Public Meeting Notice  MCB Rehabilitation Council (RC) Meeting

The quarterly Meeting of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Rehabilitation Council was called to order by Chair Brian Switzer at about 1:10 pm. The meeting was held remotely using the Zoom conferencing platform.

Roll call:

Members in Attendance: Minh Ha; Brian Switzer Chair; Jerry Berrier; Jennifer Harnish; Martha Daigle; Naomi Goldberg

MCB: Commissioner John Oliveira and Priscilla Ngome

Regrets: Jennifer Whittemore; Rebecca Davis; Joseph Quintanilla

A quorum of 8 out of 11 RC voting and non-voting members were present. 6 out of the 9 voting members were present which allowed voting on the March minutes; the vote to pass was unanimous.

Brian mentioned the Carroll Society Awards scheduled to occur on June 12.

New RC Members

Minh Ha introduced herself; she is Assistive Technology Manager at Perkins and also serves on the State Digital Accessibility and Equity Board. She holds a number of certifications related to accessibility. Joe Quintanilla is Vice President of Development and Major Gifts at the National Braille Press, among other roles.

Commissioner’s Update

Commissioner John Oliveira shared that the move of the MCB office in Boston is well underway and projected week for actual move to 40 Broad Street is week of June9. Space is smaller and uses a booking system for reserving desks. MCB has the entire floor with IT unit on another floor. Anticipated opening time of the new office is six weeks/end of July. Blind ID’s being provided with encouragement to apply for a Real ID because the former is not considered to be a valid federal ID. A staff member has printer and materials needed to print and mail the Blind Access Card and parking placards. Rent is lower at the new location, and it appears to be a safer location. There is less traffic, more places to eat, newly remodeled. Washington St had problems with elevators and heating system. With 10-12 staff in the office each day, the reduction in desks made sense. The booking app is accessible and a few improvements to useability were recommended. For accessibility needs, one cubicle in each cluster has a CCTV and a physical phone. The new phone system being put in place will allow for calls to be transferred directly to staff mobile phones. There are private spaces for meetings that need privacy. The 4^th floor is the public floor and if someone needs to go to the private 10^th or 11^th floor, there is a phone for the person to call when they arrive at the public level. Because the building is privately owned, there won’t be a vending stand; however, there will be Randolph Shepard vending machines.

The summer internship program is underway with about 70 participants. White Cane Day is scheduled for October 24. The Pre-Ets’ conference was held at the end of March with 140 TVI’s and COMS and agency staff in attendance. The Reverse Job Fair is being held in October along with an employer education seminar in September.

The State budget is on the conference committees as of the date of this meeting. MCB is level-funded with some additional State funds to cover staff and some overhead. On the VR side, a couple of attorneys were let go at RSA and rumors continue as to potential for decreases in federal funding for VR programs. MCB did receive all of its Federal funding for FY25 including the rest of the federal grant coming in April. The Older Independent Blind grant and the remainder of the supported employment grant were received by end of May. Some strategies in place to stretch the VR grant funds include more aggressiveness in applying for the Social Security reimbursements for placing consumers receiving SSI or SSDI in work (After full-time employment of 12 months and meeting SGA (Substantial Gainful Activity) , MCB can be reimbursed for a percentage of the cost of services. These funds are then used first which extends the life of the VR grant. State match funds are then used to draw down every dollar of the VR funds which extends the VR funds to two years. If there are reductions in VR funding for FY 2026, these strategies will help cover such reductions. There are rumors that RSA might be moving to the Department of Labor; he is hopeful that if any move occurs, programs will remain intact.

MCB has hired a Housing Specialist, Bela Arruda. She speaks Portuguese, and she is starting with the Boston region then her work expands to other regions. She has a lot of experience, over 15 years of work, in the housing field. Jan Doremus retired after 30 years of service.

Dashboard Update

The Dashboard is located on the MCB home page.

Nathan Skrocki reported that overall, numbers are steady. There are over 800 SR children and over 3000 SR adults, over 200 VR youth (including pre-Ets individuals) and over 700 VR adults registered. Closed cases so far this calendar year over 30 children’s cases, over 1000 SR adults and over 160 successful VR closures and over 100 non-successful closures (latter two are fiscal year). Consistency in demographics. Certificates of blindness, ID’s and parking placards issued are consistent with the previous year; July and August COB’s expected to be higher due to tax reasons. Numbers tend to be steady year to year with exception of the pandemic when far fewer people were going to the doctor with spike in 2022/23 once people went back to doctors offices. MCB does provide reminders and education about legal requirements of reporting legal blindness to the State. MCB Blind ID: some people still like to use it if they don’t need to travel or to enter federal buildings. It has also been considered a second form of ID and can be used to document your age when needed for purchases. Low vision individuals with progressive conditions can also receive VR services. The MA law on reporting also supports the RMB in taking away driver’s licenses of those declared legally blind; MCB sends the list of new registrants to RMV monthly. See MA State law section 6: 135 and 136 for more details on the mandated reporting law. For cortical Visual Impairment (CVI), those whose\ function at the level of legal blindness can receive services. CBI registrations have risen from 0 to 35 percent of children’s cases over the years.

New Business

Brian is the new Executive Director of the Deaf-Blind Contact Center and maintains his current role at the Carroll Center. Jennifer Harnish is the new Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired MABVI.

Brian plans to work on updating the RC By-laws along with other members of the RC. DeAnn Elliott will share about her MCB summer internship experience at the September RC meeting.

Public Comments

None

The meeting was adjourned at about 2:25 PM.

Next meeting: Wednesday, September 3, 2025, 1:00 - 3:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted by Jennifer Harnish, RC Secretary.

Held remotely, via Zoom Meeting

This meeting will be recorded

• Call to order
• Welcome and introductions
• Introduction of new members
• Approval of March 5 Minutes
• Commissioner’s Update
• Budget update
• Programs And Services Update
• Dashboard Update
• New Business
• Public Comments

Next meeting: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 1:00 - 3:00

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please submit your request at least two weeks in advance to MCB ADA Coordinator Shauntay King by email at  shauntay.m.king@state.ma.us or by phone at 617-210-5054. Requests made less than two weeks before the meeting will be considered but may not be possible to fill. Please inform the ADA Coordinator if you will need American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and/or Communication Access Real Time Transcription (CART) services.