... Under most conditions, even at a con I can get around entirely unassisted; in order to do this however, I have to budget my standing and walking time carefully ... Not all disabilities are blatantly obvious. And honestly, I shouldn't have to tell every single person I come across about my health issues to get an elevator, or a chair, or not get glared at. It's humiliating. I'd really, really rather manage on my own. ...
... Sakura-Con, when I attended this past year, gave me and my husband stickers for our badges with the handicapped symbol... But Sakura-Con does not have these elevator issues, so it's got to go farther here to solve the problem; the badges would only do any good with the regular elevators on floors where there are staff regulating the traffic... Standing for 15 or 20 minutes to wait for one guy can be incredibly painful...
I will be writing a letter to the Hilton about my experience as well, for what that's worth...
First, thank you for your detailed and clear description of problems as well as suggested solutions. My experience was similar to your own... except that the long walks to and from the service elevator, both from the hotel and in the Dealers' Room, rapidly exceeded my walking "quota" and made it impossible for me to enjoy my planned free evening convention time; I ended up going home early because of pain, and I am still recovering a week later. I absolutely needed to be able to use the regular elevators and the escalators.
Let me start with problems and then proposed solutions. Overall, the traffic and access situation was a nightmare, and I want to compliment everyone on staff for doing their best to deal with it on the fly.
I believe the primary problem that started it all was the Hilton's congested and slow elevators, affecting everyone, including both Con attendees and other hotel guests. I think the Hilton agreed to an event that was expected to exceed 5000 people by a significant margin... and should have known quite well that their elevators were unable to serve that volume of people. Perhaps they have never had a big event rent out so much of the hotel space before. I'm astonished they don't already have an access plan in place for large events on multiple floors; the space is old and strange, with difficult traffic flow between various locations.
Closing elevator access to Convention floors, and shutting down the escalators, were terrible decisions and caused unnecessary pain, distress, and upset to many Con attendees -- not just disabled attendees.
Personally, for me the service elevator was a failure as a replacement for normal elevator access to Con floors. The initial time standing and waiting for hotel staff, and the long round-trip walks to and from the service elevator, caused me unnecessary pain and suffering and cost me my planned participation in the Con after my staff and workshop commitments were over.
I think there was no excuse (it may even have been illegal) to shut down the escalators at any time. The escalators were essential to access Con activities downstairs in the Ballroom as well as to get over to the Dealers' area.
Later, Sunday or Monday? we weren't allowed to use the escalators (whether running or not) to get to the Dealers' area. When I got to the hotel, I was still in pain from the day before. The much longer distance -- being forced to walk from the lobby, out the hotel's front entrance and around the block to get to the Dealers' ramp and then down that ramp -- was a horrible experience for me; using the service elevator would have been an even longer walk.
The attitude of many hotel staff was inappropriate and sometimes offensive, but I'll deal with that issue in a letter to the Hilton, along with compliments for the hotel staff who worked hard for us with a positive outlook. The only concrit I have for our wonderful and hardworking yojimbo, on whom the heaviest pressure of this situation fell, is that we have a chronic issue, not limited to the yojimbo team, with inadequate communication among Con staff as to what is going on and what immediate changes have been put in place.
SOLUTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR:I like the idea of badges. We need to consider what gets you a badge, walking the line between unnecessary red tape and the potential for abuse, and determine specific benefits or alternatives that we will provide. All staff (hotel and Con) should know what those are.
We can work with the hotel to determine a reasonable way to make elevator usage more efficient. A strong possibility is to have yojimbo directing access into the elevators from the lobby and Convention floors, ensuring reasonable access to both disabled and non-Convention elevator users. The service elevator can and should be used where possible to reduce traffic in the main elevators, but walking through kitchen areas (the direction shown me by a hotel staff person) is inappropriate during active restaurant hours... access during those hours would have to be from the hallways.
Why were hotel staff with carts full of luggage using the main elevators rather than the service elevators during our congested Con hours? Clearly that is a function that can reasonably be moved to the service elevators during times when the hotel has agreed to host an event with more people than the hotel can reasonably serve!
Can we evaluate expected crowds for different events and plan ahead for disabled access and traffic flow to those events, now that we know the problems in different areas? Perhaps some things need to be shuffled to different areas. Also, one strong suggestion not limited to disabled issues but relevant to traffic flow: If a long line forms, staff or yojimbo should do a count and inform people in line of where they stand in the line. At the time when my workshop area was being reset for the next event, there were more than 120 people in a long line. If a yojimbo had told them they were say, #50 to 120 in line for a room that would hold only 48 people, many might have left for a different activity rather than being disappointed after waiting a long time.
It is likely that these issues, which are specific to the Hilton, will require more yojimbo, and there are never enough yojimbo. I'm wondering if the range of abilities we require (or assume necessary) for yojimbo... including a level of mobility to deal with issues... might not be more stringent that all the tasks that yojimbo are called upon to perform, which sometimes, but not always, require being supermen and superwomen. Perhaps yojimbo duties could be evaluated, and some more limited tasks could be pulled out for a secondary staff group or yojimbo sub-group to handle. Not being yojimbo, I don't know if this is feasible and would leave it to them to decide.
Let's not forget the last, very important step once our concerns have been discussed and decisions have been made for next year: COMMUNICATION. Attendees and staff must be on the same page before the Con begins, and that means communication... during pre-registration, at meetings, in Con materials, and during the Con.
I hope we'll be doing ADA planning well in advance, and I have already volunteered to participate in that planning process. Discussion should take place beyond this forum, at general meetings, and final plans must obviously also involve the Hilton.
Can we solve these issues? I'm sure we can. I appreciate everyone's concern and determination to solve the issues we experienced this year, and look forward to an accessible Kumoricon 2010.
