As we discussed in past posts, the board has committed to improvement in five areas of focus this year. We have promised to:

• Improve accessibility.
• Hear from members.
• Communicate more.
• Increase accountability.
• Evaluate the organization’s structure and activities.

We’d like to share some of the steps we’ve taken in these areas with our members and with the general public.

This week, we’ll look at our successes and our next steps to Improve accessibility.

All 107IST board meetings are now available by video conferencing. While this has been a necessary step during the pandemic, it also has the added benefit of allowing those who do not live close to Portland to attend board meetings. To avoid meeting-bombing, we do not publish the links for the general public, but anyone who wishes to attend a board meeting by video conferencing may do so by signing up at timbersarmy.org. All registered attendees receive a link to the board meeting by email ahead of time.

Ensure that virtual meetings are properly subtitled. When we hold meetings, we do so using Google Meet, with the captioning option, so that attendees can access the conversation through captioning as well as by audio.

Establish protocols and procedures for accessibility. It’s true that the pandemic has meant that we hold meetings online, which allows for captioning. We have established that this is not only a practice to undertake during a pandemic, but have also added procedures and protocols for accessibility to the board handbook for both in-person meetings (ASL interpreters) and for remote meetings (captioning) going forward.

In progress:
We are in the process of adding alt text to our (prodigious) collection of photos to make them accessible to persons with visual impairments or with low or limited vision.

Look for more information about our efforts in the few weeks!