Providence RI All-Day

[j frankel]

Great Singing.  I missed 1st 1-1/4 hour by starting out too late, then getting lost, following Google-maps' stupid directions & then turning right where I should have turned left.  I had written the directions out but then didn't read them.

And I'm never driving thŕough that tunnel again.  Boston peeps know what tunnel.

They said 100 singers, 70+ leaders, 80+ songs.

The people from farther away than me got 2 songs.

Good food.  Of course.

But I gingerly bring up this accomodation complaint:  Yes, they had one of those chairs that slide up the bannister.  But nobody could find the key needed to make it work.

Yes, they had an elevator.  But it was tricky enough to operate that they didn't want me to break it, so I had to find someone to work it for me.  This held them up from singing, & made me wait standing, something very hard for me to do with my form of Parkinson's.

Yes, I could take the stairs, & did, very slowly.

I wish they'd located that key before the singing, even though those chairs are never on the level I need when I need them.

[j frankel]

I actually turned left off 95 trying to get onto Branch Street, where I should have turned left.  I had seen map tell me Branch turned into I think Cypress (after I corrected 1st mistake) (Google directions *didn't*) but I got panicky all the same.

I'm dyslexic, & on an overcast day can't see the sun to tell directions.

On Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 2:12 PM Will Fitzgerald <will.fi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, apologies. There is a way to approve a post without my having to log into to discussions page by just replying to it, and I accidentally sent that to you. 

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Will

On Apr 19, 2026, at 1:09 PM, j frankel <ghos...@gmail.com> wrote:



You sent me, far as I could tell, a message empty beyond quoting mine.

On Sun, Apr 19, 2026, 12:16 PM Will Fitzgerald <will.fi...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Will

> On Apr 19, 2026, at 8:50 AM, j frankel <ghos...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 

[j frankel]

That should have bee "turned right where I should have turned left".

[Laura Hodges]

Hi Joan, 

I'm so glad you enjoyed our singing yesterday! I also appreciate that you brought up this very legitimate criticism about the accessibility of the space. I felt badly that the use of the elevator and chair lift didn't go as smoothly as they should have, and I'm learning how we can do better to make the singing more accessible next time. 

As the chair, I've learned a couple of lessons from this that hopefully other chairs can learn from as well. My take-home lessons are: 

1) organizers should familiarize themselves with the mobility equipment in their building and how to operate it in advance of the singing. I for one knew that we had a chair lift and an elevator available in the meeting house, but didn't appreciate that there might be steps in the operation of the equipment that I wasn't prepared for or familiar with (e.g., the need for a key to turn the chair lift on). Make sure there is at least one point person at the singing who knows how to use the equipment, and have a plan for how you will use it during the singing. 

2) organizers should communicate this plan clearly to singers to let them know how to go about accessing any important equipment in the building (e.g., "speak to the chair if you need to use the chair lift during the day, and we'll make sure the key is available to you when you need it.")

These are some initial thoughts, but I hope to have more conversations with others about this and am always open to additional feedback on how we can do better. Hopefully our mistakes will also help other organizers learn how to make future singings more accessible to everyone. 

Warmly, 

Laura

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[j frankel]

Just want to explain further:  Singing & bathrooms were on floor I came in on via the handicapped entrance, &, blissfully, near the *one* handicapped parking space (signed by city, but in future they should designate more on that side of building) but the food was downstairs & building did not allow anything beyond water "in a clear container" brought upstairs.