Access education Day wrap up -- revised

Posted by John B. Kelly

Besides a couple of grammar mistakes, most of the revisions are simply the addition of pictures, a process I am still very slow at.

Almost 15 NAG members, helpers and friends gathered at the corner of Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues this afternoon during NAG's "Access Education Day." It was a more relaxed sort of event, with passersby winding their way through the various staging points for our foamboard and cardboard posters. As we watched the scene of people reading our boards and taking fliers, some of us chatted, some handed out fliers and brochures, and everyone read some of the exhibits.

(l-r) John Kelly, James Magee, and Pam Beeler. Gladys stands in the background


Gladys takes a break from handing out flyers and brochures


Pam Beeler reads the storyboard for Billie Tyler

Our posters hung from poles, clocks, and Eileen Brewster's even rested on a tree branch. It felt almost like an art exhibit or "installation," with the posters scattered about the corner and down Huntington Avenue.

A woman who had just translated posters into Russian for a friend moves on

The first thing my helper Rob DuBuske and I did was hunt down some violations, made easy by the leftover chalk marks from Wednesday evening. We just took out the trusty Smart Level, with its electronic readout, and scoured around for the top brick of one of the little mounds that are always getting pushed up. Down went the Smart Level on the little summit, and with a slide one way or the other, voilà: access violation. Rob colored in the profiles made by the level, and scribbled out in huge numbers the cross slope.

Jodi Gaulin walks past chalk marking violations

Five or so presented themselves immediately in the very first stretch of sidewalk, along the low retaining wall encircling Utrecht Art Supplies and the Green Line station. A few egregious changes of level were handily clustered in a fresh-worked brick patch just past the little driveway heading towards the Huntington Theatre, so we marked them up too.


Rob wrote explanations on the sidewalk like "Anything Over 2% Is Illegal."

As more and more Naggers arrived, NAG brochures and fliers got handed out, and the posters got hung all over the place. A mix of old and new fliers got stuffed in NAG brochures, and seemed to get the basic message out about what we are trying to do.


Eileen Brewster has a brochure waiting for the next passerby


Karen Schneiderman engages a passerby


Barbara passes a flyer to a car passenger


Maureen Cancemi's storyboard over a poster detailing city neglect


Northeastern student reads brochure given her by John Healy


Announcement-style posters explained what we were doing

It was gratifying to see people leaning over a poster board and reading about what Jack Grieco, Maureen Cancemi, or Matti Kniva Spencer had to say about bricks and the civil rights they obstruct.

Perhaps some second thoughts about those high heels?



Cell phone user gets some reading in

No media came, which I guess is to be expected, both because I did not work the press very hard and the late hour of the press release. And of course, people with disabilities just aren't news when we are acting in our own interests.

Lately I've been learning to say "you have to live a long time to fight City Hall," because no matter how clear and unnecessary the violation of our civil rights, we have yet to find the allies or brilliant tactic that would make our demands righteous and unstoppable.

In the meantime, we really have a lot of educating to do. A lot of people really think, without any ill motives, that brick sidewalks are just wonderful and the more of them the better. We reached a good number of people yesterday, but we need to do this on a regular basis.

What makes it hard, however, is that we are already impatient, because it took us so long to get frustrated enough to admit that unless we really took action, nothing would change.

Thanks to the following people for making it all happen: Pam Beeler, Eileen Brewster, John Healy, Billie Tyler, Jack Grieco, Maureen Cancemi, Karen Schneiderman and James Magee from NAG , Ann Hershfang from WalkBoston, Joyce Foster from FCDC, Lisa Skayne (my nurse) from Boston Community Medical Group, Jim Kinsellagh of Brookline, my helpers Rob DuBuske and Jodi Gaulin, and Barbara and Gladys who came with Eileen Brewster.