BlogHer - BlogHer 2008: Accessibility of Westin St. Francis - Comments

Followup report on accessibility guide

Liz Henry — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:15:00 -0500

I'd like to follow up with my actual experience of accessibility of the hotel.

First of all, when I said this about parking:

"In the garage, there are at least 5 van-accessible parking spots, on
level ground right next to the entrance, with a marked crosswalk."

I was wrong. There are marked spots, but they are unused by the hotel as anything other than road. Instead, they have valet parking. The crosswalks are ignored. That caused me a lot of stress as I got in and out of cars. I think that walking people of around 5 or 6 feet off the ground might not feel that stress, but from lower down, it is hard not to have crosswalks. I freaked out at one point when a cab was coming right towards me and the cabbie didn't seem to see me. (I flipped off the driver and yelled, and then was very embarrassed.) I also kept going out the side doors, and completely forgot (!!!) about the entrance on Geary that doesn't go through the parking garage. So, don't forget the way to the sidewalk! Ha! Also, I did not realize that parking was expen$$sive! I ended up parking elsewhere, and taking a cab. That worked well.

The conference was mostly very compact. I had an easy time getting around. The bathrooms were reasonably close to where all the action was. Carpets were (as predicted) somewhat exhausting to wheel around on. As we left i cheered and said goodbye to the horrid thick luxurious carpets with a lot of joy.

Room reservations. I explained on the phone and then when I arrived (before checkin time) that I did not want an ADA room with a roll-in shower and shower bench. I prefer a regular room with a bathtub. My priority is that the room be as close as possible to the elevator. I can manage a bathtub, and I can walk around a room (usually). Unfortunately in between when I talked with the desk and when I actually checked in, my mom checked in. And they confused me with her sort of, and then she said Oh that's my daughter, and they said Oh My Gosh but she does not have a "wheelchair accessible" room, and my mom said Oh, better change it then. They all had the best of intentions, but they erred in not calling me on my cell phone to check. I lucked out in having a nice person (Alex) help me at the desk when I did check in. He listened to me, did not TELL ME what I needed, did not act annoyingly confused when I explained my preference, and then he got me a super great room. He even flirted with me by complimenting my awesome triceps and not in a gross way either. Thanks, Alex!

I will add to the note about room reservations that the hotel has two blocks of rooms and two main areas. One is the Tower. It's on a different side of the hotel than the main lobby. The main part of the hotel is where most of the conference stuff happened. So, I also lucked out in having my room be in that section. Otherwise, it would have been very hard on me to run back to my room and rest, or get things that I'd forgotten. And if I'd been on crutches instead of the chair, it would have been impossible.

There were secret extra elevators, which I used quite a lot!

The room itself was very nice. It was room 825 and had a view of Union Square. I could have fit a power chair into it, with a slightly tight squeeze between bed and chest of drawers but then there was a wide turnaround space. My small manual chair fit into the room just fine.

The room service staff were extremely nice, brought the dinner to my bedside and offered to raise the table height for me if I needed it.

Bathrooms were very good except for the first floor main lobby, which had kind of small stalls but again not impossible for my itty bitty manual chair.

Next year I will coordinate with our conference planner to put up a few "consider using the stairs" signs.

I was bumped, jostled, leaned on, pitied, advised, and asked rude questions about 1 million percent LESS than last year and than all other conferences except WisCon. Thank you, everyone! You were so full of manners! You all got down to my height to talk! I didn't get a crick in my neck (though I ruined all your knees).

Meanwhile, most of my visibly disabled blogherista sisters were hanging out in Second Life. Jennylin and Aleja from GimpGirl ran a session and helped to organize transcriptions of some of the other sessions and keynotes.

-----------------
Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Contributing Editor, World and Latin America

Power Strip Packed

Mistiejourney — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:08:34 -0500

What a great post - I'm a Walkie, but I learned more about the Westin than I ever did staying there!

And if I see sparkly wheels I'll come up and say hi! And you won't know me, but I'll say hi anyway! : D

Have power strip, will travel

mamarant — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:51:27 -0500

Liz, great post. Some of us walkies are limpies due to bad knees. So thanks for the info on stairs and distances.

And I'll be bringing my power strip for sure!

Thank You SO MUCH, Liz

KristySF — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:58:03 -0500

For doing the roll-through, for giving me an education, and for helping make this year's event less of a guessing game for the not-as-able-bodied.

Brave, schmave - you just rock.

---
Kristy Sammis
BlogHer's Conference & Event Planner
e. kristy@blogher.com

Liz, You rock!

Kim Pearson — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:33:23 -0500

This is a very helpful guide. The power strip is a great piece of advice, especially for people who might need to charge a scooter, which is what I use when I'm closer to home.

One of my biggest challenges when I travel is actually getting into the airport shuttle van. I do best when the driver has a stepstool that I can use to get into the van, but that isn't always the case. Alternatively, I can wedge myself into a cab in a pinch.

And yes, your sparkly wheels are the coolest.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

i hear you!

laurie — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:08:45 -0500

I am able-bodied but I found this piece fascinating. And this made me laugh out loud:

Dear Walkies... I am not "Brave". And, remember, don't grab my chair,
push me, or tell me about your homeopathic remedies! Zip it! Thanks! We
have other things to talk about LIKE BLOGGING FRINSTANCE.

I am a Walkie, for sure, but I also live with cancer (I am in remission but will never be cured). It drives me crazy when people call me 'brave' (I mean, what choice do I have but to live my life as best I can?) and don't get me started on the folks who think that it would all go away if I only I would take herb a or follow treatment b...

Most of all, thanks for opening my eyes, making me think and giving me a chuckle at the same time.

Laurie

www.notjustaboutcancer.blogspot.com

I never considered before

assertagirl — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:06:42 -0500

I never considered before that by taking the stairs at a public venue I'd be leaving more space for "wheelybots" in the elevators. Thanks for giving me a new perspective!

Amy

Assertagirl

Playing in the Dirt

BlogHers ACT Canada

BlogHer 2008: Accessibility of Westin St. Francis

Liz Henry — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:19:59 -0500

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 side of the building from where the rooms on the mezzanine are. So it is not an ideally "compact" space for people who get tired easily. However, there are two accessible bathrooms and they are central to where the conference room areas are! I noticed the child care area will be pretty close to everything (unlike at BlogHer 07 or 06).

One detail that you and your walkie friends might be aware of. There are many exits from the conference areas, but most of them involve a lot of stairs. I could totally forsee the situation where I am with a crowd of people all wanting to book out of there to get dinner, and they go down the million stairs and I am left going around the long way - which length seems trivial to the vigorous and able bodied, but which means extra time, pain, and exhaustion for someone like me. I will be getting a lot of room service, because getting around the conference from floor to floor and room to room is for sure going to use up all my spoons.

Some of the rooms have, or might have, raised stages. There is one ramp which they can move from room to room if needed, and there's a stairs-and-handrail setup that is portable.

The hotel spa, pool, and gym are down some stairs, but are accessible from two small lifts. The hotel gets major points from me for the lift being turned on, working, and having the key in it. At other places I have not been so lucky, and there will be a lift, but no one knows how to work it, it needs a manager, I'm not allowed to operate it by myself, or worse, I'll go up it and then the key will disappear and I can't get back down! Well, the Westin St. Francis did it right, and there is simply a handy lift, available for use. In it, you can pretend you are in a rocketship airlock or going to your superhero or supervillain lair in your private mineshaft pneumatic tube.

The rooftop lounge area (I think it is a bar?) is reportedly accessible, but I didn't see it. At the bottom of the "tower" elevator there is a sign that I very much appreciated, that said "No accessible bathroom on 32nd floor, please use disabled-accessible bathroom here in the lobby" with an arrow pointing it out. Now, that is just cool. You might think I would be mad there is not a good bathroom on the 32nd floor. Instead, I am super happy there is an informative sign that lets me know what to expect. "Not accessible" could mean anything, and the hotel rep wasn't sure -- is it the door width? lack of hand rail? a step? I was very curious, and wanted the hotel rep and my fellow BlogHeristas to understand that accessibility is not binary. It is not "accessible" or "not accessible"; maybe I could get in that bathroom, after all, I can walk okay, just not far, and steps are very hard. Or, I might be able to fit my tiny 22 inch wide wheelchair into a bathroom door, and turn around and shut the door, in a place where a power chair user who can't get up would be out of luck. Even a tiny, "inaccessible" bathroom can be vastly improved by a simple handrail! Now you know, huh?

I have not seen the hotel rooms themselves. The hotel rep, Judit, said there was a range of rooms, some with wider paths through the room, some that are narrower; some with roll-in showers (with bench? she didn't know!) and some that are bathtubs with handrails. So, if you are staying in the hotel, ask a ton of detailed questions, and get your specific needs met, rather than just asking if a room is "accessible" or not!

I hope to see some of my fellow bloggers with disabilities at Blogher 2008. If you have any questions or particular needs please feel free to contact me. And, come say hi, and admire my SPARKLY LIGHT UP WHEELS.

As I wandered the hallways I was filled with happiness imagining the floors and chairs all draped with awesome women and their laptops, furiously typing, sucking power from the hallway electrical outlets, and photographing each others' shoes.

See you at BlogHer!

p.s. Dear Walkies... I am not "Brave". And, remember, don't grab my chair, push me, or tell me about your homeopathic remedies! Zip it! Thanks! We have other things to talk about LIKE BLOGGING FRINSTANCE.

P.P.S. Remember to bring a power strip! You'll be one of the Cool Kids if you do.