BlogHer - disabliity - 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