Elevators and Disabilities

[cheriedcds.livejournal.com]

This is a friendly public service announcement from Dragon*Con Disability Services.

The elevators in the Hyatt and the Marriott are a problem every year for people with disabilities.   For people with difficulty walking, the elevators are not a convenience, they are a necessity.  Please be considerate; if you CAN take the stairs or escalators, please DO.  If you see someone in a wheelchair, with a cane, or otherwise mobility impaired, please understand that they can’t move as fast as you can.  When the elevator doors open and able bodied folk rush in, the person with the disability is stuck and may end up waiting a very long time.  Please understand too that just because a person does not have an obvious -visible- disability, this does not mean that they have NO disability.  Many disabilities are invisible.  They are no less disabling. 

The elevators seem to be the place where many tempers get very short…  Even when someone loses their temper, please don’t respond to rudeness with more rudeness. 

If you are a person with a disability stuck in an elevator bank and unable to get onto an elevator, please look around the elevator bank for a phone-- this will connect you to hotel staff.  Let them know where you are and what you need.  They should be able to help you.

 

Thank you,

cherie

Dragon*Con Disability Services

Comments

[kernsville.livejournal.com]

My wife is confined to an electric wheelchair, and I can say that raising the awareness of this *IS* slowly making an impact on the general Con-Going public over the past few years.

There are many times that an elevator full of people will just look sheepishly at us, but half the time someone on board WILL make an announcement for people who are only going to the next floor to make room, and that's usually all it takes.

Keep it up!