My love of the arts is a one-way affair. As much as I want to go to every talk or show that I find interesting, my deafness is a barrier. I envy the freedom others have in having the world at their disposal. Too much work \u2013 and related stress \u2013 is involved before I can even relax and enjoy the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first step is finding out whether the event has captioning. If it doesn\u2019t, I have to figure out who to contact to issue a request. Seating is a whole other issue. One of my pet peeves is having to pay more money to sit closer to the stage when it is a necessity due to my disability. This isn\u2019t the case in select cities, but Pittsburgh isn\u2019t one of them (yet!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent experience I had is a perfect example of a painful accessibility journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I found out there was a speaker coming to town, I reached out to the organization sponsoring the visit to ask if it would be possible to get real-time captioning (CART) and sit up close. The response I received was, \u201cWe can arrange for an interpreter to be present and ensure it is added to our marketing materials. Thank you for advocating for you and others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nope. That wasn\u2019t the accommodation I requested. People with disabilities know their needs best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I replied, repeating my request for CART. Someone else responded and said they were waiting on confirmation for a captioner. A week later, I received that confirmation, so I got a ticket for myself and a friend \u2013 thankfully there were still seats left!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As there were no assigned seats, I asked again about two being reserved up front. Despite the initial offer to reserve seats, I was told there would not be any but there would be a section close to the screen for people with hearing loss. \u201cSo, you may want to get there a little bit early.\u201d Let me spell this out for you \u2013 the onus was being placed on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I again asked if two seats could be reserved and was told since the event was open seating, this would not be possible. They would ensure that appropriate signs would designate the reserved seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I explained that general reservation signage often doesn\u2019t work since people assume they qualify or are willing to bluff for a closer seat. At similar open seating events, this has been solved by putting my name on a pair of seats. Given that I requested CART, the accommodation includes seating by the screen. Just CART isn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staffing and plans for seating were clearly a bit disorganized, so I was told they would find out more after the team met. They also said, \u201cGiven that there was not an option when booking tickets for everyone who does have hearing needs to identify themselves, we have a challenge of how to hold seats for only two people and accommodating other people who need accessibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then karma bit them in the ass. The event had to be rescheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That gave me plenty of time to stew on the last email. I messaged my dad, who is a disability rights attorney, to ask what he made of it. \u201cI feel like people who need accommodations generally speak up,\u201d I wrote. \u201cAnd because I did, I shouldn\u2019t be penalized. Also, they could cordon off a general area by the screen and then release seats if needed to the general population if they aren\u2019t taken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My favorite legal expert replied, \u201cTheir response is essentially saying that since they didn\u2019t initially comply with the law, that somehow justifies continuing to ignore the law. Strange argument.\u201d He also agreed with my solution, saying it was the best under the circumstances and addressed their supposed concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, I sent a follow up\/reminder to save two seats for me up front if possible. This was also my way of making sure they remembered to reschedule the captioner for the new date. I was told there would be a set of seats off to the right side of the room closer to the screen. No mention of a specific reservation with my name. Instead, I was again told to get there on the earlier side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naturally, leading up to the event, I was stressed and nervous. Doors weren\u2019t slated to open until half an hour before. I planned to get there early, but didn\u2019t want to have to show up hours early just to ensure the seats I needed. I practiced a spiel in case those seats were taken. Something along the lines of, \u201cHi, I\u2019m deaf and requested the captioning but seats weren\u2019t saved for me. Would you mind moving somewhere else? I would really appreciate it!\u201d I figured I could flag a staff person if necessary. I had no idea what to expect, which added to my anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, guess what? It was all for naught. We showed up before the doors were supposed to open, but they already were – with plenty of people inside. And\u2026there was an area in front of the screen with pieces of paper on each seat marking them as reserved. No one was sitting there, and one had my name on it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I was relieved, I was annoyed with all the back and forth emails, uncertainty, and seemingly ever-changing plan. Venues that get this right either make things happen automatically during ticket purchase or resolve things with a quick email exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did like that the caption screen was a large TV with a font large enough for others to read even if not sitting where I was. Even though I was off to the side, I was able to mostly lipread the conversation. The captioning was essential for the introductory speaker, Q&As from the audience, and supplemented what I missed. I would have been lost without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But look at all the work I had to do to get there! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My love of the arts is a one-way affair. As much as I want to go to every talk or show that I find interesting, my deafness is a barrier. I envy the freedom others have in having the world at their disposal. Too much work \u2013 and related stress \u2013 is involved before I … Continue reading A Seat at the Table<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[44,47,45,8],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodation","tag-captioning","tag-deaf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4roOt-fQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}