4. “ The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program requires grantees to consider the needs of persons with disabilities in planning and carrying out activities financed with CDBG funds. Grantees need to report on the number of persons with disabilities that have benefited from certain types of activities…” (from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website.) HUD’s capacity and commitment to learn from, understand, and respond to the needs and potentials of people with disabilities grows stronger each year. Although Civil Rights legislation establishes the rights of adults and children with disabilities to be granted equal access to health, education, housing, employment and all municipal services, it is the spirit of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) that goes to the heart of the matter, calling upon us to consider how best to ensure the equal success of people with disabilities in all activities of life. An emerging understanding is that people with disabilities are more disempowered by attitudes of prejudice than by the actual conditions of certain illnesses, which create functional limitations. Like all people, the abilities of a person with physical, sensory, cognitive and/or mental impairments are potentiated by circumstances that engage those abilities and allow for their expression, enrichment, and enhancement. And the reverse is also true. Thus, it is appropriate for local entities to ask, “How will people with disabilities be directly affected by these plans?” and, “How can we ensure that people with disabilities will be most able to benefit from, participate in, and contribute to, the community’s CDBG activities?” HUD Programs are oriented toward such goals. Somerville’s Annual CDBG Action Plan for April 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008 can be a strategic agent for maximizing the potentials of all community members. p.2, Feldman CDBG FY07/08 Recommendations

15. STRUCTURAL, PROGRAMMATIC and COMMUNICATION ACCESS FOR ALL CAN BE READILY ACHIEVED STEP-BY-STEP. ESTIMATED COSTS FY07/08: $120,000 p.13, Feldman FY07/08 CDBG Recommendations Achieve Accessibility Step By Step

16. p. 14, Feldman CDBG FY07/08 Recommendations A PICTURE IS WORTH A LOT OF WORDS

20. p. 18, Feldman CDBG FY07/08 Recommendations A PICTURE IS WORTH A LOT OF WORDS