I'm the person who emailed Sasha the original letter quoted in the first post (I'm not a blogger so am responding anonymously). I can't speak for Sasha, but I at least would be ECSTATIC if you'd pass this along for discussion at SMOFcon. I'd also recommend taking along some of the details from WisCon's Access page, which may not be perfect but I think probably comes closer than many or most F/SF cons extant. In a perfect world, other cons, and particularly the oldest, biggest and most important con for the entire genre, would emulate WisCon's fine example of providing near-universal access to members.
It's really, really hard to integrate the understanding and implementation of access needs across the board among all departments involved in putting on a convention. It requires a major cultural shift, one that often means multiple years of incremental improvements, and inevitably there is pushback from others on the committee who just don't perceive it as a priority. But using that as an excuse to do nothing is no excuse at all; any change, any improvement, even in baby steps, is progress.
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branchandroot
Re: Venues for change
Date: 2012-09-04 10:16 pm (UTC)It's really, really hard to integrate the understanding and implementation of access needs across the board among all departments involved in putting on a convention. It requires a major cultural shift, one that often means multiple years of incremental improvements, and inevitably there is pushback from others on the committee who just don't perceive it as a priority. But using that as an excuse to do nothing is no excuse at all; any change, any improvement, even in baby steps, is progress.