Accessibility Missteps, Fanfest 2026

[TsuchinokoPanda]

Logged in specifically just to support your cause.

The Vegas Fanfest was a joke. They sardined too many people into the space and were woefully unprepared. The convention center itself was also being used by a carpenter and basketball conventions, which made getting food and water and absolute nightmare IN THE MIDDLE OF HOT VEGAS DESERT WEATHER. On the first day, my husband and I got to the convention center early to line up, and they just left us to ROAST in the sun instead of unlocking the doors and filing us through empty hallways. They did that on the second day, but come on, it was eighty degrees when I went to Mcdonalds at 6 AM on the first day, and you've got thousands of people standing in line hours later as the sun continues to rise??? And then there was the merch stampede that they, once again, only corrected on the second day by using a queue/ticket system. AND THEN, all the vendors running out of food because three conventions at once wasn't amply prepared for, despite knowing how big the attendance was going to be? It. Was. A. Nightmare.

Square Enix, you need to do better. Stop making us a litmus test for the other Fanfests, because that's what it feels like. ESPESIALLY with those who have disabilities! Seriously, which one of you OK'd gutting the disabled seating for the Primals concert? In what WORLD was that a good idea and the right thing to do? Shame on you. I'm legit glad I was passed over for tickets this time around.

[katmaria]

hoping to boost this, it sucks that fanfest is looking to be rough :< it's going to be a nightmare if they don't fix the consistent issues

[dragoonwife]

I was really looking forward to trying to go to Fanfest '26 despite everything I heard about NA Fanfest in '23. With the price increase, I didn't enter the player lottery, and now I'm full of concern of what would have happened if I did go. I had a big health change at the start of the year that requires me to have snacks on me. Otherwise I could pass out and need to go to the ER. From what has been said, just carrying some snacks would have required me to put myself on a list, disclose my health issues, and wait for a phone call that hopefully would allow me to do that. Instead of, you know, allowing some outside food to be brought in which is allowed at literally every other convention I've gone to. As Sara said, the only major con that doesn't allow this has rightfully gotten bad press.

Square Enix, you are an embarrassment.

[Gogomi]

I am another person who logged in to support this thread. This has been scary to watch because due to an injury this year I've needed a mobility aid to walk and it's really opened my eyes to how inaccessible many places I was previously able to navigate can be.

I have been a regular Fanfest EU attendee since 2019 and I understand it has generally been better on this front over here so I am hopeful that I will be able to attend the EU fanfest - but US attendees and fans deserve much better.

[floofykyn]

I cannot afford to go to fanfest this year but I hope to in the future. However, I walk with a cane and cannot handle longer times than five minutes without one. This is very disheartening to hear and I am rethinking my interest in ffxiv because of it, not gonna lie...

[LynMars]

As I get older and my own typically invisible disabilities go from "minor" to "increasing intensity" and it gets harder to recover from things like "concrud" (which these days includes the risk of Covid), my interest in FanFest NA wanes. Not only due to price increases but the treatment of attendees in the Las Vegas summer heat, and how inaccessible and non-accommodating for disabilities it continues to be even moving to an entirely new city, makes it an easy decision to not even try and attend in person.

Who in their right mind thinks that there would only be "maybe a hundred" disabilities needing to be accommodated for in an event that attracts thousands? How can you have only 1 person interacting with all the possible ways people may need to be accommodated and having to ask permission to be treated like people with dignity? Through an often-inaccessible phone call? Why is hard to make sure there aren't stampedes, and there is enough seating, and how to handle lines, on day 1? How hard is it to follow ADA laws and go beyond the bare minimum as every other convention does to ensure your global fanbase from varied walks of life are able to attend without disclosing private medical information and still be safe and enjoy the event?

Whoever is running the NA FanFest, internally and whatever external event agency, need to be audited and possibly replaced with someone who knows what they're doing and actually cares about the attendees, to make NA FanFest an enjoyable experience and not a disappointment for some and a nightmare for many more.

[ConspiracyOfCrows]

I have been doing conventions for nearly 25 years of my life, both in terms of attendance and in terms of staffing, including leadership positions for conventions upwards of 10k people. I have been to events as small as a few hundred, to RTX when it was thing, twice, which regularly exceeded 100k attendees in the Austin convention center. My primary job for many years was convention safety, including things like accessibility.

At absolutely NO POINT in a quarter-century of doing this have I seen an event fumble basic ADA accommodations this badly, let alone do it twice.

Accessibility is NOT OPTIONAL, and literally every other convention I have been to has at least made a real effort, even if they didn't always exactly nail it. An attempt in good faith was made every time, and it showed when these events improved in subsequent years. Square Enix however seems to just not care that what they're doing with this is not just amoral, but probably also straight-up illegal in the US. Disabled people are not required to disclose our disabilities when asking for basic accommodations, and we have the exact same rights as abled people to go to these events in ways that allow us to enjoy them safely, and more importantly with dignity.

I did not put down needing ADA accommodations on the form when buying tickets, because I didn't think "small snacks and my water bottle" was that much of an issue to deal with, because news flash, IT ISN'T. These are basic, legally protected accommodations that everyone should have access to whether or not they "sign up" for them ahead of time or not. I am not going to let SE's inability to understand basic ADA law put me in a situation where I may end up in a medical emergency out of state and out of network.

Additionally, shame on the company you hired for this. For an event of 10k, we always expected at least 10% of people to need some sort of help. This is particularly egregious given that this company has supposedly worked with much larger events in the past. What happened with Fan Fest? Did SE just not want to shell out for their full services? Or did the company drop the ball? Either way, it is absolutely unacceptable to expect one woman to handle all of this herself, especially given that she's not an accessibility coordinator. People have been saying she has a background in special education, which is not comparable to event coordination (ask me how I know!). Giving us IEPs instead of following the law and the convention center's own policies isn't the solution, and you all owe her an apology and more.

Finally, expecting disabled people to field a PHONE CALL to manage our needs is complete bull. What do deaf/HOH players like me do? What do people with anxiety, or auditory processing issues do?

In short, I hope SE has good lawyers on retainer if these policies go into effect the way they are now. There is still time to fix this. I just hope and pray they take notice and do.

[VictorSpoils]

I must say, this blind fellow is a more adept typist--emboldened text and all--than a lot of other people. Not too fond of the militant syntax in the OP, though (e.g. "we disabled people"). It comes off as cultspeak, and nobody wants to conform to that. Also, "nerd convention"? Really?

The math used is questionable too, based on whatever survey was performed. I know XIV fans are an eccentric bunch, but I sincerely doubt nearly 1 in 6 people at this convention are disabled enough to require assistance, albeit not to a degree preventing them from traveling to these places alone. The broad compass of "disability" must be more firmly defined in this context. There are people who will claim they have "anxiety" because they consider it a colloquial term.

Altogether, I believe the inconvenient nature of FanFest is intrinsic, and would not expect it to improve.

[ConspiracyOfCrows]

If conventions larger than Fan Fest can do it correctly, regardless of the content, so can they. Hope that helps.

[Dagny]

You are aware there's a wide variety of tools a blind person can be using to assist in using a computer, right? I'm not blind like OP but I have a blind relative that has many tools that make it so he can communicate on forums like this just like anyone else. It might take a bit more work, but it's definitely possible.

You could at least agree that 100 out of 10,000 is far too low. SE and 3rd party is making far more work for themselves considering simple things that should be a given, like bringing your own food, are requiring approval. The 'inconvenient nature' that you speak of can also create a safety issue for everyone, able bodied or not. That's why it deserves to be taken seriously.