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Sparkle (0)
For over a year now, I have been traveling and going to professional conferences as a person with a disability, a wheelchair and crutches user. Abilities and disabilities vary wildly. My own issues are most often bathrooms, distances, exhaustion, and stairs. I am less aware of issues and solutions for people with visual impairments and for the deaf or hearing impaired community; I apologize for not addressing those issues here.
If you have mobility issues and wonder about the accessible geography of the conference, I have a ton of information!
My rollthrough of the Westin St. Francis Hotel filled me with confidence that this was a good hotel choice. Westin on wheels, baby! There are signs everywhere, good elevators, decent bathrooms, and while the hotel layout was a little bit spread out, it was doable. (Unlike scarily huge places like Navy Pier or, say, Moscone Convention Center.) What a fancy hotel, by the way, and I love the fancy scrolly things and the giant chandeliers and all that stuff. Wow. It's pretty. It's SWANKY.
The hotel is right on Union Square. It's on a hill, but not too steep of a hill. I wheeled two blocks uphill from Powell and Market, where the Powell St. BART station is, in my manual chair. I did it, but thought about losing my dignity and asking a stranger for a push. The curb cuts were okay for a manual or power chair, not perfect but reasonably smooth. Within 1 block of the hotel with just a little bit of an incline, there are restaurants, all sorts of good shops like Lush and H&M, Macys, tourist souvenier stuff, cafes, and the square itself which is a nice little park with fountains and trees.
The building is in two sections, the historic part on Geary and the "tower" bit which I think is on a different side of the block - maybe Powell?
So there are two banks of elevators.
I could reach the elevator buttons. Oh, you laugh. You think I'm not serious! But, I was in a hotel in Vancouver, where I could not! The laughter, it is bitter sometimes!
The main entrance on Powell, facing Union Square, has about 10 steps with a landing, and a handrail. For us wheelybots, there are two entrances, both on Geary. One is next to the parking garage, in the middle of the block. The other is in the parking garage itself.
In the garage, there are at least 5 van-accessible parking spots, on level ground right next to the entrance, with a marked crosswalk.
Most of the halls are carpeted, which I'm sure is nice for your feet but is hell on my wheels. Now you know why my triceps are so huge. We call it friction. Carpet, ugh!
There were 5 elevators and quite a lot of different staircases, big wide carpeted staircases with good handrails. The numerous staircases in every corner of the building are great for me because the elevators will be less crowded. Take the stairs if you feel up to it, you walkies!
Most of the conference will take place on the mezzanine level and 2nd floor. There are also two big rooms on the first floor in the Tower section of the hotel. I think we will be putting nicely drawn maps on the conference site and in the registration packets, so you'll be able to get the lay of the land.
Registration, food and coffee, the big sponsor rooms, the internet cafe area, and the big keynote sort of rooms are on the mezzanine level. The wheelchair accessible bathrooms are near the elevators, behind where the registration table will be. The big keynote rooms are at the other end of the hotel on that level, and while there is a bathroom on that side, it is up about 8 stairs. So if you are on wheels, you have to go a fairly long way, but it is not tragically long and -- so important -- there are signs everywhere on the walls. Now, if you can do some stairs with handrail, you are golden and can use the closer bathroom to the areas where there will be a lot of activity.
On the second floor, most of the conference rooms are on the other
