Mary, for sharing such wonderful information.  
I am Karin Butler; I am the registrar at the Commission for the Blind.  
Currently MCB has about 27,000 Massachusetts residents that are registered as legally blind.  MCB believes it's our mission to provide the highest quality of rehabilitation and social services to Massachusetts residents who are blind, leading to independence and full community participation.  
I would like to share with you during this Town Hall some information regarding the definition of legal blindness as well as our registration process and provide some information regarding some of the most common registration inquiries that we see.  
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 6, Section 136, requires that all eye‑care providers who find a patient to be legally blind register the patient with MCB within 30 days of the date of the exam.  
The rationale for this mandated reporting is to ensure patients will have access to supportive services and benefits at a critical time in their lives.  
Also, MCB's report of the register provides data used to base national projections of eye disease and blindness, as well as data for planning, initiating, and assessing appropriate programs.  So, you can see why registration is so important.  
Legal blindness is defined as vision with correction of 20 over 200 or less in the better‑ seeing eye, or a peripheral field restriction of 10 degrees or less, regardless of the acuity in the better eye.  
And just as a side note, an individual that is legally blind must be at 20 feet to see what an individual with, quote‑unquote, "normal" vision sees at 200 feet.  
It is also important to note that all our records are strictly confidential and protected by law, except in the cases of a legally blind person who holds an unexpired driver's license.  
This is also the perfect time to make note that for your safety and the safety of others, Massachusetts regulations require that consumers voluntarily surrender their driver's license to the Registry of Motor Vehicles' Medical Affairs branch.  
MCB does notify the RMD of individuals whose names do appear both on our register and the RMV file of licensed drivers.  And again, that is done for your safety and the safety of others.  
As Mary alluded to in her presentation, we are in the process of a redesign.  As currently most of our registration forms are handwritten and received via fax or postal mail, so we're looking for this redesign to increase our electronic submissions by eye‑care providers that will assist in expediting the registrations.  
This is an exciting project and will be a great benefit to all providers, potential consumers, and MCB alike.  Some of the issues when MCB receives registration currently via fax is, again, as Mary spoke of, the fax black hole, which is a very real thing for some reason, which we would like to get away from that black hole; as well as that's often missing information, such as patient demographic information, or maybe missing eye visual field chart results.  
Sometimes the acuities are missing, or quite frankly sometimes the reports are difficult to read because they have been handwritten and then transmitted by fax.  So, there is a reason why sometimes registrations are delayed, so we're hoping with the new system that that will help expedite the registration.  
Once we do have all the information that's required, we do a quality control to make sure the patient does in fact meet the definition of legal blindness; and once we determine that, the patient is then registered.  
Upon the completion of registration, we ensure that a letter, brochure of services, Certificates of Blindness, and the information ‑‑ excuse me; the information to request additional Certificates of Blindness is also included in this packet of information that we send out to our new registrants.  
We also send a registration letter to the eye‑ care provider, thanking them for taking their time to ensure that their patient will be able to receive the services that they need.  
It is also important to point out that services are not mandatory, that anyone can opt out of any contact with the Commission at any time, and if down the road you would like to be contacted by us, you certainly feel free to give us a call and we would be happy to discuss services with you.  
Also, at the end of registration when we send the letters out, we also submit a referral to the appropriate regional directors that covers the geographic area in which the patient resides in, and then they pass on a referral to the appropriate case manager who will be in contact with the consumer to offer a full explanation of services if that is something they desire.  
I'd like to thank you for your time, and now is also a good time to introduce Luis Nolasco, the director of consumer registration and data management, who is going to offer you some more information regarding MCB services.  
Thank you.  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  Hi; good afternoon, everyone.  
Thank you, everyone.  My name is Luis Nolasco; I'm the director of registration.  
I would like to talk to you about our benefits.  
So, the first one will be the Certificate of Blindness.  Any consumer who is registered with the Mass. Commission for the Blind can request a Certificate of Blindness.  
This certificate, which verifies a person is registered with the Commission, is needed when applying for tax exemptions or for other identification purposes.  
You can always call us, and I can give you the information at the end of this presentation how to request a Certificate of Blindness.  
Another benefit is the specialized telephone equipment program.  Registrants might be eligible for special telephones at reduced cost or for free, depending on income through the Massachusetts Equipment Distribution Program called MEDP.  
To get more information about this program, you can visit our website at mass.gov/mcb, and we have more guidance on how to get this benefit.  
Income tax exemptions and deductions:  Individuals that are registered with the Mass. Commission for the Blind are entitled to federal and state income tax exemptions and deductions.  Whenever you're filing for your tax returns, you need to have a current Certificate of Blindness each year in order to get that verification and the exemption can be claimed.  
There's also a real estate tax exemption.  The exemption is on a home in which here, the registrant resides or owns, and the amount of exemption varies by the local assessor office.  
So basically, each town is different; each town or city is different, so you need to contact them.  You will need a current Certificate of Blindness in order to get this benefit.  
Another benefit will be the auto tax exemption.  This is another tax exemption that you can get once you have a Certificate of Blindness; you can request an exemption.  The vehicle must be registered under your name, and it doesn't apply for leased vehicles since technically the car is not yours.  
Next one will be placards, disabled plates or placards.  Individuals might be able to get a disabled plate or placard that will allow them to park in designated handicapped parking areas.  In order to obtain this disabled plate, you will need to be registered with us and get a Certificate of Blindness that then we will have to submit to the Registry of Motor Vehicles in order to get that.  
Commission for the Blind ID cards ‑‑ and Beverly is going to expand more on this ‑‑ but I just want to say that we also give identification cards to individuals, and basically, it's just as a way of identifying yourself as legally blind.  
And now I would like to present Beverly Jean‑Baptiste, who is the office support for Central Registry, and she will talk to you about MCB ID cards and a few other things.  
Thank you.  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  Hi, everybody.  My name is Beverly Jean‑Baptiste; I'm the office specialist for the central registration department.  
Today I'm just going to touch base on pretty much Certificates of Blindness, the MBTA Blind Access Card.  
To start off with the Certificates of Blindness, like Luis had touched base, you will call every year for one.  As of now, for a tax exemption on your home or on your vehicle, the tax exemption does vary from town to city, based on where you live.  Also, you can also use it for the tax exemptions for your federal and state income taxes.  
And please also remember, although we do issue the Certificates of Blindness that you can use for your tax exemptions and deductions, it does not work for sales tax.  Individuals that are legally blind are not exempt from the Massachusetts sales tax when purchasing items.  Sometimes that is one of the questions that does come up.  
You can use our Certificate of Blindness as proof of your legal blindness for handicapped placard applications, when applying for them or renewing them or if you have lost a handicapped placard.  
Also, the handicapped placards go through the Registry of Motor Vehicles medical department.  We don't issue them, but we issue the Certificates of Blindness to accompany your handicapped placard application.  Any lost or damaged handicapped placard requests do go through the Registry of Motor Vehicles.  
Also, along the lines of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, although we do issue the MBTA Blind Access Card, our ID does not replace the requirement of getting an ID from the Registry of Motor Vehicles.  
After October of next year, 2021, you will not be able to use our ID to fly or go into any federal building.  Even now, people are given a hard time even using them in picking up prescriptions from the pharmacy; or even when some prescriptions are delivered to the home, they want a Real ID issued from the Registry of Motor Vehicles.  That's one piece.  
Also, our ID is used to travel on the MBTA or the various transit authorities around Massachusetts.  Specifically, for the MBTA, because we currently are in Boston, if you have lost your MBTA Blind Access Card and you need to replace one or if it has expired, you must call the MBTA.  
Do not email them; currently they only are accepting these requests by phone, only, to replace your MBTA Blind Access Card, or to get a new one.  
When you do get a new one, if you've never had one, they are issuing temporary ones as of right now.  And when the CharlieCard store is open, they will be asking individuals to go down to the CharlieCard store with an ID, either our ID or an ID from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, along with a Certificate of Blindness to get your picture taken for the MBTA Blind Access Card.  
If you have any questions about getting an MBTA Blind Access Card or getting a new one or replacing a lost or expired one, you can call them at 617‑222‑3200.  617‑222‑3200.  
And I will give it back over to Luis.  Thank you.  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  Thank you for that information, Beverly.  
I would like to share some important numbers with you guys.  One of them is the central registration.  So, if you need the ID for any type of inquiries for the Central Register, you can email us to BlindnessRegistry@mass.gov.  Also, the phone number is 617‑626‑7415.  And that's for Central Register inquiries.  
Now, the general inquiry, any question for the Mass. Commission for the Blind, you can send an email to MCBinfo@mass.gov, and the phone number is 617‑727‑5550.  And we have an 800 number; it's 1‑800‑392‑6450.  
And ombudsman, it's MCB‑Ombudsman@mass.gov, and the phone number is 617‑626‑7408.  
For doctors that are in this Town Hall, if you would like to submit an eye exam via online, it will be to the website, mass.gov/online-reporting, and that will directly send you to the form that you need to submit.  
Thank you very much.  And now, Carla, if you can help us, if you guys have any questions, please, we can take them now.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, Luis, and to our Central Register team.  I think that's great information.  
We do receive a lot of inquiries to MCBinfo@mass.gov.  And now, like Luis said, we now have the new email address that is just devoted to entries for our Central Register team.  And that is BlindnessRegistry@mass.gov.  
So, we're hoping to streamline the communications a little bit and answer your questions more directly as they come in.  
If you have some today, though, if you have some questions for the team here, we do have about ten minutes, and can answer your questions via the chat feature here, as well as if you raise your hand, we can call on you for a question.  
And one of them I know that we have here, one of the questions here for Luis, Karin, Beverly and Mary:  How do consumers know if they are registered?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  Karin or Luis?  
>> KARIN BUTLER:  I was trying to unmute myself.  
A consumer, if you ever have any questions, feel free to give us a call, and we can certainly check our records.  Any time, we would be happy to let you know whether you're registered.  
We do always send out a registration letter upon registration.  I know sometimes, though, unfortunately, maybe you didn't receive it, or you've misplaced it or whatnot.  
But my best advice would be, if you have any questions, just feel free to give us a call and we can certainly investigate that for you.  
>> MARY OTIATO:  I just wanted to add, after we have OnBase, we will be able to give you call during the survey stage, and you'll know that we've received your eye report from your doctor.  
And additionally, sometimes we may be able to do the survey parallel to you being registered, and so you will be able to know that as well.  
>> CARLA KATH:  All right.  And we have another question about eligibility of services.  So how would an individual know if they were eligible to receive mobility training, rehab teaching, any of those services?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  So, for services, registration is just getting you in the door.  And when it's time for services, we really take you to the regions in your catchment area.  And I believe, is John Oliveira on this call?  
>> CARLA KATH:  He may be, Mary.  
>> MARY OTIATO:  But I can tell that once we have you registered and we put you into the region, then the regional director assigns you to ‑‑ the regional director or the supervisor will assign you to a counselor who is going to do the evaluation and assessment to see what services you'll receive.  
>>  Great job, Mary.  
>> CARLA KATH:  There's John. 
>>  Sorry; I was unmuted ‑‑ I was muted, sorry.  
So as Mary said, when you come in through, you're registered.  That means you're ready to move on, and you're assigned so our regional offices.  
And then the director assigns you to the appropriate unit, whether it's vocational rehab or social rehab.  
And then you move on into the areas where you are assigned aid social worker.  Then the social worker or VR counselor will talk to you about eligibility for the different services.  
So you develop a plan, and in that plan that lists the goal that you are achieving, if you are in vocational rehab, or you're in independence goal, if you're in social rehab, then that's when the services are discussed, what you're eligible for, and then you move forward.  
>> CARLA KATH:  All right.  A lot of good questions here.  
I know Beverly spoke to this topic, but we have an individual who would like you to repeat the information about real estate taxes; and, if you could just answer the question, would the family be eligible for a real estate exemption if an individual lived with them.  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  Karin and Luis, jump in after and interrupt me if I'm incorrect.  
For the real estate tax exemption, your name must be the one that's on the home, and you can only claim your real estate tax exemption for only one home that you are living in.  
So, the individual does ‑‑ the address that is connected to your Certificate of Blindness is the address that you would only get that tax exemption for.  
Also, I wanted to just add that if you're needing to show proof of legal blindness, especially for Social Security, or anything else that they're saying "Are you legally blind," you would not be using our Mass. Commission for the Blind identification card; you would be using your Certificate of Blindness for your proof of legal blindness.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, Beverly.  And another topic that you touched on were the Real IDs, and someone is asking, if an MCB ID can be helpful to obtaining a Real ID, how do you do that?  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  From what I understand, you need several other pieces of information to go to the Registry to get the Real ID.  You need like your Social Security card, you need a birth certificate, you need proof of address, things of that nature.  
You want to contact the Registry of Motor Vehicles to make sure that what you have, if that is enough to go.  
Currently, I know for the Haymarket location, and pretty much all the locations, you must make an appointment before you go.  
But you do have to have several pieces of information to prove who you are in obtaining the Real ID.  A passport is also one.  If you don't want to get that Real ID but you do have a passport, if you don't mind carrying it around, you can just keep your passport.  
>> CARLA KATH:  And then I have a question here as well about, does your registration expire?  And does it need to be renewed?  
>> KARIN BUTLER:  No, it does not expire.  Once you are registered, you are registered, unless, on the rare occasion that we do have folks that have had surgery and their eyesight has improved.  You can then contact your physician, who will provide an updated report and we will remove you from our register.  
But there is no need to renew your registration.  You do need to provide yearly Certificates of Blindness at this point for things such real estate or automobile excise tax exemption, but that does not require to be re‑registered.  That's just simply calling us and requesting a Certificate of Blindness.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thanks, Karin.  
Another question is, can we speak to how doctors or eye‑care professionals are educated about the provision in the law about providing service to someone, individuals with low vision?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  Luis, can you talk about your last road show?  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  What's that?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  Your last road show.  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  Yes.  So, we go out to the eye‑care community and talk to them about, you know, that being ‑‑ that they need to register individuals, that they're required by law to do this.  So, we basically went out and visited eye‑care provider offices and tell them that this is required.  
Also, we give out information to colleges where new eye‑care providers are being educated, and when they start going out to the community, they know that they're required to do this.  
So, yes; and most of the time, whenever the individuals are looking for benefits and stuff, they come to us to look for information.  
>> CARLA KATH:  All right.  Could a Certificate of Blindness be requested via email?  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  It can be, yes.  You can request it at BlindnessRegistry@mass.gov.  That's our email address for any inquiry for Central Registry, yes.  
>> CARLA KATH:  And I think, Jenna or Kerri, do you have any questions for us?  
>>  We're all set for now; thank you so much.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Okay.  Jenna, you're okay?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  There's a hand up from as well.  
>>  Yes.  I want to say the Commission could do more of an advocating job on getting different towns and cities different deductions for real estate taxes.  
I advocated in my town and got it raised.  I pointed out other towns around where it was higher.  So, I think the Commission could do a good job on getting it up above the $500.  
I just wanted to point that out to you.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you for sharing that.  I have a question regarding what they were saying about the low‑income phone.  If a consumer wants to get it, how will they do that, to get it, please?  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  The Mass. EDP, the form is online.  Basically, you fill out the form, and then you send it back to the Mass. Commission for the Blind for us to confirm that you are registered with us as being legally blind.  
And then we reach back out to you for a Mass. EDP phone, for a phone.  If you need an application, you can let us know, and I can mail you out the application, and I can send that out to you.  
I also have their phone number in case you already have a phone, and for whatever reason it may not be working.  
If that's maybe the case for anybody else that's listening, I can give that number now, and I'll say it more than once, in case you have a phone and it's not working.  It's 1‑800‑300‑5658.  1‑800‑300‑5658.  
If you need an application sent to your home, I can see if I can send that out to your home so that you can fill it out and send it back.  Would that be helpful?  
>>  If you send it to my home, please.  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  Okay; I'm going to ‑‑ I noticed there are a few different people on this call that can actually spell out your last name for me ‑‑ 
>>  I can spell it for you, if you want, please.  
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  No, it's okay. 
>>  We have it in the database. 
>> BEVERLY JEAN‑BAPTISTE:  We're very familiar.  I will touch base with your counselor and I'll make sure it goes out to you tomorrow.  Thank you.  
>>  That would be great.  Thank you so much.  
>> CARLA KATH:  You're welcome.  
We have a few more questions, then some hands raised here.  We have one from Rhonda.  
Rhonda, would you like to unmute and ask your question?  
>>  Hi, this is Rhonda.  Can you hear me?  
>> CARLA KATH:  Yes.  
>>  My question is, do I need to submit a request for a Certificate of Blindness, or one will be sent out because I'm registered?  
>> LUIS NOLASCO:  You will need to request a Certificate of Blindness.  Unless, for tax purposes, for real estate tax purposes for next year, we will be sending out automatically the certificate for next year.  But for any other reason that you need it now, you need to call or send us an email to request a new one.  
>>  Thank you.  
>> CARLA KATH:  All right.  And then, Henry, I see you have your hand raised as well.  If you would like to unmute and ask your question.  
A few more here; we have one from Shirley.  Shirley, would you like to ask your question?  
>>  Can you hear me?  
>> CARLA KATH:  We can hear you. 
>>  Hello?  It's Shirley; can you hear me?  
>> CARLA KATH:  We can hear you.  
>>  I wanted to mention a few things that were kind of unclear.  
Somebody had asked a question regarding does the MCB expire.  Doesn't the MCB expire in five years, and you must get it renewed?  And the placard, it's more for parking in handicapped areas rather than for driving?  And that also expires around the same time if you have a Mass. ID, which expires also in five years, and the blind access card for MBTA riders as well, that expires in five years as well.  
So, all those things I mentioned need to be renewed within the five‑year period of receiving it from one period to the next; isn't that true?  
>>  You are correct; it is true.  But the question was related to the Mass. Commission for the Blind being registered as legally blind.  That does not expire until the doctor removes you from our registry because you've had a procedure that reinstated or improved your vision.  
So, all the items you mentioned are correct, but the question was related to the MCB registration as legally blind within MCB.  
>>  Okay.  I just wanted to mention in case, for those who weren't aware, because I had to go through that process. 
>>  It's a great clarification, and everyone is aware now.  
>>  Thank you. 
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you.
All right.  So, I believe that we are up against the clock here, but we do want to continue to answer your questions offline, off this call.  
So please use any of the numbers provided, any of the emails.  Our 1‑800 number again is 1‑800‑392‑6450.  Our general mailbox is MCBinfo@mass.gov.  
If you have specific questions for the Central Registry team, that's BlindnessRegistry@mass.gov; and then their email and phone numbers are all in the chat as well.  
All right.  We will go over to one of our MCB colleagues, Darren Black, to introduce our consumer music performance here.  
>> DARREN BLACK:  Thank you, Carla.  I hope everybody has enjoyed the program and found it informative about the Central Registry and all the benefits.  
I am honored to introduce the creative work of one of MCB's many successful consumers.  Matthew Shifrin is a senior now at the New England Conservatory of Music, currently studying music composition, singing, and accordion playing, among other instruments other things.  
He enjoys writing musicals, podcasting, rock climbing, and making text‑based instructions so that blind children can build Lego sets on their own.  He's done quite a lot of work in that area.  
If you want to contact him about any of these projects or his music, you can reach him at legofortheblind.org.  
Here is the first song in his upcoming musical, who is about a blind student transitioning to independence in college, who faces a lot of challenges, learning all about the life skills that one needs to in order to be successful.  His new musical is called The Confidence Academy.  
So here it is.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, Darren.  Here we have the song from Matthew, and also a photo of him here that he provided, with one of his Lego creations.  
(Video, Matthew Shifrin singing.) 
>>  SONG WORDS:  Have you ever witnessed such a frazzled fellow, a fellow who put Comet in his tea!  Nutmeg in the washer, thought it was detergent.  
Need the world's worst cleaner?  Well, that's me!  
Will I ever learn the secrets of adulting, how to cook and iron, wash and dry?  Maybe scrub a pot?  Probably not, probably not.  
Mother tried to teach me how to be an adult, up until I vandalized our house.  It was accidental!  Tried to fix an outlet, started up a blaze, I put a douse.  
Father tried to teach me how to fill the car up; that adventure ended with a boom!  Give me one more shot?  Probably not, probably not.  
So, I Googled it, and what did I find?  An intense six‑month course teaching skills to the blind.  
The Confidence Academy!  The Confidence Academy!
(End of video playback.) 
>> CARLA KATH:  All right; I think it stopped here.  But that was that was a little snippet from Matthew Shifrin's mini‑musical, the Confidence Academy.  And we are thrilled he shared his talents with us today.  
Now we want to see the whole thing, Darren, so you will have to share that with Matthew, that we will have to have a whole Town Hall devoted to a musical.  
>> DARREN BLACK:  That sounds wonderful, Carla.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thanks very much.  
And I believe that we will go back to our Central Registry team here to close out and provide their contact information again.  
But we wanted to thank everyone for joining this Town Hall today.  Continue to stay in touch with all of us at MCB, as we deal with social distancing, and the COVID‑19 pandemic.  Stay safe, be well, and know that all of us at MCB are here for you.  
Mary?  
>> MARY OTIATO:  I'll just echo what you said.  Thank you so much for being with us on this day.  And my direct number is 617‑626‑7485.  If you have any questions, or if you have any ideas or how we can do things better, please do give me a call, and I will send that information to my team.  
And just, thank you so much for our continued partnership, and I look forward to the next Town Hall.  We'll ask you, hopefully we'll have already implemented the new system, and we'll ask you how it's going.  
Thank you again.  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, everyone, for joining.  Have a nice night!  Bye!  
>>  Thank you. 
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, everyone.  
>>  Thank you, have a nice day, everyone.  
>>  Thank you.  
>>  Thank you.  
>>  Thank you for your participation.  
>>  Thank you, have a nice day.  
>>  Thank you.  
>>  Great meeting!  
>> CARLA KATH:  Thank you, you guys, thank you for joining.  Thank you, thank you, guys.  
	[ Human real-time captioning by HRI CART. ]