Help me compose a rant.... I mean rebuttal.

[selkiechick]

I am on a committee of a conventions and we are talking policy. We are talking about medical documentation requirements for accommodations, and I am having a hard time finding the right words to tell them why this is a /terrible/ idea, and as a newb of sorts, I'd love to have some authority to stand on. Is there a good blog post or website out there already outlining the reasons why that is a bad requirement, and why?

Thank you.

(I promise, my next post will have content)

Comments

[sasha_feather]

The idea behind this is that someone might be "faking" a disability in order to get a free membership for their friend.

If they are-- big deal. Let it go. How much money is the con actually losing if someone actually does this? (Which is an unlikely scenario!)

If you force someone to prove their disability, it's a much greater risk, as jadelennox said above. It's basically about balancing needs-- the convention's need to protect itself from supposed fraud, vs. the member's need to feel safe and respected. The need to feel safe and respected wins out.

[havocthecat]

This is similar to my opinion on the matter. If someone is faking it (which I find unlikely, though possible), and it's actually reported to the concom, it can be dealt with on a case by case basis and discussed with the legal counsel that the concom hopefully already has lined up. That seems, to me, like it would be better than a potentially disastrous PR experience where word gets around fandom about an inaccessible con.

[selkiechick]

My solution was to ask, not for any documentation, but for a statement from the attendee saying "I need an attendant (for X percent of the time)." If it turns out not to be the case, we can proceed from there.
That feels clear and fair to me.
A system like this worked fairly well for Arisia this year, for Masquerade seating. People came to the info desk and said "I need (no line, a seat where I can see the CART, a seat where I can lip read etc.)" and they got a sticker for the back of their badge, outlining what they needed for the ushers (never ask ushers to be gatekeepers). They were also offered an "Access" ribbon (the old way the con handled seating accommodations), but were not required to take them (about half did).

[jesse_the_k]

The U.S. Department of Justice has more than a hundred decisions on personal care assistants, aka aides or attendants. "PCA" is the magic acronym if you're searching ADA regs. Unfortunately, my search-magic is asleep this afternoon.

Are you requiring a minimum amount of work for someone to be "a PCA"? That is, must someone work at least 8 hours (or whatever) to ride the attendant seat? If so, I'd check with a lawyer, as there may indeed be case law on this.

There have been several ADA cases that I remember using but can't fucking lay hands on in search this afternoon. They were all Title II (government), in particular paratransit service complementary to mass transit. (You may know it as Dial-a-Ride or Door-to-Door.) The general pattern was: transit agency says, "You're not really a PCA because ..." and therefore somebody has to pay an extra fare.

Here were some tests transit agencies used to disallow a PCA:
- they weren't needed on the ride, but instead before or after the ride
- the work they did for their employer wasn't personal enough (trufax! A blind person couldn't bring their reader)
- they weren't specially trained/certified
- the fact that they were related to the PWD they worked for. This was a biggy! Transit agencies were deep into this mindset of "how dare someone do PCA work for a member of their family and NOT PAY AN EXTRA FARE"

The disability advocates said, "A PCA is like a service dog or a wheelchair. Why & when I use it is my business." We won this one: now PWD says, "I have a PCA." On that say-so, without any further documentation, the transit agency can ask if the PCA is traveling, and when that happens, the PCA travels at-no-extra-charge (nobody gets anything "free.")

Tactically, if "comping" the PCA is such a significant burden, I'd advocate raising the member/ticket price.

[firecat]

As a person with disabilities I like how Wiscon has been doing this sort of thing. They don't require attendees with particular needs to ask for and receive a special sticker. They specially mark chairs for lip readers and CART, make chairs available in areas where lines form, allow people to come to the front of the line if they need to, and explain all these policies in newsletters and using signage.