Boston Disability Board Approves Three Advocacy Letters, Votes to Draft Fourth

BOSTON — April 22, 2026 — Boston Disability Advisory Board votes on four advocacy letters amid AV briefing and housing update. Chair Zari Eva Saini led the April 22 meeting at which the board voted unanimously four times: to send letters supporting accessible voting machine alternatives to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, supporting S.2714 (a bill to study service-animal discrimination in public accommodations, co-authored by board member Carl Richardson and State Senator Joan Lovely), supporting H.2066 (a bill to fine Uber and Lyft drivers who refuse service-animal users, modeled on Australian law), and to draft a new letter backing Amendment 803, the wheelchair repair protection provision in the Massachusetts House budget. A presentation from Rachel Castiglund of the City of Austin Transportation and Public Works outlined that Austin's roughly 450 AVs — from Waymo, Zoox, Tesla, Volkswagen, and AVRide — are preempted from direct municipal regulation under Texas law, with hand signals and wheelchair accessibility remaining unresolved operational problems. Planning Department official John Weil reported the city's office-to-residential conversion program has produced 1,730 new housing units across 29 buildings, including 326 affordable units, with full ADA compliance required at every conversion.