Accessibility Missteps, Fanfest 2026

[divisionten]

Hello, I am a blind player of FFXIV, who regularly speaks at conventions.

The way that FanFest handled accessibility in 2023 was the worst accessibility experience I have had at a con, and their booth at PAX East 2024 wasn't much better. However at Pax West 24 and then East 25, the booth took some wonderful and active strides to make its space accessible and friendly for all players. It was clear that SQUEX took the criticism of prior events to heart and actively improved.

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.

It's very clear to me that this is not the fault of this individual employee, who was clearly assigned a task vastly outside her scope. But if you- SQUEX- actually want to follow through with your commitment to accessibility, then you need to hire actual accessibility consultants and do what they recommend. From providing a quiet room that is actually enforced quiet for those with autism, migraines, or just need a space to decompress, to line management, to allowing outside food for those with diabetes or food allergies, a lot of these requirements require little to no additional financial input, just a commitment to policy and enforcement from the people who would already be doing tasks like line management. I'd rather have someone who doesn't actually need accessibility get it (because people thinking they can jump the line or anything else will still cheat regardless) than force people who need accessibility to have to do means testing to get it.

Accessibility is not a limited resource.

[divisionten]

Note that this is NA fanfest, from what I've heard EU/JP were fine (but even if they had issues, it is not the event that I have experience with)

[Turkborne]

Its also very clear that SE did not disclose the complaints to their third party provider they were notified of after last fanfest. There was at least one individual sent to the ER due to poorly enforced accessibility from last NA Fanfest as well as several other close calls.

Disclosing these to the third party provider would have been a boon in terms of planning that could have clued them in on what kind of tools and organizational approach to take. The only thing worse than failing is not learning from your failures and its apparent that's what's happening here, due to organizational layoffs and a frank disregard for the NA community.

[divisionten]

'23s provider was so bad that they originally banned canes and told us all to rent wheelchairs from the venue.

I don't use a cane because I have a mobility issue, I use a cane because I am blind. How am I supposed to wheel myself around without my stick? That thing tells me if I'm about to bump something.

It was only when a lot of us made noise that the policy was rescinded (not to mention said policy being illegal under the ADA because it mandated that disabled people needed to use a specific accommodation, and one that in my case wasn't an accommodation for my disability as there are many kinds of canes for different use cases).

I am being harsh and critical because I want this to be a good fun event for everyone. I don't want to have to scream like a banshee just to make sure I can navigate a convention (especially since that lovely announcement came out about a week before the event).

[sylphlands]

good post, op! it's shocking what they're trying to do here, and the blatant illegality of it has me incredibly confused at how they're getting away with it. doesn't every convention in the country have to abide by ADA laws??

[divisionten]

When I told the person the 3rd party company had designated as the accessibility coordinator that they shouldn't make calling people the primary contact due to people who were deaf/have auditory processing disorders/etc. and also that its irresponsible to not have these sort of conversations in writing, the thing they fixated on was that I was blind and were telling me the doors were all lightweight.

Of course the doors are lightweight, the building is a modern building built to ADA code. If the floors weren't flat for those with canes or mobility aids, or emergency doors couldn't be pushed, I think we'd all already know because the Anaheim convention center would have been sued.

That isn't the kind of ADA accommodations we care about- that access is assumed because the building is ADA compliant.

Disabled people are worried they won't be able to eat the foods they need to have (whether its extreme allergies, diabetes, celiac, or food sensitivity issues), be able to manuver the convention floor (because of the darkness, smoke machines, or poorly placed wiring like it was in '23).

The convention doesn't need to know (or have us prove) why we need certain accommodations.

There's three sorts of accommodations to keep in mind:
curb cuts, general accommodations, and specific accommodations.

Curb cuts are things that don't require asking for accommodations, they're the general policies set in place that help everyone whether they're disabled or not. Making sure cords are properly taped down helps prevent electrical accidents, but also helps prevent ANYONE from tripping, regardless of if they have a disability. An enforced publicly accessible quiet room and enforced anti-harassment policy ensure that everyone has equal access to the space, and one everyone benefits from. Emphasis on the enforced, which requires a rock solid policy and training the convention staff. Allowing people to bring in their own food may cut into the convention grub's bottom dollar, but the food trucks parked outside already do that. People bringing in outside food usually don't want to pay con center food prices or can't eat the food anyway- you're making captive customers who would likely not even purchase. Not even Disney, famed at parting park goers with their money, takes away your pizza you bring in, and even has picnic tables for the purpose. Doing these things inherently means those people who need these services won't even need accessibility accommodations- they're just baked in.
More below.

[divisionten]

General accommodations are things like seating, lines for ADA and the like. Whether its because that person needs more time to move (using mobility aids) or needs to sit in specific theater areas (visually impaired), providing some baseline "accessibility badge" that provides this resource is a catch all that covers most of the other common accessibilities.

Specific accommodations might be for people who need to have an oxygen tank, or have an ASL interpreter (maybe their +1 friend or something more official). Those are the things that should be arranged one on one, and would be a much smaller group if the other two are taken care of correctly.

[LathyrusLoon]

This is absolute bullshit. I'm furious. They need to get their shit together and fast.

[Glyphs]

I didn't tick the ADA box when booking my ticket, as it stated there that things would be arranged via a 1-on-1 call, and that seemed like too involved of a process for the accomodations I'd need (I sometimes need to use my walking aid, so sometimes need an accessible seat. Simple enough, you'd hope!). I'd hoped that provisions would be available without me needing to jump through hoops before the event, but based on FanFest 2023 experiences and the vibe you're getting from jumping through said hoops, I'm now getting a little nervous.

I attended FanFest 2023 in both Vegas and London, and London did have a markedly improved accessibility experience. I couldn't tell whether it was just that most UK events are generally pretty good with accessibility, or if it was direct impact from how loud people were about Vegas's failings, but it was appreciated regardless. I am hoping Anaheim continues to improve with this knowledge in mind, but it's been interesting to see how they're going about it thus far. I could never fully tell if my bad experience in Vegas was because of a single event's organisations, or if that's just how things go in the US, as it was my first event experience there. It did make me apprehensive about trying for Anaheim at all.

Thank you for making this post (and likewise, on social media) to spread a little more awareness on the matter.

[divisionten]

I can definitely say that all the US cons I’ve been to, none of them are like this. Some have had their issues, sure, but not a single one required a 1on1 call for accessibility- it simply isn’t done.

I do know Otakon used to not allow outside food unless you had medical approval but they no longer have this policy. The only major con that doesn’t allow outside food it’s AX, and they’ve rightfully gotten bad press over it.

Everything else- quiet rooms, line management, ada seating passes provided when asked- those are all things every con I’ve attended has offered. No questions asked.