Latest / Barrett's Swaggy Life Talks / Should People With Disabilities Leave Events Early? Accessibility at Live Venues

Transcript

Should People With Disabilities Leave Events Early? Accessibility at Live Venues · Barrett's Swaggy Life Talks

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us government, what else can we do for you?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I got it from here.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Paris Welling Late Talks.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Should people leave earlier daily and large event?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is a very controversial topic because people with disabilities, depending on where they're at and depending on their condition, it all depends on what works best for them.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I can tell you what works best for me and I hope to give you insight on the pros and cons leaving early or staying late.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I would like to take this time to recognize Windthrop University where thanking thanking them for me me being there to be a part of them.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really a good game.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And saying that I often say late to like the basketball event or like a baseball event.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wait till the crowd leaves because I think you paid money to see something.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whether if it's like a concert, baseball game or a soccer game, what have you.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think singular get more out you get more out of what you pay for, but I know people leave early, have other disabilities to avoid the crowds and I understand why, 'cause they don't want to be uh late.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It might be hard hard for them to uh find their car in the dark.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: You might have another event tomorrow that you have to be prepared for.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I would leave early myself when I had something like a testers.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that where I had to be uh prepared for and it was a really big deal.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: A a recent example about this is when I had to when I I had to turn off the basketball game I was watching, even though it was really good and like the school the score and it was a really good game.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's not in retrospect of being there at the event and leaving only you're s staying late, but that's kind of the idea and that's kinda where I take it.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now in terms of other people with disabilities, it gets better into walking distance and night not being able to see clearly or a lot of people on winters have to deal with this also.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: The bus leaves at a certain time and if it goes in the overtime or something like that, then they gotta get on the bus so they can get to their destination or where they need to go.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So in my in my opinion, it is better to stay later because you get more out of it, but also if you have something important like a test or something, like you need to study for I know when I was in school, I I had to study religiously every day and a little bit before I took the test, w so I didn't forget everything.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And during those periods in my life, I missed out on a lot of opportunities and a lot of um experiences that I I would normally go to within up school in that time.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now that I'm saying this, I'm no longer in school anymore, so you know, it's very different for me now.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was able to go to a WWE live event with my brother things to um a person in my life being for the tickets.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, I did have a good time, but I was on the verge of the leaving early because this the seats were too crowded.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: There was two people walking to three people in wheelchairs and they had it all in the same exact spot.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now in saying this, I believe companies and organizations that sell these types of seats, they need to have like a space limit, meaning don't oversell the tickets.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe this needs need to be fixed because here's what me and my brother had to deal with.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: One he had to sit somewhere else and I didn't.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they put me in between two chairs.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: One was motorized like me, and one was basically a manual push uh push chair.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And saying that my chair is pretty wide.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's your standard wise wide chair.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So and the person on my left hand side.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the wide chair said me, it was so tight that I felt bad and I felt like I was in his bubble because it was basically my armrest was on his armrest and it just did not seem feasible.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I gotta give a shout-out to the venue because they did the best they could, but in saying that a lot of venues and a lot of a lot of built places that are very popular around the world, a lot of them have this issue that they don't take huge big wheelchairs like motorized wheelchairs, and how big and how wide they can get.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now granted you can only get so wide because you gotta put through standard drawerways, and that's another conversation for another d another day, but I would say I did have a good time of the event, although it was kinda hard for me to see.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And where they put the handic handicap ceiling, which I don't like using that word, I don't know.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get into that on another topic in another video, but where they put the ceiling was not in a good was not in a good place to start with.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was very hard to see, at least for me, and I can see very well and enjoy the experience for this reason.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm happy to report that um they moved me and my brother at the last minute, so we got to see the last couple of matches, but in saying that you beant our specialist and venues should bring out a survey for one, but they're disability people participants and they should listen to us to make make everybody's experience better.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned that I went to Winthum not too long ago either.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a great time, they treated me well, they treated me like one of the people like I was on their team for the whole entire season.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I do respect that and I do thank it for that.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: But in saying that, I I wish more and more venues and more and more employees would do the same thing.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it might be just me and I might I might be being picky here, but I can tell you from what I've seen and what I what I uh experience in life.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you treat a disability person like you would everybody else, it goes a long way.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I really think think the winter basketball team for that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So at this um I do think it's better to stay late instead of leaving early.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because like I said before, you get the full experience.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you might have to plan on waiting waiting on the crowd to drive in the dark.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you can.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody can.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I would try to find a bargain spot that would be easy easy for you and your family to reach.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I do think getting there early is a Q point two.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I was at the Winter not the Winter Pastadium, but I was at the Panther Stadium.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they had to unscrew the the seats so I can get my wheelchair in there.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt bad for the I felt bad for the guy because there's only one guy in the entire stadium to unscrew those seats so they uh they were not considered a weapon.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Cause they didn't want anybody grabbing those chairs and throwing it at people.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Which I I do understand that, but I say also if you're gonna go that route, at least have like two or three people not to that one person with that special screwdriver to unscrew the seats.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know I wasn't the only one frustrated waiting on that one person, but I was in the way for about 25 minutes or so.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine how frustrating other people were getting.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we were there a couple minutes early to take care of that scenario.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine if we were there right on time and all the people were trying to get their seats and I was bogging away.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can imagine if I showed up on time.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been a little bit embarrassing for me.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hope venue planners will take my thoughts and my complaints and considerations.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you for listening to Bear's Wang Live Podcast.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can email me at B-A-R-I-E-T-S.s W A G G I L I F E at gmall dot com.