Phoenix Comic-Con 2013: Brief accessibility recap.
Mon, May. 27th, 2013 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aris_tgd posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
access_fandomI'm not someone who needs accessibility services, but I did want to report on a couple things that went wrong at Phoenix that I hope future cons will take notice of.
So some good or neutral things: the Comic-con website does have a listing of accessibility services at the con and the ability to get mobility assistance passes, but I don't see anything about a designated assistance coordinator. The convention location was pretty accessible in and of itself, as a modern convention center; there were elevators to each floor which were pretty clearly marked, wide corridors, and people were pretty good about keeping paths open even on really crowded days.
There were a few glitches, unfortunately. A friend that I met on Sunday reported that the Babylon 5 reunion panel on Saturday didn't have a marked out wheelchair/accessible seating location for his power chair, and he wound up in the area set aside for the camera/videocamera crews. And the staff he asked for assistance seemed to have no idea at all where to look for assistance.
To top it off, the panel on fandom and disability/accessibility was on the second floor of the convention center--and on Sunday afternoon, last day of the con, as well. That wouldn't have been so bad--as I mentioned, there were elevators and the rooms were at least decently accessible--but about three-quarters of the way through the panel, the fire alarm went off and the whole convention center was evacuated. Kind of ironic that this happened during the one time encouraging people with mobility issues to gather in an upstairs room, though everything was eventually fine and they were successfully evacuated. To wait in the punishing Phoenix mid-afternoon heat for an hour, but...
The only other issue that I noticed was that some of the women's restrooms had pretty narrow hallways and tight corners, though all of them had accessible stalls. I never had to negotiate them with a mobility assist so I don't know how bad they were or how accessible the family bathrooms nearby were. And of course the convention floor was incredibly noisy. Both of those are architectural design issues and not much the con could have done about either of them.
So suggestions for future con-coms:
1) Plan accessibility panels to be on the ground floor. If you're encouraging PWD to come to your panel, make it as welcoming as possible. Yes, even if you're not expecting a huge crowd.
2) Make your website as accessible as possible! Even I had trouble negotiating it and I usually knew what I was looking for. Fortunately the mobility services is off a link on the front page, but I have no idea how gracefully those menus work on older or text-based browsers. Someone should make sure they do.
3) Designate an accessibility coordinator and have zir train people on what to do and who to ask questions of if there is an accessibility concern. Train setup staff to mark out seating and room for wheelchairs and other mobility aids.
It does look like they were working to plan out some assistance, so good job on some basic proactive thinking! But I hope that the next con is much better and I don't see anyone feeling mistreated because of a con misstep.
So some good or neutral things: the Comic-con website does have a listing of accessibility services at the con and the ability to get mobility assistance passes, but I don't see anything about a designated assistance coordinator. The convention location was pretty accessible in and of itself, as a modern convention center; there were elevators to each floor which were pretty clearly marked, wide corridors, and people were pretty good about keeping paths open even on really crowded days.
There were a few glitches, unfortunately. A friend that I met on Sunday reported that the Babylon 5 reunion panel on Saturday didn't have a marked out wheelchair/accessible seating location for his power chair, and he wound up in the area set aside for the camera/videocamera crews. And the staff he asked for assistance seemed to have no idea at all where to look for assistance.
To top it off, the panel on fandom and disability/accessibility was on the second floor of the convention center--and on Sunday afternoon, last day of the con, as well. That wouldn't have been so bad--as I mentioned, there were elevators and the rooms were at least decently accessible--but about three-quarters of the way through the panel, the fire alarm went off and the whole convention center was evacuated. Kind of ironic that this happened during the one time encouraging people with mobility issues to gather in an upstairs room, though everything was eventually fine and they were successfully evacuated. To wait in the punishing Phoenix mid-afternoon heat for an hour, but...
The only other issue that I noticed was that some of the women's restrooms had pretty narrow hallways and tight corners, though all of them had accessible stalls. I never had to negotiate them with a mobility assist so I don't know how bad they were or how accessible the family bathrooms nearby were. And of course the convention floor was incredibly noisy. Both of those are architectural design issues and not much the con could have done about either of them.
So suggestions for future con-coms:
1) Plan accessibility panels to be on the ground floor. If you're encouraging PWD to come to your panel, make it as welcoming as possible. Yes, even if you're not expecting a huge crowd.
2) Make your website as accessible as possible! Even I had trouble negotiating it and I usually knew what I was looking for. Fortunately the mobility services is off a link on the front page, but I have no idea how gracefully those menus work on older or text-based browsers. Someone should make sure they do.
3) Designate an accessibility coordinator and have zir train people on what to do and who to ask questions of if there is an accessibility concern. Train setup staff to mark out seating and room for wheelchairs and other mobility aids.
It does look like they were working to plan out some assistance, so good job on some basic proactive thinking! But I hope that the next con is much better and I don't see anyone feeling mistreated because of a con misstep.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-28 02:53 pm (UTC)Following the link, there was an ASL interpreter provided for one event, but no mention of loops (which enhance hearing aid performance) or live captioning.
You mentioned one panel that didn't have a marked-out space -- so the others did?
The following statement kinda made me see purple:
tl;dr We're nosy bossy policing fucks so we're going to illegally demand documentation which the ADA specifically does not require us to carry. Also companion animal != to service animal but let us conflate that for you.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-28 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-28 07:28 pm (UTC)There wasn't any live captioning at the one event, unfortunately, and I don't think there were any loops.
And I didn't see any spaces blocked out for wheelchairs or other mobility aids ahead of time at any of the panels I went to, which did make me sad. :/
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-28 03:02 pm (UTC)