Well, 3 days at Megacon Orlando taught me how incredibly unwheelchair-accessible even supposedly accessible places can really be. It was a good thing I’m able to walk some on my own, because the Orange County Convention center was a nightmare. Too small elevators, tiny flights of steps or huge long ramps everywhere, elevators that didn’t go to every floor, banks of doors with no accessible button etc. #accessibility #PartTimrWheelChairUser #disability
And the convention organization itself was not great on accessibility either. They did accessibility things and then didn’t tell anybody about them. They had a special sticker for ADA patrons but I didn’t find out about it until the end of the first day because another wheelchair user told me about it. Nobody mentioned it when I visit the accessibility desk, nobody who scanned me in while was sitting in a chair mentioned it, the website said nothing. #Disability #Accessibility
And despite me sitting in a wheelchair, there were several times when con staff turned me away from the ADA options. But not all of them. The staff themselves were frequently completely confused when we asked for locations to prevent wandering around in the wheelchair. I’m honestly just side-eying the organization completely. I know they’re all volunteers, but I’ve been to better organized cons plenty too. #Accessibility #Disability
@KestrelSWard I’ve had so many similar issues. Don’t even get me started on #doors.
@KestrelSWard It is almost impossible to open a door from a wheelchair. You can’t even wheel into a hotel room where the door automatically closes.
@AlliFlowers Yup. And even if you can stand and walk on your own, trying to get a door that automatically closes to stay open while you wheel the chair through is practically impossible without scratching the chair to hell
@AlliFlowers I had one to three people with me all weekend and most doors had an attendant who helped open them so it wasn’t until this afternoon I was like “wait....not one single button, wtf??”