Wow - looks like you're doing great things at Arisia! It's encouraging to see these values appearing at more conventions, especially big cons like Arisia. I particularly like your efforts to help Moderators be more clear about when audience members can expect to participate - that's a very perceptive addition.
As a not-currently-disabled convention member, I think the part of WisCon's Access page that I find the most useful is the section toward the very bottom that explains useful ally behavior. That's the piece that seems to me hardest to integrate: getting non-disabled con-goers to understand, embrace and implement universal access. Speaking for myself, for a very long time, I had a horror of saying/doing ANYTHING lest it be the wrong thing, so having clear, specific and achievable suggested behaviors to strive for is tremendously helpful.
Con venues are hard to find, particularly for an event the size of a typical WorldCon. When a committee has to choose between a site that offers lots of programming space and lousy access vs. one that offers great access but limited programming space, well, it's easy to understand why they'd opt for the place with lots of room for programming. But that is EXACTLY the situation in which it becomes critical to go to extra lengths to communicate to all members how to be useful allies, how to facilitate and support access needs, and especially to work with all departments to be sure that access is fully integrated into the entire con. So thank you for speaking up at SMOFcon on the subject - and I hope to hear how the message is received.
Wups, sorry, forgot to identify myself. It's the email writer quoted in the first post again.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Re: Venues for change
Date: 2012-09-04 11:31 pm (UTC)As a not-currently-disabled convention member, I think the part of WisCon's Access page that I find the most useful is the section toward the very bottom that explains useful ally behavior. That's the piece that seems to me hardest to integrate: getting non-disabled con-goers to understand, embrace and implement universal access. Speaking for myself, for a very long time, I had a horror of saying/doing ANYTHING lest it be the wrong thing, so having clear, specific and achievable suggested behaviors to strive for is tremendously helpful.
Con venues are hard to find, particularly for an event the size of a typical WorldCon. When a committee has to choose between a site that offers lots of programming space and lousy access vs. one that offers great access but limited programming space, well, it's easy to understand why they'd opt for the place with lots of room for programming. But that is EXACTLY the situation in which it becomes critical to go to extra lengths to communicate to all members how to be useful allies, how to facilitate and support access needs, and especially to work with all departments to be sure that access is fully integrated into the entire con. So thank you for speaking up at SMOFcon on the subject - and I hope to hear how the message is received.
Wups, sorry, forgot to identify myself. It's the email writer quoted in the first post again.