Got any questions for Disability Services?

[cheriedcds.livejournal.com]

58 days till Dragon Con!! Anyone have any questions on what Disability Services can do for you? You have three options to get your answers: you can visit our Wiki at http://dragonconds.wikia.com/wiki/Disability_Services_Guide_to_Dragon_Con_Wiki, you can email disabilityservices@dragoncon.org, and you can ask here,(please minimize personal information in this public space).

Comments

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

For planning purposes -- my wife is, unfortunately, dealing with a physical disability. In the past, when it wasn't very bad, we just took turns standing in the big registration line. But this year it's gotten quite worse so...do I send her to the disability chairs while I stand in the line? Does she register through there and I stay in my line? Do we register at disability together? (I'm not disabled...though I'll be 8 months pregnant, so you never know, you might see me on your list after all!)

[cheriedcds.livejournal.com]

The person with a disability is allowed one minion/companion that can stay in any line with them and sit in the DS seating with them. You and your wife can come to DS, and we will take care of registration for both of you. Although since the new registration system has been implemented, the regular line is often faster than we are, as long as you aren't arriving at the start of the day when there is a huge backlog.

Unfortunately pregnancy, even at 8 or 9 months, is not a disability under the ADA unless you are high risk.

cherie

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to be a minion, then. :)

It might be slower, but the chairs will be of great use!

[sensitivinferno.livejournal.com]

In the past you guys have been incredibly accommodating about "invisible" disabilities like my asthma which is horrid in Atlanta during con...and though I was told I could get a sticker for it in case I had to sit unexpectantly in line, etc, I actually didn't get one last year due to my own pride. This year, however, I will have no choice as I have developed Fibromyalgia and can't walk, sit, or stand for long periods of time, especially on hard floors. So again, another invisible disability, and I'm wondering what would need to be done if I ended up needing some sort of walker or some such thing during con? I have my husband to help me, but I have no experience with this.

[cheriedcds.livejournal.com]

We don't provide devices such as walkers. We have a contract with ScootAround, and they provide scooters and wheelchairs, but not walkers. They also have limited quantity. The Con covers over 8 square blocks on a hill with horrible bad sidewalks. If you are going to have difficulty walking, a scooter would be a good idea.

cherie
http://dragonconds.wikia.com/wiki/Disability_Services_Guide_to_Dragon_Con_Wiki

[rkt.livejournal.com]

sorry to hear about the fibro but ty for reminding/inspiring me about a solution for my own atl-athma.

[glasscannon.livejournal.com]

My sister and I are both disabled with mobility-impairing chronic illnesses, and we've both been impressed with our interactions with the Disability Services staff over the years. Having those DS stickers makes the con actually feasible.

We did run into one thing last year that we'd love to see change, though, and that is the DS situation when it comes to the big evening track (and Main Programming) parties, specifically chairs in line and chairs in the parties themselves. Last year my sister and I swung by the Doctor Who Anniversary Ball after it'd started, hoping to be able to get in and enjoy the party for a bit. When we got to the ballroom, there was a line outside, as we expected, but we didn't see an area of the line set aside for DS seating-in-line. So we approached the staff member manning the end of the line, showed him our DS stickers, and asked if it'd be possible to get chairs in line to wait, as neither of us can stand that long.

The answer we were given was a fairly bewildered (but friendly) no. He said they didn't have any chairs set aside to put in the line, the line was pretty fast moving and so wouldn't really work with having a chair in line anyway, and there wasn't any seating inside the party either, so we'd just have to stand in there too.

All of which combines to make the evening parties completely inaccessible to anyone with mobility issues. We left the Doctor Who Anniversary Ball only having been able to glimpse through the door, and rather disappointed that we couldn't simply wait our turn to get in without having to stand.

If this is something Disability Services could change for this year, or even for 2015, I think it would be a huge improvement. The evening parties should be accessible to those of us with DS stickers, just like the daytime panels. It seems like a simple system could be worked out, even for "continuous loading" type lines at parties, where people with DS stickers could sit off to the side until where they would have been standing in line reaches the front door. Then put a row or two of chairs off to the side in the party itself, with the DS alien sign on them, and keep those chairs available for people with DS stickers to be able to sit during the party.

Those two small changes would allow all of us with "chair in line" stickers to actually be able to attend the evening activities. With chair-in-line being so standard throughout the rest of the con, I'm actually kind of surprised it isn't the case yet for the hugely popular evening parties. If this is something you guys could work to change, I'd really love to see that happen.

[cheriedcds.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I will see what I can do.

cherie

[ktetch.livejournal.com]

While I think on, Cherie, any chance you could maybe whip up a quick 'faq' that could go in the directors packet? (I don't know if you already do that) Just 'what we need to know' stuff like 'minimum aisle width' and guidelines for parking scooters etc. Even better if it was almost 'chart like', so it could be placed in the staff area (usually around the sound board) for reference. What each sticker means, etc.

[ktetch.livejournal.com]

Was that the Saturday Night one? If so, there was such an area. My wife is a DS user, and last year I was too (I re-aggrivated an old motor-racing injury while hosting a panel on the friday night - twisted my leg and upset a knee I smashed in 96 - spent the rest of the convention in a lot of pain, so I needed the ability to sit when possible). We were seated at the disability chairs at the middle set of doors. When the line opened, they seemed to forget about us, until I went and found someone, and told them about us. They went 'er, oops' and sorted out the DS users.

Of course, I'm at a slight advantage to you, Glasscannon. As volunteers (I'm now the Assistant Director, EFForums track, while my wife works in signage) we've gotten to 'know people', especially as I'm British, and do several panels a year with the Brit-Track (what was NOT fun was hosting a panel in the hilton, then doing a panel in the Sheraton, and then having another panel in the Hilton again - I was hobble-skipping between them as fast as I could.

[glasscannon.livejournal.com]

Nope, it was definitely on Friday night last year. There's a Saturday night Brit Track party too, the Heroes and Villains Ball co-hosted with the MMO/VG track out at the Sheraton, but this exchange happened at the specifically Doctor Who themed party at one of the Marriott ballrooms on Friday night.

I'm glad to hear that there are other large parties that do have some sort of seat-in-line section set up, but the Doctor Who Anniversary Ball very definitely did not -- nothing visibly set up, nothing staff members working the line could point us to, no seating inside, nothing. It's great if some tracks have taken it upon themselves to make sure there's DS seating and general accessibility, but this is something that really should be handled consistently con-wide. The fact that some parties already have it working just proves that it could work at all the con-hosted parties.

[ktetch.livejournal.com]

Hmm, you might be right (its 11 months ago, and I lose track of days and hours at the con) Maybe it was Friday. 10pm, right? I'd just been on 3 panels back to back - 5:30, 7 and then 8:30 (and I did my knee in at the 5:30 panel) - and I think it was my break when I went, and I was my wife's 'helper'. I thought it was Saturday because I'd gotten my sticker (Saturday morning, when I realised I'd done more than just tweak it when I woke up missing the parade when the painkillers wore off)

But yes, I know the party (Noel Clark 'leading' it, Peter and Sylvester (on his cart) there too.

There were also chairs for DS just in front of the main stage, and some around the sides.

[glasscannon.livejournal.com]

I know it was Friday just because of the costume I was wearing and what I ended up doing on Saturday, heh. I specifically wore my Doctor Who costume Friday night to go to that party.

Well now I'm REALLY bummed that we were kept out of the Doctor Who Anniversary Ball by a woefully uninformed staff member, if there was actually both in-line seating and DS seating inside the party. When we got there the party had already started, so we wouldn't have been there to see the initial DS group go in, if what you're remembering now is correct.

But we did look around when we first got to the ballroom, and didn't see any DS seating set aside in the line area. There was a line marked on the floor with masking tape and several staff members helping to keep people in line and keep the line moving. When we didn't see DS seating, we approached the guy working the end of the line, showed him our stickers, and asked about chairs.

He had no idea, looked completely bewildered to even be asked, went and checked with someone else working the line, then came back and told us they didn't have chairs, couldn't get us chairs to wait in, and there weren't any chairs inside anyway, so why would we want to get into a party where we'd have to stand the entire time anyway? So we thanked him and left, bummed but determined to have a good time anyway (hey, it's Friday at DragonCon, there were tons of fun things going on!).

But if there actually *was* seating available for DS at that party and we were told the *exact opposite* -- backed up by two different staff members -- then that strikes me as a training and information issue that DS might be able to tackle with the various tracks. Having DS seating for parties is wonderful and really all I'm looking for here -- but if the staff are 100% ignorant of said seating when people with DS stickers ask them about it, then the seating really isn't serving its purpose. Maybe it's more of a matter of making sure everyone working lines for parties knows what to do when approached by someone with a DS sticker.

[irishbuddha.livejournal.com]

there should have been seating for people with the Disability Sticker at the Marriott. There were a few times when the hotel crew picked up the chairs early. I oversee the Marriott for TechOps. I will do my personal best to make sure that there is disability seating available. If you have problems again, have someone on a radio call for West Coast in TechOps and I will help sort things out.