Is FanFest Not Accessible to People with Disabilities?

This was relatively shocking (though it shouldn't be) to me:

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fanta...abled-players/

Now that I think about it, I've never seen anyone on their team offer sign language or anything along those lines. I'm also wondering if the venues have been wheelchair accessible.

Has anyone else's FanFest experiences been similar?

I think there were disabled seats at the last NA fanfest? But the issue, from what I saw everyone saying, was that there are many inconsiderate players that just took the disabled seats and it never crossed their mind to care about anyone but themselves.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I think there were disabled seats at the last NA fanfest? But the issue, from what I saw everyone saying, was that there are many inconsiderate players that just took the disabled seats and it never crossed their mind to care about anyone but themselves.

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It was significantly worse than just inconsiderate people using the assigned seats for things. Regarding the seats alone for the Primals concert: they were moved by organisers for more space which put those who needed them in a lot of danger of crowd crush going back onto them because I believe they were put at the back of the open floor pit with no barrier (memory may be a bit hazy, I saw a lot of horrific accounts that made me very quickly lose my sadness at not being at that fanfest as someone who uses mobility aids to get around and turned it into pure horror.)

There is a really good thread right now in the Feedback and Suggestions forum here about how bad the current ADA situation is, noting particularly in the opening post the very valid concerns that those of us in the disabled community have toward SQEX's planning for accomodations:

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Originally Posted by divisionten

When there was an ADA marker in the sign ups for FF 2026, that gave me hope that you all had learned the lessons of FF 23. However, the 3rd party company Square hired has been fumbling the bag repeatedly. There is one singular point of contact for accessibility at this 3rd party company, and she's under orders to call each person who requests ADA assistance.

I am an accessibility consultant myself and did the math. I've surveyed over 1,000 nerd convention goers prior and found about 14% utilize convention accessibility. For Fanfest, assuming attendance of 8,000-15,000, you are looking at 1,000-2,000 people who need accessibility, from the visually impaired, to those who use mobility aids, to the deaf, or those with autism, food allergies, and more. If she's spending 15 minutes calling each of us, and did nothing but that, that's 6-12 weeks of work of nothing but (possibly illegal) verification calls. Absolutely no convention does this, not PAX or MAGfest or Otakon or anything else.

It's a waste of this poor overworked lady's time (who was told by her boss to expect less than 100 disabled people seeking accommodations) and the money spent running this event. Most conventions have an honor policy and some baseline accessibility, with an option to reach out if you need something beyond that, with staff who are trained and consistently enforce said policy.

If we disabled people cannot be granted this, then FF is neither safe nor accessible.

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Frustrating and upsetting, yet also unsurprising of late given Other Issues for accessibility to the game we play as it is.

Yeah, ADA compliance last American Fanfest was abysmal, and I hoped it's actually a factor in why the venue's been moved to California.

I initially planned to go, but both people that were up to go with had to pull out last minute, so yeah. No fanfest for me. Two of the three of us would require some level of disability care. One is older and I deal with chronic health issues that require I have consistent easy access to certain facilities to take care of myself.

They did an amazing job in the previous London fanfest.

Everything was perfectly accessible to people with disabilities.
On top of that, wheelchairs had priority for all activities, including the shop and the concert.

I think a lot of it has to do with the venue and the company hired to manage it. Unfortunately over all convention in the US have an earned bad rap for having poor accessibility options for those with disabilities. The Casinos and convention center in Las Vegas are notorious for terrible accessibility so hopefully moving the location to a proper convention town helps but knowing what I do about general conventions in the US it is unlikely.

that they sell the tickets via gacha system doesnt help either, to get friends around you that support and assist

There is a thread discussing it here, but unfortunately it was put in the low-visibility Website Feedback forum:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...s-Fanfest-2026

I suppose I'll find out when I get there. The ADA lady who called me was nice and I got to explain my issues and what I'd need. We'll see I guess. I absolutely expect that the Anaheim Convention Center will be decently easy to get around with a wheelchair though, just as a building.

With regards to Vegas 2023, it's not entirely clear how much of the issue was with SE, and how much was with the convention center. SE definitely dropped the ball there in many ways, but some of the problems were obviously convention center issues that SE had no control over. Those things may be non-issues at a different venue.

I think the problem I've seen is that folks really want to demand accommodations beyond what is even reasonable for these types of significant events. Basic accessibility is one thing, but catering to everyone's tiniest quirks is another. No, the event doesn't need to provide you with a "safe space" quiet room because you're overly stimulated. This is a massive event; if you can't handle crowds for an extended period, stay home. Damn.

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Originally Posted by DynnDiablos

I think the problem I've seen is that folks really want to demand accommodations beyond what is even reasonable for these types of significant events. Basic accessibility is one thing, but catering to everyone's tiniest quirks is another. No, the event doesn't need to provide you with a "safe space" quiet room because you're overly stimulated. This is a massive event; if you can't handle crowds for an extended period, stay home. Damn.

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A quiet room out of the way is something I can damn near guarantee the Anaheim Convention Center will have available. Not necessarily some dedicated "safe space" room, but a smaller, unused conference room or medical room of some sort for use of people who might faint or have a panic attack and need to be taken somewhere to be looked over and recover. Though that depends on if SE has staff for it...but it'd honestly be kind of insane if they didn't have any kind of medical staff on hand.

That's not something I mentioned as needing, though it might be of use to me; I absolutely expect that going to this Fanfest is going to cause me a fair bit of stress and that my dystonia is going to act up and maybe come out in full force. That's why I am bringing my wheelchair and medication in case I need it to calm down some movements that look a fair bit like seizures. I didn't mention the quiet room though mostly because I know ways to handle this on my own (and a friend will be with me to run interference) and if necessary I'll just go outside for awhile...didn't occur to me it might be better for everyone else if I went somewhere out of the way so they wouldn't freak the hell out about what I've been dealing with for over 25 years!

Bumping this again as I've seen socmed discussion about lack of communication. A combination of venue incompetence and squenix dropping the ball in the past already has people feeling pessimistic and open communication about what steps will be taken would be much appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Astronis

A quiet room out of the way is something I can damn near guarantee the Anaheim Convention Center will have available. Not necessarily some dedicated "safe space" room, but a smaller, unused conference room or medical room of some sort for use of people who might faint or have a panic attack and need to be taken somewhere to be looked over and recover.1

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I've never personally been but from what I hear the center has in fact done this for events there before. For a "nerd convention" (lol) as divisionten put it in the thread a space like this is especially important. Cosplay gone wrong, dehydration or food poisoning, a medical issue that isn't fully an emergency, these sorts of things happen a lot more at high energy events regardless of disability so having somewhere for recovery is just good safety practice. I personally would like to hear from fanfest or the convention center itself about this in particular if we get any sort of outreach.

I'd recommend folks read over the other thread as well as there are many knowledgeable people giving their input.

Happy too see disabled people who think and look for accommodations. I work for my local airport, I routinely see the elderly and disabled being careless or in a hurry. One of the concourses can only be reached by escalator,stairs or elevator. Despite signs indicating the elevators location and who knows how many employees present. Elderly and disabled take the escalator. At the start of the year some guy in a wheel chair went down the escalator!!! He fell backwards landed on the escalator while his wheel raced down it. He was not hurt thankfully, but signs are posted saying use the elevator!! Please be safe if your disabled :D