Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up On Adapting With Friendly Like Me App Creators Who Are Making Sports and Life More Accessible 4-12-24

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One Leg Up On Adapting With Friendly Like Me App Creators Who Are Making Sports and Life More Accessible 4-12-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your host, Alex Garrett. All Right, to end the week on
0:07
the Alex Garrett podcast Network, I wanted to drop a couple of adapting conversations.
0:13
So the first conversation will feature Friendly Like Me accessibility in your local sports
0:19
stadium. Well, let's talk about it with Dave Jensen and Alisha Everett.
0:25
All Right, Well, in our quest for always talking about adaptability, accessibility
0:29
and accountability. Man, I can think of two great people on the line
0:33
right now. I mean I'm just beating them, but from our off air
0:36
conversation, I could tell that Alisha Everett and David Jensen care about the adaptive
0:43
and I guess you'd say disabled community through their project and their app. Firstly,
0:47
thanks for joining Adapting with Alex Garrett. Thanks for having us much.
0:55
You guys clearly have one leg up on this field known as adaptability. And
0:59
so where do we begin. I mean, your app is called Friendly Like
1:03
Me and it basically gives a breakdown to those who have wheelchairs and accessibility issues,
1:08
a breakdown of every professional stadium out there. I mean, did you
1:12
guys scale and go out and look at every professional stadium for accessibility, like
1:18
in the NFL, NBA, NHL or did you have help tell us the
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beginning of Friendly like Me? So Friendly like Me is an app that helps
1:26
people find accessible places to go. It includes all of the major stadiums,
1:33
but it also includes six million businesses in the US that we are trying to
1:37
crowdsource accessibility information for. And we identify that as looking for information for anyone
1:47
with an access need. So we could be talking about visible disabilities or invisible
1:51
disabilities and all of the various places that we look at. And Dave,
1:57
do you want to add to this, because I want to figure out which
1:59
of you had the idea first, and did you guys collaborate from the very
2:01
beginning. Alicia and I have worked together for over twenty years. Most recently
2:07
we were at a law firm, a very large law firm in it and
2:15
good friends on top of that. But Alicia, why don't you tell them
2:17
how this got started? Because this directly pertains to you. Well. So,
2:23
I am a plus sized person and one of the challenges as a plus
2:28
sized person is that you have access needs that are not very well understood and
2:35
sometimes serve as a barrier not just to access in various situations, but also
2:38
access to healthcare, and I was in a critical care situation where I had
2:46
been diagnosed having a pulmonary embolism, and as we were going to the hospital,
2:51
no one could decide because no one knew whether or not the hospital we
2:55
were going to had a CT scanner that could accommodate my body. And this
3:01
this struck me. This was not obviously the first time I had needed an
3:05
MRI and had to do some research on where to go, but it struck
3:08
me in this emergency situation. As you know, I'm in the waiting room
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and people are looking me up and down and trying to decide if I can
3:15
get this critical test. You know, I really want to be the person
3:19
to solve this problem this kind of information. My doctor didn't know it,
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the people at the er didn't know it, I didn't know, And there
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is no place, there was no place where you could look something like that
3:30
up. So we got we got the idea to start friendly like Me,
3:34
where you could identify and make searchable very quickly, where all kinds of places
3:39
with that were that could accommodate people no matter what their access need. So
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we're talking about wheelchair accessibility, we're talking about plus size accessibility. We're talking
3:51
about part of hearing, blind, low vision, invisible disabilities like autism,
3:57
but or sensory sensory issues. But the real part of the origin story is
4:03
that I wanted to develop this app because I needed it, And as I
4:09
started working on it, and Dave and I started working on it together,
4:13
we realized we could serve a much broader population than we were than we were
4:16
thinking about when we started. That's that's very intrigue. And so did you
4:23
find difficulty as well, not just in the MRI, but sitting at a
4:27
stadium. Are you a sports fan? Is that part of this origination the
4:30
idea? Yes, absolutely, I'm an Aztec fan San Diego State. I
4:35
have been a Charger fan for years, of course before they left San Diego.
4:41
But but I often and I think you can probably identify with this.
4:46
If I don't know if a place can accommodate me, I don't go right.
4:49
It's incredibly difficult to find out in advance all of the things that you
4:55
need to know, particularly in an area like size accessibility, where people haven't
5:00
really been thinking about that very much. And so what I would find is,
5:04
you know, I would I would ditch out on concerts and other events
5:09
with my friends that I really wanted to go to because I wasn't sure,
5:13
And this became our thesis. Our thesis really is that if you can tell
5:17
people everything they need to know, including if they can't go, they're going
5:21
to be able to go in confidence. Right, They're gonna instead of doing
5:26
all that recon to trying to trying to find out if you can get you
5:29
know, sit at a game or you know, enjoy a sporting event or
5:34
a cultural festival, a community festival or anything. And so that was our
5:41
goal was to try to take the drudgery out of figuring that out. Dave
5:46
and Alicia, do you feel like because I I deal with this sometimes when
5:50
you go to the ballpark and you're trying to fit a power wheelchair in the
5:55
spacing between the built in seats in this ada section are not always a dominating
6:00
Have you found that? And it's funny to me because these are modern ballparks
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we're talking about. Yeah, it's not something that is commonly thought of people
6:09
when you know, when they think about accessibility, especially if they're going at
6:12
it without a lot of experience, they think about what do they have to
6:15
do to be compliant with the law, right, and so they're thinking about
6:19
standard wheelchair sizes. We know firsthand that a power wheelchair is a whole different
6:27
ballgame, has a different turning radius, needs more width than space in many
6:31
cases, and again power equipment and things like that. And so what you
6:38
find is that stadiums that are really thinking about it are doing a great job.
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Like Madison Square Garden has has seats where that you can identify in the
6:47
section where you can lift up the arm rest in between them. Right,
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most stadiums, you know, you know what those seats are like, right,
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And so it's funny you mention them because I've been trying, honestly,
7:00
trying to get to their Ada seeding department to try and get my fiancee to
7:03
another Ranger game, but they haven't responded. So maybe maybe you and I
7:08
can work together and get them to respond. I don't know if that's a
7:10
norm for everybody, but it just is a little frustrating with MSG. The
7:13
world's famous Marina doesn't respond to you, you know, at all, even
7:17
answer your call. It's kind of weird. Yeah, I would be more
7:20
than happy to help you make that phone call, but yeah, they you
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know, it's typically a low priority, and oftentimes we find that it's just
7:30
not resource the topic is not resourced well enough, there's a facilities manager who's
7:35
trying to do it all or something like that. The places who are doing
7:41
this the best have a dedicated accessibility director and with some staff that can actually
7:46
when someone takes the time to call in and say, hey, I need
7:48
help with this, that they're going to make that happen. And what I'm
7:53
hoping to do is to get stadiums to compete on this right in the sense
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that who can be the most successful, because the idea is is if you're
8:01
more accessible, more people are coming one hundred percent. Dave, do you
8:07
I'm kind of curious with the two of you who've done the traveling. Have
8:11
you both traveled to these different stadiums together or who did the traveling here?
8:16
Well, we did a decent amount of research online. Being a sports person,
8:22
I've been to a number of stadiums and when I think about the experience
8:28
I've had and trying to get around, get to a seat, try to
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get upstairs to a seat or downstairs, you really it brings home the point
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that people who aren't able bodied are just cut out from this, And so
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I started noticing which stadiums made exceptions, which which people carved out areas where
8:46
wheelchairs could be, who made accommodations for people with either hearing or vision issues.
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And what's really been interesting lately is to see growing awareness of sensory issues
8:58
and invisible disabilities like autism. As Alicia said, And there's a lot of
9:07
stadiums now that work with a company called Culture City or someone like it who
9:11
provides a number of things, either headphones so it isn't quite allowed, sunglasses
9:16
to limit the visual stimulus, fidget toys, weighted lap bands. There's a
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bunch of things that stadiums now provide to accommodate people with those invisibility invisible disabilities
9:31
much more than they used to. But it's been interesting to see how a
9:35
growing awareness or accessibility has gotten to finally sports stadiums. You know, I
9:45
got to say, and I think, Alicia, you're very passionate about this,
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so I would say and Dave you r too, But Alisha, I
9:50
feel like as a sports fan yourself and someone who needs these accommodations, we
9:56
need to make the message that hey, people with disabilities are sports fans.
10:00
Too. Do you feel like there's still that kind of well, you know,
10:03
I mean, a person's disability wants to go to a game. Is
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there kind of that question still going on that you're finding or not? Really?
10:09
You know, I think it's actually not. It's not that. I
10:15
think it's just that it's not considered. You know. I think that when
10:18
you are able bodied, it is so. I watched somebody leap up from
10:24
the ground onto a loading dock today and he just jumped effortlessly, and I
10:28
was watching him and thinking, God, do you have any idea how lucky
10:33
you are that you can do that? Right? And when you have,
10:35
when you're able to do those things, you don't think about it. You
10:37
know, if you're at the Superdome and you're climbing the steps, those things
10:41
are steep, and you know you're fit or you're not, and you can
10:43
make it or not. The people who are designing the stadiums, I think
10:48
that the economic argument has not been made well enough that you know, one
10:52
in six people have a disability. That number starts to get closer to one
10:58
in four when you start thinking of about when you add in a certain range
11:01
of plus sized individuals, and that means that you're leaving that much money on
11:07
the table in terms of people that you can bring into your stadium. I
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think it's more oversight than thinking that people don't want to go to games.
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And I think historically a lot of people with disabilities would self select out.
11:22
They just would not go, especially censory disabilities. But as a few businesses
11:28
start to be more accommodating, then it becomes kind of a you get shamed
11:33
if you're not doing it. So that's why it's gotten better and better,
11:35
and you see more people and people with disabilities are just as passionate about sports
11:41
as anybody else I can tell you. So it's been really refreshing. Just
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see, you should have been there at my high school, people with disabilities.
11:50
But we play adaptive sports, wheelchair basketball, we still do. I
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mean today there's a lot of people that I know play wheelchair basketball at the
11:56
college level as well. So these kids, these these grown up adults who
12:01
love sports and kids are very passionate about it. Now I gotta say,
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do either of you walk or need any more? You know, let me
12:11
rephrase that, do any of do either you need mobility devices as well to
12:15
get around? I have to ask that no, although there are people on
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our team who do. But it's it's it's interesting when you think about it
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that you know, people using mobility devices, it can be temporary or permanent.
12:33
Right, So in your case, we're talking about needing to do that
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your whole life. You know. I've certainly broken ankles or been non weight
12:39
bearing, you know, after surgery or something, and needed to do things
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like that too. And what did I do? It Mostly stayed home.
12:46
It's you know, as you know, hard to open a door or carry
12:50
a glass of water down, right, you know, it's it's it's one
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of those things where it's easier to stay home. I luckily get around on
12:58
a rollerblade and crutches one leg. But you know, I have friends in
13:03
the community and I've seen it traveling with my fiance is in a powerchair.
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How inaccessible? And that kind of is what my let my fire to this
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because I personally am not experienced that kind of inaccessibility, but I've seen others
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who do, and we've got to change that. I feel like you guys
13:20
with friendly like me, are and I That's why I'm bringing it on.
13:24
Are you. I want to ask you this from an earlier question, though,
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are you surprised that we're still seeing some issues with modern day ballparks.
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I mean, these places are built like fifteen years ago even and maybe there
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are some issues there. So isn't that amazing that these modern days aren't is
13:39
up to standard if you will, with ada and whatnot, in the sense
13:43
of needing more accessibility than they already provide. You know, this is a
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concept that I think about a lot, you know, in terms of like
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meeting the minimum requirements versus you know, we like to say being friendly.
13:56
And a part of that is, you know, thinking about accessibility from multiple
14:01
points of view. And again it depends on how good of a project manager
14:05
you had in that renovation or how much focus you put on it. But
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an example of a stadium that's done this really well at co Park in San
14:13
Diego. I mean, they clearly had accessible design as a part of their
14:20
master plan when they were going. There are wheelchair lifts, there are special
14:24
accessible seating areas, there's wheelchairs, wheelchair shuttle service. They are offering the
14:31
sensory bags as system of listening devices. There's thirteen sections with elevators rather than
14:37
just the escalators, right, so that people in chairs can get right in.
14:43
And I really think it has to do with, you know, whether
14:48
or not you're adapting to accessibility after you've done your construction project and thinking about
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it then, or if it's a big part of the planning. David,
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do you want to add to this? And I know you're also behind this
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as well, and yeah, yeah, I guess your brother San Diego Base.
15:07
So I'll start with you, Dave. Qualcomm Stadium versus Petco Park.
15:13
Big difference, right, oh? Huge? Well, first off, could
15:16
Comb's no longer there, But when it was there, it was not a
15:20
comfortable stadium, and parking was the only thing that was good about it in
15:24
the big park lot. But as Alicia said, Pepco really thought about that
15:28
from the get go, built in a lot of accommodations, and it's so
15:33
much more comfortable to get to that stadium, to get to food places at
15:37
pet Stadium, and to enjoy the ballpark. Going back to you know,
15:41
how we've gotten here. When the ADA passed, I think it was like
15:46
ninety three ninety four, it threw something out to the people had to comply
15:50
with, and it took a little while, it seems for people to get
15:54
on board with that a lot of people did the opening doors and some basics,
15:58
But what we've seen over the last five seven years has been a big
16:03
uptick in businesses embracing this. And I think to a Lisha's point, in
16:07
part, they're doing this because, hey, this is a significant part of
16:11
the economy that we're ignoring here and leading out, and we need to embrace
16:17
that, not just to do the right thing, but for business sake.
16:22
Man. I got to ask you both about the economy. Maybe Alisha can
16:25
explain, because it's amazing to me these leagues for ablebody or disabled people,
16:32
they all say they want to keep it included and get more people involved.
16:36
But these sky rocketing prices, I mean, it also discourages someone who's not
16:40
making a high income and may be disabled from going. How do we fix
16:44
that too? You know, it's a really good point. I mean,
16:48
you know, when you think about access to care or access to fun,
16:52
price is a big part of that. Right, it's its own access need.
16:56
Now we have an economic access need right, and you know, I
17:00
think during the Madison Square Garden, you know, when they were addressing the
17:07
ADA violations that they had, they agreed to you know, also remedi remedy
17:12
a bunch of architectural barriers and do a bunch of other things that would make
17:17
it easier. And then they agreed to spend ten k per year for the
17:21
next three years on advertisements promoting the availability of accessible seating. Right, So
17:26
that addresses a small part of it. And I feel like, if you're
17:30
going to set aside seats for access, we have to talk about price too.
17:34
We have to talk about making games available to a bigger or broader spectrum
17:41
of the population. It's such an I mean, can you imagine floor seats,
17:45
right, basketball floor seats? You know you're we're talking about can we
17:48
get wheelchair accessible seating on the floor and access to the floor. But it's
17:53
not just that, right, You're lucky if you can get there and buy
17:56
that and buy that seat. It cost the tickets is one of the reasons
18:02
we're now going after the minor league stadiums. It's a lot more affordable to
18:06
take you know, your kids and your wife to a double a game or
18:11
triple a game into a Major League Baseball game. And so we're looking at
18:15
the stadiums that postings play at to see can they accommodate everybody and it's a
18:22
much better way to watch a ball game too. In some ways, I
18:25
know, it's a lot more friend fan friendly, kid friendly and whatnot.
18:29
And you know it's you mentioned that because there are a people of disabilities to
18:32
have kids also, So now it's like you're knocking on two birds with one
18:34
stone there. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing about the way that
18:40
we've structured Friendly like me is it's you know, every one of us has
18:45
a different combination of access needs. And like you just said, so now
18:48
you're disabled and now you have kids, and kid friendly is a whole different
18:52
thing than you know, wheelchair friendly or disability friendly, and when you start
18:57
to add those things together, you are a combination of needs. And so
19:03
what we did when we built the app is we set it up so that
19:06
you go in and you set your profile and you choose just those access needs
19:10
that matter to you. And the reason for that is because you know,
19:14
you know you have a kid. Now you need to know if they're stroller
19:17
storage. Now you need to know if they're special hours and a special menu,
19:21
and you know all the rest of that. And so what we tried
19:23
to do was create a way in your profile to assemble you know, your
19:29
access needs, the access needs of your family. Oh we're bringing grandma today.
19:33
That that changes it. And so that you move through the search world
19:37
in the app based on and evaluating businesses by how like you they are,
19:42
how well they can accommodate you specifically. And you know, we're just beginning
19:48
to define all of the things that can you know, that can live in
19:52
that place, you know, dietary restrictions and other things like that. But
19:56
that's that's what we're trying to do with Friendly, is make it so that
20:00
you anybody, any parent who needs a place to stroll is you know,
20:03
to store a stroller, knows in advance if the restaurant has that. And
20:08
that's about getting down to specifics when you look in you know, when you
20:12
look on Google and you and you hear and you look at things like it's
20:15
kid friendly, it's pet friendly. Okay, but but how right? What
20:19
does that mean? What does that mean? Because so many people voted it.
20:22
So what we're trying to establish that's different is the specifics. Okay,
20:30
all right, you guys have made a bunch of modifications. At your stadium,
20:33
Where's the best place for me to park if I'm coming in in a
20:36
wheelchair. Which elevator should I take? Is there wayfinding for me to get
20:40
to find my way to the accessible seating? What about the accessible bathrooms?
20:44
Like, we're trying to get down to clear specifics so that we can help
20:48
people as much as possible. No, no, before they get there to
20:52
improve their experience. Well, it sounds to me that this is beyond just
20:56
the game, right, this is life you're talking about. So, whether
21:00
it's just getting to your regular restaurant or in the movie theater, how expansive
21:04
is friendly? Like me, it's beyond the ballparks now right. Oh yeah,
21:08
it's it's healthcare, it's restaurants, it's gyms, it's it's really businesses
21:15
with a physical location, right that are public facing and service oriented. So
21:21
we want to know all the accessible restaurants in a various places. We want
21:25
you to be able to find the most accessible restaurants near you. We've done
21:30
all of the national national parks. Go ahead, no, you please.
21:37
Yeah, we figured that would be a good thing to do because that's something
21:40
that the whole population wants to go to. And until you start to think
21:45
about the specific accommodations that people need, you don't even think about is a
21:51
park going to be accessible because you think it's just a big outore space.
21:55
There's a lot that goes into that. Are the vans, are places where
22:00
you can charge a wheelchair for instance. We've loaded six million businesses into the
22:06
database and we're trying to go about as expersitiousness we can, doing as many
22:11
reviews of public spaces, starting with the places like stadiums where concerts or ballgames
22:18
are, because those can accommodate a lot of people. We think we can
22:21
do more good for the same amount of effort. But you make up one
22:25
point that I think is really important. Oh, sorry to interrupt you,
22:29
which is that we need help. We need everyone's help to make this a
22:33
reality. Right, This is crowdsourcing. We do our work as much as
22:37
we can to find things in advance for people, but nothing is There's no
22:41
substitute better than individual experience. Right. We want to be we want to
22:47
be yelped for access needs, and we need lots of people helping us to
22:51
do that. All Right, It's funny you mention that because I had someone
22:53
on about election integrity. I know it's a little different, but it's all
22:57
kind of the same thing. Is our accessibility a tovoting booth. But they
23:00
said, if there are any issues, take pictures at your booth. Now,
23:03
I don't know, I'm not saying I'm not focusing on that here,
23:07
but if there are issues, are there ways people can upload? Hey guys,
23:11
here's what happened to here's our experience. Can they talk about that through
23:14
the app? Absolutely, that's what you do. You review places, and
23:18
our app is only as good as the number of people who have done reviews.
23:22
Right, So you're in a space and you want to review it,
23:26
and you can add pictures, right, you can post links if you found
23:30
their you know, their accessibility page if it was hard to find, or
23:33
you know, your experience is what makes it special because then the people come
23:37
in behind you, right, can can decide for themselves. They were what
23:41
would you add to that? Because obviously you both have different life experiences.
23:45
I want to ask you both, uh Dave and Alicia? Have you had
23:49
outside influence, meaning like people in your own lives will have disabilities and say,
23:53
hey, this is great and how do we how can we help you
23:56
continue this? Have you gotten those kind of responses? In my family,
24:00
there's people who have sensory issues, there's people have mobility issues, and it
24:07
kind of reinforced the need for when we were just starting out that we need
24:10
to accommodate a range of people's needs, and so it helped to form our
24:15
understanding of how importantness is and what things need to be considered in the application.
24:22
We as Alicia said, we loaded six million businesses in, but there
24:26
are places people need to get to outside of those that we've just added.
24:30
The ability to create a new business loaded in there, talk about its accessibility
24:37
and share with others what you have. Do you guys have a rewards program
24:41
for those who actually do submit? Is there anything kind of fun that they
24:45
get in return in the sense of, Okay, not only are you moving
24:49
life forward for others, but hey, here's a little perk for reviewing.
24:52
Is there anything like that that kind of system as well. Yeah, so
24:57
that's coming. That's coming when the things that we've noticed is that it reviewing
25:03
places requires an incentive like even you know, I'm one of the co founders
25:07
of this company and I ate at a restaurant last night, I forgot to
25:11
review, right, It's we need to provide something like that, and it's
25:15
and it's absolutely on the schedule for this year. We have not done a
25:18
good job with that. We have learned about the tell me about the backing,
25:22
because I feel like the companies that are helping you and maybe even funding
25:26
some of this research through friendly like me because they're helping you guys out should
25:30
get a shout out here because it means they care about accessibility as well.
25:36
That's true, and there are a lot of companies doing really good work in
25:38
accessibility and we hope to receive their funding. We have been we have bootstrapped
25:45
this company ourselves. We've we've done one round of friends and family and are
25:52
actually actively seeking funding. So thanks for asking, of course, because this
25:57
is such an I can't imagine fifty states two people. Now, you've got
26:02
to have some researchers all across the country. I feel like that's another goal
26:06
for you guys, right, what we do we do We actually have researchers
26:08
in multiple places, including some overseas, and you know, all working you
26:15
know on you know, looking at this nationally, right, and we're and
26:18
we take different sections as we think of interest. Right, So we did
26:23
all the parks at once, we did all the stadiums at once. We've
26:27
been working with Massage Envy to get all of their locations claimed and because actually,
26:33
as it turns out, very accessible, very accessible, hand and Stone
26:38
very accessible, and so we're trying to that's the way that we've approached it
26:45
is to try to go after big chains and try to get as big of
26:48
a coverage as we can, But it's those little tiny places in your town
26:53
where we really need people reviewing. With all social media how it is,
27:00
there's a tipping point where it becomes broadly you know, and enough people jump
27:06
in and review businesses themselves, and that's when it can really add value because
27:11
there's no way two people or even a team of ten people could get to
27:14
six million businesses. So we're trying to get enough momentum to where people become
27:19
aware of it and start to review businesses in their area and then it just
27:25
is shared by others and people see the benefit of it and participate. Well,
27:29
I'll tell you I'd love to start reviewing as well if I can through
27:32
the app. That just sounds like a great cause to, you know,
27:36
continue the campaign for accessibility. I know it's in your pitgit to breaking down
27:41
barriers, and I feel like every other can I say minority has these breaking
27:48
down barriers, and yet for the able community it's not celebrated enough where it's
27:52
not pushed for enough, and they honestly, I feel like there are some
27:56
things that you know, the ADA active thirty plus years ago is enough and
28:00
it's not right. We got to keep going. We can't just rest on
28:03
that from thirty years ago. We can't. We can't, and there are
28:07
a lot of people, of course, you know, working to improve that,
28:11
but you know, the government moves slow and enforcement doesn't exist. And
28:15
that's kind of why we think that by helping to bypass that would be getting
28:22
companies to want to be more accessible, right, to see that if they
28:26
spend a dollar, they're going to earn five, and to start promoting that.
28:30
I think Dave was saying on a game he watched last night, right
28:36
before right before the game, they did, you know, sixty seconds on
28:38
Culture City, which has got the sensory bags and is doing such incredible work.
28:45
I think that when more businesses, when we can convince more businesses that
28:49
they will make more money, it'll it'll be better than trying to work enforcement.
28:56
Do you guys follow renovations so like the clubs have undergone innovations at Wrigley
29:00
feel and the Yankees continue to renovate as well, and sometimes unfortunately it means
29:06
taking away Ada seating, which has happened in multiple ballparks. But do you
29:10
follow renovations in that kind of regard of Okay, how are they protecting Ada
29:14
seating after renovations? Yeah? Actually, you know, it's interesting because when
29:21
Yankee Stadium was rebuilt in two thousand and nine, did you feel like did
29:25
you feel like they lost disability seating in that so, to be honest,
29:30
I did not, and I tell you there's still a lot more. But
29:33
I know over the years they've done more renovation to the stadium, which has
29:37
taken away some seating and I think they've tried to put it back elsewhere,
29:41
but it has happened. It's been documented that, yes, they took away
29:45
some of the seating, which you know, all fairness, I do have
29:48
a connection to the Yankee so I will say they are accessible. But when
29:52
you hear that they took away a few parts, it's a little disheartening,
29:56
you know. Yeah, Well, I think part of that is is also
30:00
showing the numbers, right, and if people don't even know you have accessible
30:04
seating available. They may not use it, they may not you may not
30:08
know right how important it is to your to your bottom line. And I
30:12
think that's the case that we can make together, right, you know.
30:15
I think part of it with the disability movement is showing up with a unified
30:19
voice. You know, elements of elements of disability and accessibility movements have you
30:27
know, are often pretty fragmented and and I think this is something that we
30:32
can kind of all agree on. It is that we want to know before
30:33
we go if we can you know, if we can fit or get in
30:37
or enjoy it. And we also want people to consider it when they're designing.
30:42
I mean, what I do know about the Yankees is that they worked
30:47
with the DOJ and other groups to design for fans who are disabled in that
30:51
revamp, and they put together they put together are really good guide for guests
30:56
with disabilities. That's on the website. And you know, even in that,
31:02
you'll look at the stadium and it's not clear if there are any seats
31:06
that you know, with arms that come up or down. And this is
31:08
an example of how accessibility is always evolving. You can't rest on the thirty
31:14
year old law now you need to think about are there multiple ways for someone
31:18
to get a ticket, voice enabled ticket machines for someone that's slow vision,
31:25
or you know, putting in valley parking for people that maybe need to walk
31:29
a little bit less, better wayfinding, especially as technology evolves. And I
31:33
think that's the frustration that people with disabilities have, is that these kinds of
31:38
things are taken as only when we're doing construction or only because we were told
31:45
to. But it's that ongoing work that makes a place really accessible, and
31:49
ongoing dissemination of information about that place is accessibility is a big part of that.
31:56
All right, Well, the Yankees are the Titans of baseball, and
32:00
honestly, we were there Saturday night and there was I mean, it wasn't
32:02
a packed eighty a section, you know, so you wonder how it's going
32:06
to be when it is filled up because the team's having a great year.
32:08
But I want to switch gears to another Titan of professional sports. I guess
32:14
a couple of them. But firstly, the Kansas City Chiefs, So Arrowhead
32:16
Stadium is a very interesting ballpark. It's been around forever and a bit interesting
32:22
football team been around forever, and I don't know how accessible it is.
32:25
But maybe those in the New York area that and listening to this that are
32:29
Chiefs fans that want to go next year because hey, they might do another
32:31
one, you know, win another one. What's your guide for that for
32:35
the Chiefs. So what we have is we have a link to the chief
32:38
Successibility Guide, and we've got some extra information about how to gain access to
32:45
the stadium, which gate entrances to use, you know, which parking gates
32:50
to come in at, and I'm looking here if we've got if we know
32:55
the elevators on the inside, yet I know that wheelchair accessible seat is on
33:00
raised platforms on the field. So anyway to answer your question, yes,
33:05
you can go in, and you can go in and pull up Arrowhead Stadium
33:08
and take a look at what we know about it. Now, on no
33:12
level do we represent that as everything to know about Arrowhead Stadium accessibility. Right,
33:17
We're trying to give you a nice easy way and point you in the
33:21
right direction on accessibility from one place. But there are there's information in here
33:28
about you know, how to get accessible tickets and which zones and that's that's
33:34
pretty indicative of the kind of information we're trying to collect on all stadiums for
33:38
ticketing. Now, do you guys offer I wouldn't say discounts, but do
33:43
you offer, hey, you know what, we're able to help you get
33:45
tickets to any of these stadiums or is that in the works as well?
33:50
That is in the works. Actually, that is a part of our outreach
33:53
to all of these places, asking for them to commit to featuring accessibility not
34:00
only in our app, but in their own information as well. And so,
34:06
yes, discounts on seats, scholarships on seats, all of these things
34:12
are things we're hoping to negotiate. Oh, please keep us up to date
34:15
with that, because me and my fiance Gabby, though, I will say
34:19
MetLife Stadium is great. We actually just buy tickets regularly. I mean they're
34:23
a low pricey but so, but we buy tickets and then we go to
34:28
the upper deck and say, hey, uh, you know, we got
34:31
these seats. We didn't find we can't find any ada seating on third party
34:36
apps. That just seems non existent. And so we go to customer service.
34:39
And I would say that's a great thing to talk about too. It
34:43
is because customer service will upgrade people with disabilities. I'm sure you've seen that
34:46
before, maybe have reviews about that, Yes, some people will. In
34:52
fact, there are stadiums and theaters we've done. We've reviewed a number of
34:58
theaters where the ada seating is actually the best seating in the house. Kennedy
35:07
Center is a great example of that. I was astonished when I saw my
35:12
first play at the Kennedy Center how accessible not only how accessible it was,
35:16
but what a benefit it was to need those seats in that case, because
35:21
they were positioned in the best seats in the house right And you know,
35:24
when you think about getting seats on the ground floor or on the field at
35:31
Arrowhead Stadium, it's like, yeah, it would be really great if you
35:34
could get a seat anywhere in the joint, but it's also pretty cool that
35:37
you can get one right down here on the field. And so that's the
35:40
kind of thing that we're trying to convince stadiums to do, especially the older
35:45
stadiums where you know they might not have a project approved or construction, but
35:49
there are things they can do anyway, low cost things they can do to
35:52
make a really big difference like that. I love it, And it sounds
35:59
like you guys are now if there's a professional team that I know that might
36:01
be listening to this because you know, word travels on these podcasts. How
36:07
can they reach out to you and say, yes, we want to be
36:09
part of your mission today. Oh, such a good question. They can.
36:15
They can contact us on our website. They can also claim their claim
36:17
their business unfriendly like me, and I'll get our get our attention really fast.
36:22
But what we would really like is for anyone interested in working with us
36:25
to reach out. You can do it right on the website, and we
36:30
are looking for all the help we can get. I love that now you
36:37
mentioned theaters. Of course Broadway is doing their best too, I think,
36:39
Dave, they're also dealing with century issues on Broadway, but they're doing their
36:43
best with the audio and the visual. Are you getting reviews from Broadway shows
36:46
as well? Yes, we have. We have reviewed many, many,
36:52
many of the of the theaters on Broadway and some you know past that and
36:58
in other states as well. Well. This is again we seek even greater
37:05
information. So we can tell you some things, but we want to know
37:08
even more. And in Broadway, in Broadway theaters in particular, accessibility is
37:14
not a guarantee, right, especially you know in old in Old buildings.
37:19
But that's an example of, you know, something New York does actually really
37:22
well. They have there's a specific app gosh, I wish I could remember
37:27
the name of it right now, focused entirely on accessibility in Broadway theaters.
37:34
So you know, we link to a number of their pages in our app
37:37
as well. Now, it's it's interesting to me, and I think Dave
37:42
and you can comment on this based on your family or your own accommodations.
37:46
But it's amazing when you're thinking about lifting up the you know, the rest,
37:53
I forget what you call it, but you know, the handrest or
37:55
whatever. Lifting that up makes such a difference. Uh, is that something
38:01
that we just take for granted. I feel like it is. It is,
38:06
it is until you've actually been somewhere, been to a you know,
38:08
a small seating situation with someone who is plus sized, it's difficult to explain
38:15
how that is, what that feels like on your body, right, and
38:20
also how humiliating that is, right, and so places where I mean it's
38:24
just a simple thing. It's an armrest that goes up, and it makes
38:29
you know all the difference in the world, all the difference in the world,
38:32
and you know there are a number of reviews of Broadway theaters where we've
38:37
been able to identify where they've set aside three or four seats like that,
38:43
so you got to know the seat. And again that's the thing about specifics.
38:49
But I see that as a as a really positive change that even as
38:52
being considered. You know, if a place can't redo their entire theater,
38:57
I'm really happy to hear they put in three seats or four seats where the
39:00
arm wrest will go up. That means they're listening. Oh, absolutely,
39:07
And Dave, you know the censury thing you mentioned the Century, I gotta
39:09
say people were laughing or joking around, like why is NHL offering sensory packages
39:16
at the Stadium series. Meanwhile, I applauded it. That meant they were
39:20
showing, hey, we want people with disabilities and sensory issues at the Stadium
39:24
series. Wouldn't you say? Absolutely? It's kind of a it's a phenomenon
39:30
that they don't understand. Everybody knows that there's been a great increase in the
39:34
prevalence of autism and children over the last twenty years. It would suck if
39:38
you couldn't take your kid to a hockey game, just because of the issues
39:44
that they would have with all the sensory overloads. So I think it's been
39:47
a really welcome change or basketball arenas, hockey arenas to do this, and
39:53
it makes a big difference to the family and people don't feel left out.
40:00
All right, Well, your pitch included you know, I got pitched to
40:02
have you guys on it. I'm so glad I did included an NBA story.
40:06
So tell us an NBA story. I mean, is this an app
40:08
that might have got someone courtside? I mean, did you work with us
40:13
in an arena to get something like that happened? What tell about the NBA
40:15
aspect, because I'm thinking you l in California. Who's the biggest thing but
40:20
the Staple Center. Can you give us a story about the Staples Center that
40:23
happened through friendly app. I'm a Warriors fan and I live in San Diego,
40:30
so I don't get up to the Staples Center very often, and I
40:34
have not been to the new Warriors Arena the Chase Center in San Francisco either.
40:39
I was at the Oakland Arena a number of times, and I can
40:45
tell you it was not very accessible, a great place to see a game,
40:49
but there weren't accommodations for people who had accessibility issues, either the hidden
40:54
or the visible ones. Alicia, do you have any experience with an NBA.
41:00
No, just that we that was part of the thing that we did
41:05
was go out and review arenas as well, not just stadiums. And the
41:09
reason for that was, you know, of course basketball, but also because
41:14
those places serve as concert halls and other places and other things as well.
41:17
So but but I'm definitely interested in hearing special stories, and that's one of
41:24
the things we do on on social media is we try to promote those stories.
41:29
We have a lot of people come to us and tell us not just
41:31
the bad stories about how they weren't accommodated, but amazing things that business owners
41:37
have done to make them feel welcome. And those are the stories we love
41:40
to sing as loud as we can. Well, I'll tell you, the
41:45
Yankees welcome my fiance and I with open arms every time because of my deep
41:49
connects with the Yankees. So I love that, And there are good stories
41:52
coming out of there. There's good stories like, for instance, there was
41:55
an usher at City Fields and kind of said, hey, you know what,
41:59
no one's here sit in this section and that was so you know that
42:01
happens when you have good people working on the ground. That's what happens in
42:07
these stadiums. Can we attest to that. Yes. One of the things
42:10
when people ask me what they can do to be more accessible when they don't
42:14
have a lot of money to spend, one of the first things I go
42:19
to is just awareness. Look around, look at your customers, Look what
42:22
they're looking for. Imagine what it would be like to walk from here to
42:28
there, you know, make it. Remove obstacles. I mean just some
42:31
of the smallest things. But the most important thing is putting out to your
42:35
customers that if they haven't if they need an accommodation, you will find a
42:39
way to make it, because there's almost always a way. I want to
42:45
ask you both this, and I'm going to have you back because it's such
42:47
an expensive conversation. I could go for hours, but I definitely want to
42:52
im back on as we hit the summer. Let's say a business does latch
42:57
on what's friendly like me, and I mean, we know this isn't something
43:02
to do for publicity. I mean, this is a real cause, and
43:05
I just feel like some businesses do things like this for the publicity, and
43:08
you're saying, just partner with us. We don't want the publicity and that
43:12
sense, we just want to be partnering with you. Right yeah, I
43:15
mean I think that one of the things about them doing it for publicity is
43:20
that that's creation porn. I guess you would say, is what I'm thinking
43:22
about, you know what I mean, I do. And of course that's
43:25
a serious issue in the disability community that people feel like able bodied people,
43:30
you know, feature with them and their wheelchairs on a sandy beach and you
43:35
know, with their arms extended to the world. That inspiration porn stuff.
43:39
But you know, the reality is that actually focusing on you know, like
43:45
what people need and being aware of it is a completely different thing. And
43:50
this is such great research for even the postseason as we hit it. I
43:53
mean we're here now basically in the post season friend being NHL, and I
43:57
think fans who want to catch the action and can utilize this app very much
44:01
so in the next few months, right, absolutely hope they do. All
44:07
right, well, we're going to feature it friendly Like me, I'm going
44:09
to definitely download it. And I will tell you something interesting is there was
44:15
something I met at the game on Saturday night, and he's an engineering professor,
44:17
engineering high school teacher. I should say he was going to do a
44:21
thing where he put kids in wheelchairs just to see if how they would do
44:25
and just to teach them. Hey, you know what, not everything's accessible
44:29
for some people. So that's how he was going to teach the class.
44:32
And then I said, by the way, I'm doing an interview Monday with
44:35
someone about with a group of people about accessibility in baseball stadiums and sports stadiums
44:39
called friendly like me. So I'm already spreading the word about you guys,
44:43
and I didn't even never interview you yet. Oh that's one offul so appreciate
44:51
and emails me. I'll definitely send him along your information because he seems very
44:54
intrigued about the accessibility world and trying to make life more accessible for people.
45:00
Alex, that's the most important thing is you know, we cannot do this
45:02
alone. We need as many partners as possible. We want to be you
45:07
know, the best place to go for accessibility information on all different kinds of
45:12
places. And you know, anybody that wants to be featured and friendly like
45:16
me for being accessible or tell you know, tell us about the business that
45:22
they have for adaptly only. I didn't want to ask you guys before we
45:24
hang up, is this is going to go into transportation because I got to
45:28
tell you my fiance is trouble getting on and off the subways in New York
45:31
City, and I'm sure you might be getting reviews about the transportation systems across
45:37
the country. What do you think you know? We have not focused on
45:40
transportation, although the transportation facilities are available in the app to be reviewed.
45:46
But we have actually been talking with city governments about, you know, sharing
45:52
more specifics, right, because we can tell you the basics about you know,
45:58
accessibility and public transportation. But again this is about, oh, by
46:01
the way, to get to the accessible platform, you should use this elevator,
46:05
you should drop off here, right, We want more of those specifics.
46:07
Hey, those seats on the New York Public subway are this wide and
46:12
this deep. You know that kind of information can really help people, and
46:15
that's the power of crowdsourcing. So what I wanted to say about businesses doing
46:21
accessibility only for publicity is, and this may be controversial, who cares if
46:27
it gets us what we need? Right? I actually feel like the desire
46:31
to promote their accessibility is a step in the right direction, and I want
46:37
not only to encourage businesses to do that, I want them to compete for
46:43
our business based on that. That's been David Jensen and Alisha Everett Burns,
46:49
thanks so much for joining me today on the Alex Garrett Podcast Network. Thank
46:53
you, Alex. And I would say it looks like you guys are always
46:57
adapting and I love that. Thank you so much. Appreciate that