Thoughts on World Fantasy Con

[jimhines]

I’ve been hearing a fair amount of frustration with this year’s World Fantasy Convention over various issues.

WFC was the first “world-level” convention I attended, more than a decade ago now. It was intimidating and overwhelming, but also fun and rewarding. Sadly, I won’t be at WFC in Brighton this month. Which could raise the question, “Why am I

Comments

[mariness]

While I'm glad that it seems like events will be accessible after all, I do want to note that this clarification has been made about one month before the start of the con -- well after I'd cancelled my plans to go because of accessibility concerns, and too late for me to make last minute plans. I wish there'd been some way to clear up these concerns earlier this year.

[jimhines]

Agreed. They posted on their website that certain venues weren't accessible. The moment someone saw that text, it should have been a red flag that there's a problem we need to solve.

And while I haven't seen other specific complaints, this one would make me very nervous about other potential accessibility problems.

[mme_hardy]

A friend of mine who is a solicitor in the U.K. went up in flames of wrath when she saw the site, and started reeling off all the laws the organization was violating. Among other things, the U.K. has a reasonably robust law about accessibility to public accommodations, the Equality Act 2010, and a hotel like the Metropole would be insane not to abide by it.

My Googling says that websites are probably covered, too...

[faecat]

Only vaguely related, I guess -- when I was in London this summer, the Tube stations I was in seemed amazingly non-wheelchair friendly to me, and I was hearing horror stories about wheelchair users at the Paralympic Games having to bodily drag themselves out of their chairs and up or down the stairs because of the lack or inaccessibility of elevators. I was just floored.

[naath]

Yes, it's a big hotel/conf. venue; all the public/conference areas should be accessible and there should be accessible rooms to stay in; if that isn't true the Metropole is violating the law egregiously. WFC being confused about the accessibility of some of the conference space makes me think the concom are ... well, rather confused. (Doubtless many of the hotel rooms are not accessible, and you could reasonably say "we aren't sure if John Smith's room party is going to be in an accessible room, you'll have to ask Mr Smith to see if he booked one" I guess, but not the main conference facilities).