I.    Purpose. To foster communication among members and to encourage research, education, and service that addresses issues of disability and chronic illness. The group will provide support and advocate with disabled members of the Association while working closely with other specialty groups to promote common interests and develop intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects. (Statement of purpose remains unchanged)

II.    Membership and Dues. Any member of the AAG can become a member of the Disability Specialty Group upon selection of the specialty group interest box on the AAG annual dues form and payment of specialty group dues. Dues are  $4 for regular members and $1 for students and retirees.

III.    By-Laws.   By-laws are posted on the Group web site, hosted by Mike Dorn at  http://faculty.mc3.edu/mdorn/dsgbylaws.html

IV.    2001-2002 Officers.

Chair: Vera Chouinard, School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Voice 905-525-9140 Fax 905-522-3141
Internet chouinar@mcmaster.ca

Secretary-Treasurer: Robert Wilton, School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Voice 905-525-9140 Fax 905-522-3141; Internet wiltonr@mcmaster.ca

Directors:

Nicole Yantzi, Department of Geography, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6; Voice 613-533-6000 ext 75122 Fax 613-533-6122; Internet 6nmy@qlink.queensu.ca

Deborah S. Metzel, Institute for Community Inclusion/UCE, Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts, 100 Morrisey Boulevard, Boston, MA  02125; Voice 617-355-4068 Fax  617-730-5853 Internet dsmetzel@yahoo.com

Rob Kitchin, Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; Voice +353-1-708-3610 Fax +353-1-708-3573 Internet Rob.Kitchin@may.ie

 
Awards Committee:

Chair: Nicole Yantzi, Department of Geography, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6; Voice 613-533-6000 ext 75122 Fax 613-533-6122; Internet 6nmy@qlink.queensu.ca

Deborah S. Metzel, Institute for Community Inclusion/UCE, Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts, 100 Morrisey Boulevard, Boston, MA  02125; Voice 617-355-4068 Fax  617-730-5853 Internet dsmetzel@yahoo.com

Mike Dorn, Department of the History and Sociology of Science, 303 Logan Hall, 249 S. 36th Street, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; mdorn@zoo.uvm.edu

V.    Activities and Accomplishments.

At the AAG Annual Meeting in New York, the DSG sponsored or co-sponsored several paper sessions and a plenary address.  Sponsorship for the plenary address by Dr. Simi Linton was coordinated with: Cultural Geography SG, Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography SG, Geographical Perspectives on Women (GPOW), Socialist Geography SG, Urban Geography SG, and Values, Ethics and Justice SG.

VI.    Business Meeting (New York, NY), March 2nd, 2001  14 in attendance

1. Discussion about the conference and reasonable accommodation made by the association
There was some discussion about forming an official AAG committee to look at disability issues, although a representative from the AAG, Clionadh Raleigh (CR), cautioned that there is a downside to the committee, namely that there are bureaucratic hurdles involved both during formation and operation of the committee.

Mike Dorn (MD) reported that there had been agreement at the AAG councilors meeting that disabled persons/members of the DSG should be involved with the local arrangements committee to help deal with access issues in a timely manner.

Rob Kitchin (RK) reported on a meeting with Reg Golledge.  Golledge felt that members of the DSG were not always aware of how much had been done by the AAG in the recent past.  He asked the DSG to prepare a short list of things that need to be addressed by the association, and also to prepare a checklist for the next conference.  He emphasized that there was a need for reasonable accommodation, particularly given the financial situation of the AAG

RK said that more needed to be done to communicate what the AAG has done to members (volunteer guides, tactile maps, etc).  He also suggested that AAG set up a disability fund that members could contribute to on the conference/membership forms.  Money collected could be used to help offset additional travel costs and other costs incurred by disabled people in attending to the meetings.

CR cautioned that this might not work since very few people give to the existing funds indicated on the membership forms.

Vera Chouinard (VC) asked whether it would be possible to waive conference fees for disabled people attending the conference.  CR said that AAG waives fees for personal assistants, but not currently for the disabled people themselves.

MD indicated that the AAG had committed to provide signers for the next meeting, so this needed to be publicized effectively.

Simi Linton (SL) suggested that the DSG publicize more broadly what steps the AAG had taken to improve access for persons with disabilities.  While the AAG may not have done everything right, the Braille maps are an important contribution.    

SL also suggested that it might be fruitful for the AAG President to contact the President of the Modern Language Association since the MLA has been making some significant improvements in terms of access and they might be able to learn from one another.

Financial report
Robert Wilton (RW) reported that the DSG currently has $70.00 in its AAG account.  However, the co-sponsorship obtained for SL’s plenary exceeded expectations by approximately $50.00 so the group has closer to $100.00 in total.  Membership numbers stand at 12 regular members and 2 student members, although this may be an undercount since membership renewal forms were late going out this year.

Elections
Results of the 2001 election were as follows:

Chair – Vera Chouinard (unopposed)
Student Director – Nicole Yantzi (unopposed)
Director – Rob Kitchin (unopposed)

Deborah Metzel (DM) and Robert Wilton will each stay on for another year as Director and Secretary-Treasurer respectively

It was agreed that responsibilities for these positions would transfer at the end of the annual meetings.

Ruth Butler (RB) announced that she had recently been elected to the Institute of British Geographers’ Equal Opportunity/Access committee.

Officers’ responsibilities
Valorie Crooks (VaC) suggested that specific responsibilities be assigned to each of the directors so that efforts on behalf of the specialty could be better coordinated.  VaC suggested the following responsibilities:
Director A:         Elections
Director B:        AAG session planning/coordination
Director C (student):    Student paper prize/student research panel

VC asked MD to provide an idea about the Chair’s responsibilities.  MD reported that his primary responsibilities has been to:
Chair business meeting
Maintain communications with AAG office/executive
Address specific accommodation requirements for the conference
Lobby on behalf of the DSG for reasonable accommodation
Distribute information to group members

RK suggested that responsibilities for Directors A and B be combined, and one director be made responsible for access/accommodation at the annual meetings.  RK agreed to take on this responsibility for the LA 2001 conference.  DM will coordinate elections and special sessions

Possible LA 2002 mini-conference
RW raised the issue of a mini-conference for the next meeting in Los Angeles.  He suggested that there was a decision to be made about whether we wanted to focus our effort on a min-conference prior to the AAG meetings, or whether we should concentrate on forging links with other specialty groups, organizing sessions that encourage other specialty groups to consider the position (or lack thereof) of disability within contemporary research.

SL indicated that this issue was also very much an issue within disability studies at the moment.  One of the things to consider is which strategy will produce the greatest visibility for disability issues.

VC and others indicated that forging links with other specialty through co-sponsored sessions might be productive.  Several members of the DSG had contact with members of the Socialist Geography Specialty Group who expressed an interest in more substantive engagements between groups for the next conference.

RK mentioned that he had been investigating money for conferences available through Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council, but this would be something separate from the AAG.

RW agreed to send out an e-mail to GEOGABLE asking about interest in a possible mini-conference.

Graduate student paper competition (2002)
MD suggested that we organize a graduate student paper competition for next year.  Given the lack of funds and the small numbers in the group, it seemed appropriate to have a single prize rather than separate awards for MA and PhD candidates.  RK and VaC discussed the issue of eligibility for the prize.  It was felt that students should be presenting in a DSG sponsored session in order the paper to be a valid entry.  VC suggested that perhaps a book might be obtained from a publisher as a prize

Other business
RK suggested we start thinking about session planning for next year.  He intends to organize a session entitled “Accessing the discipline” that would address a ranger of concerns including disability issues.

VC and RK suggested another session on “Accessing the workplace” that could be co-sponsored with the socialist group.  Again, the session would include papers on multiple topics including disability.

Someone else suggested a paper on universal design.  MD suggested that Brendan Gleeson might be willing to approach the economic geography specialty group also.

(Note: in the plenary session, some suggestions were also made about one or more ‘challenge’ sessions in which other specialty groups would be approached and asked to consider connections between their research and disability issues.)

VII.    Secretary-Treasurer's Report for 2000/2001.

Balance November 30, 2001            $122.00

The GSG account is now centrally managed by the AAG (contact: Paul Abel) and only the GSG Chair and GSG Secretary-Treasurer can authorize expenditures or payment of reimbursements to individuals.

VIII.    Awards  Arrangements have been made for a Graduate Student Paper Competition, to be awarded for the first time in the year 2002.

IX.    AAG Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.  The DSG has sponsored or co-sponsored several paper and poster sessions under the following headings.  For more information contact the organizers:

  » Accessing Geography I: Exclusionary Geographies
Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Rob.Kitchin@may.ie)
Lawrence D. Berg, Okanagan University College (lberg@office.geog.uvic.ca)

  » Accessing Geography II: Inclusionary Geographies
Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Rob.Kitchin@may.ie)
Lawrence D. Berg, Okanagan University College (lberg@office.geog.uvic.ca)

  » Disability Specialty Group Plenary Session
Robert D. Wilton, McMaster University (wiltonr@mcmaster.ca)

  » Geographies of Work II: Labor Markets
Christine L. Jocoy, The Pennsylvania State University
Chris Benner, The Pennsylvania State University.

  » Publishing Critical Geography: Meet the Editors II
Lawrence D. Berg, Okanagan University College (lberg@office.geog.uvic.ca)

  » Why Geography Should Be DisAbled
Vera Chouinard, McMaster University (chouinar@mcmaster.ca)