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!)

[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.

[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.