I just appreciate the whole irony of this.

[mariness]

The Disability in Science Fiction panel at Worldcon/Lone Star Con did not have ramps to the stage. Because they knew I would be there (I use a wheelchair), they set up tables in front of the stage, so at least I could sit at the same level as the rest of the panelists. (At the Prose by Day, Poet by Night panel, which to be fair I was only added to about two hours before the panel started, I was on the floor and the other three panelists were on the stage.) The disability panel also did not have an ASL interpreter.

Comments

Re: On ASL- how do we do this...

[selkiechick]

CART costs about the same as ASL, and it does reach more people.

We have worked with CART, and we have struggled with it. It is very hard for a transcriptionist to keep up with readings or with panel discussions. We currently only have CART for the Masquerade (and since this is almost all names... it is very challenging). I would like to expand CART services, but I have a lot more to learn before I can make this happen.

Re: On ASL- how do we do this...

[futuransky]

That makes sense! My partner uses CART a lot, so I know how difficult it can be and how much difference the transcriptionist can make. I just wanted to throw the suggestion in there; thanks for responding. :)

Re: On ASL- how do we do this...

[jesse_the_k]

CART is hard to do — just turn on the captioning for most live TV and be astounded at the errors :,)

CART creators do a better job the more we can supply info in advance. If people are reading poetry, get 'em the poems — they can load 'em in the computer and then spool it out live, ready to insert any changes. Last WisCon we brainstormed names and pronounciations beforehand — I even sent the captionists some audio of Jo Walton reading, since her trans-Atlantic Welsh style won't match the Midwestern US of captionists' sound-based dictionaries.

For both CART and ASL, there's a chicken/egg issue. It will take time for the folks who use these services to learn about them. You may have to convince the Concom that an "audience building" effort is required. It may take two years before your commitment to providing them is reliable enough for someone to make the effort to attend your con.

As I'm sure you know, there's nothing so infuriating as access that's promised but not delivered. See the original post in this thread!