Editorial City Affairs:
Technical Difficulties

The technological failure at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting might have been understandable in other cities. But in Berkeley, which has received national recognition for its efforts to accommodate the disabled, it just seemed out of place. And while the city continues to go above and beyond the measures taken by most cities, renovating the sound system for the council meetings is a little change that could make a big difference.

The problem began when an amplifier failure meant that speeches and announcements could not be heard by people watching the meeting from—people like Councilmember Dona Spring, who traditionally teleconferences at meetings because of a disability.

It is of course possible for Berkeley residents and UC Berkeley students to go their entire life without ever attending or even being aware of the happenings at a City Council meeting. But failing to provide a means for remote access to the content of the proceedings had a disproportionate impact on the disabled, a group that frequently has the most at stake in the outcome of City Council meetings.

And the efforts to fix the problem weren’t much better. Although the city acted quickly to bring in replacements, these created a humming noise that reduced remote access to closed captioning and created an annoyance for those physically present.

All of this wouldn’t be such a problem if last Tuesday were an isolated incident. But the week before, both the Zoning Adjustment Board and school board meetings suffered from similar technological problems, while Spring has also experienced past complications.

Completely rebuilding City Hall to improve meeting access is probably not on voters’ radar—they rejected a renovation measure in 2002. Installing just a new sound system, while not cheap at a few thousand dollars, is the best temporary solution. The city owes these improvements to its residents, and to its reputation.

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