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We strive to create an event that works for members in all our physical and mental variety. We must balance that goal against limited fiscal resources, the paradox that sometimes one member's accommodation is another member's barrier, and an entirely volunteer work force. We always welcome discussion exploring how we can better accommodate our members.
Often the most significant barriers are created by outdated assumptions and thoughtless behavior. Suggestions for how every member can contribute to an accessible con also appear in the Pocket Program Book.
These details are current as of April 2008. We attempt to answer common questions and be honest about known barriers. Please contact access32@wiscon.info for accommodation requests, questions or suggestions.
The weather both inside and out varies a lot. Bring layers to add in chilly program rooms, subtract in hot ones, and ensure you're comfortable in the wide range of weather Madison experiences over the Memorial Day weekend.
WisCon is an energetic, some say whacky, environment. Finding stimulation is easy: here are options for managing stress and sensory overload.
If you need quiet immediately, take an elevator to floors 7 through 11. The elevator lobbies there have comfortable chairs and usually no people.
We've created the Quiet Place for those of us who need a break during the con. It's a small dark room on the 2nd floor between conference 1 and 2, with room for up to six members, furnished with comfy chairs, padded benches, footstools and a toilet. It's a good place to catch your breath, listen to your heartbeat, ruminate, and contemplate. The Quiet Place works when we respect its boundaries: please, no talking within. If there's someone waiting for a space, yield yours after 30 minutes.
The calmest programming is the Readings track; sit back and listen to writers share their works. The Art Show on 2nd floor is a good place to stare off into the middle distance, contemplate the fascinating art in many media, and only talk if you want to. It's least crowded during programming blocks.
Avoiding claustrophobia requires time as well as space management. Nearly 1000 members move between floors 1, 2, and 6 every 75 minutes during the day. Some people find it easier to attend every other programming item, using the time between to rest up, eat, or check out the Dealer's Room and Art Show. However, the Dealer's Room and Art Show are packed during the handful of unprogrammed hours in the con. The Consuite is always crowded and the Tiptree Bake Sale is very busy. Both the Dessert Salon and Sign Out have definite start times, so long lines form beforehand. Let a Safety volunteer know if you need to be seated early to avoid standing for a long time in line. These lines are entirely optional. The Dessert Salon buffet is replenished throughout the salon, and the Sign Out lasts for 90 minutes.
Contact with the natural world is close at hand. Visit the pocket park at Wisconsin Avenue and W Dayton Street, right and across from the hotel's main door. A stroll around the Capitol Square is an excellent rejuvenator -- except during Farmer's Market 6 am to 2 pm Saturday. Feel free to stretch out on the Capitol's lawn. Lake Mendota is also nearby: walk away from the hotel and Capitol down Wisconsin Avenue, and you'll reach the Edgewater Hotel. To its right is a narrow dirt path that leads down to a boathouse that provides a nice view of the lake.
WisCon provides information in various formats. Our most important publication is the Pocket Program Book. In addition to regular print, the WisCon.info web site hosts PDF and HTML versions as soon as they become available, generally the week before the con. We are happy to provide large print or braille versions, but only if you contact us before April 15th at access32@wiscon.info. Accessible PDF files of the WisCon Souvenir Book are available on request.
We set aside blue stripe seats front and center in every program room, so use one if you're a speech-reader. Program participants use microphones in the larger program rooms.
If your diet requires you to pack in food, contact the Concourse Hotel 800-356-8293 now to arrange for a minifridge in your room.
The Tiptree Bake Sale is held Saturday afternoon on the sixth floor. All items are donated and recipes are up to the donor. Vegan and gluten-free items have been on offer in years past. Tree nuts and peanuts are present.
The Dessert Salon t 7:30 Sunday precedes the GoH speeches. WisCon controls the selection of delicacies. Major allergens are labeled and vegan and gluten free delights are on offer. You don't have to wait in line, since desserts are replenished throughout the event. Those of us with severe allergies to dessert ingredients -- peanuts, tree nuts, chocolate -- can watch the GoH speeches via video feed from a no-eating room.
The Consuite in room 638 is open Friday - Monday from 9 am to the wee hours, except during the Gathering, Opening Ceremonies, and GoH speeches. All its delights are free! Pantry lists are posted near the Reg Desk and next to the ConSuite. These foods have appeared in years past:
In addition, party leftovers and various donations find their way to the Consuite. Party hosts decide what (if any) foods are served at 6th floor parties.
The Concourse Hotel has three places to eat: The Bar serves light meals; the Dayton Street Café breakfasts and lunch are under $10, while Ovations' dinners are in the $20 to $30 range.
Madison chefs often accommodate vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free diners: see WisCon's own Restaurant Guide in your packet for details. The Vegetarian and Vegan Guide to Madison has details and strong opinions. The free weekly Isthmus' restaurant guide is searchable across many dimensions.
Save money by buying food: get local, fresh vegetables, meats, cheeses, and bakery at Saturday's Dane County Farmer's Market, circling the Capitol between 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. one block from the Concourse. Two nearby grocery stores offer delivery and can prepare party food. Capital Centre Market is just four blocks from the hotel at West Mifflin and Broom Street, phone 608-255-2616. A ten-minute drive or bus ride, Willy Street Coop at 1221 Williamson Street, phone 608-251-6776, offers local, organic, fair-trade and conventional food. Non-members pay a surcharge on the listed prices; member reciprocity is available for members of other co-ops with ID. They pay careful attention to food preparation and their deli has some of the best ready-to-eat food on the planet, including vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore options.
Madison is a smoke-free city. All indoor public places -- including bars -- are smoke-free. Smokers do tend to congregate around the doors to public buildings, as well as migrate to the many restaurants with sidewalk seating. Hotel door-smokers gather at the double-door parking ramp entrance on the Wisconsin Avenue side of the hotel, where there's cover from the rain, a bench, and an ashtray. The Concourse does have a handful of smoking-permitted sleeping rooms, on the east side of the 4th floor.
All the 6th floor party rooms are non-smoking.
Our "zoned" fragrance policy balances two needs. For some members, fragrances trigger asthma, migraine, or illness. Some members need to use fragrance to manage pain and mood. Please leave scented products at home if you can do so without detriment to your own health. The Gathering features perfume and spices; the Dealer's Room wares include incense and dusty books. The hotel uses scented cleaning products. Those of us who react strongly to fragrances, dust, and particulates should bring an N95 mask.
Pets are not allowed in the Concourse, although service animals are of course welcome.
Latex balloons decorate many common rooms. Those of us allergic to peanuts and tree nuts must avoid the Consuite, Dessert Salon, and Tiptree Bake Sale.
We provide a video feed of the GoH speeches for those of us with severe allergies.
Because Madison's central Isthmus runs northeast to southwest, compass references are quite confusing. Locals use a notional compass rose that's rotated 45 degrees clockwise, but right and left directions are-- we hope -- more comprehensible for visitors.
We'd be delighted to offer one-on-one guided tours Friday morning: please contact access32@wiscon.info now to set a time.
The Concourse numbers its rooms sequentially around the edges of the rectangle; all room numbers are provided in raised metal and braille. WisCon adds very large print room signs to simplify navigation for all members.
The key landmark is Registration. It's on the 2nd floor, right at the top of the grand staircase. From the elevators, turn right, go ahead 30 feet, turn right again and holler "Where's registration?" You get your member packet here, and then anything is possible. The Pocket Program contains a map, and Registration has a super-sized map and experts ready to help you chart your travels. They can show you how to use the Message Board, a low-tech system to communicate with anyone who has registered. The Restaurant Guide in your packet leads you by the tastebuds to more than 100 eateries within 10 blocks of the Hotel.
WisCon is a great place to meet face to face with your electronic friends. First floor landmarks are the base of the staircase (front and center when you enter the hotel) and the "living room" couches (off to the right, across from the Front Desk and before the elevators). The best second floor landmark is the top of the staircase.
The Concourse Hotel is a long rectangle occupying half a city block. Its front door is on West Dayton Street, which is one-way: two lanes of cars travel right to left, with a lane of parked cars on next to the sidewalk across the street. When you're inside facing out the front door to Dayton St, the hotel's right side is on Wisconsin Avenue (there's a traffic signal), and the left side is North Carroll St (which has a stop sign). Turn left out the front door, cross North Carroll Street and go one more block and you're on State Street. Another left and you're moving to the "top" of State, on the 100 block: beyond that is the magnificent State Capitol building. The University of Wisconsin campus starts at the other end of State Street.
Even if you usually do fine with canes or a walker, standing on concrete floors or going six blocks to a restaurant can be hard work when you're enjoying the con. We have loaner manual wheelchairs for your short-term use -- stop by Registration to pick one up.
The Concourse Hotel meets ADA guidelines. . Power door openers control the pair of glass doors at the Wisconsin Avenue end of the hotel (on your left when you're at the front door), where the parking ramp descends below the Concourse. (This is also the designated smoking spot). Watch out for the single step between the sidewalk and the concrete-cobblestone-entrance ramp. All interior doors have lever handles.
The public bathrooms on 1st and 2nd floor are generously proportioned: the big stalls have enough room and grab bars for a side to side transfer. (Wisconsin code, however, does not require a sink inside this stall.) The only public wheelchair-accessible bathroom that's large enough for an assisted transfer is inside the pool room on 3rd floor, which requires a hotel key to enter.
We mark several wheelchair seating areas in every program room with blue tape, so you can stay in your wheelchair or scooter if you prefer. If an Art Show item is above your eye level, don't hesitate to ask the Art Show volunteer to bring it closer to view.
There are three rapid elevators available to all; their control panels are within seated reach and the mechanical buttons don't require a human finger. These elevators are 80 inches wide but only 47 inches deep. The central double doors open to 42 inches. Navigators of longer mobility devices may need to angle in to a corner to fit. The doors close fast! Just holler "hold that elevator" and congoers will rush to comply.
We remind all members to use the stairs when that's possible, and to yield elevator space to those of us who must use the elevators to move around the con. Speak up if you need to use the elevator, especially if you don't use a visible mobility aid (like a cane, walker, or wheelchair).
Assembly and Caucus Rooms on Floor 1.5 These two programming rooms are half-a-floor higher than the rest of the 1st floor. To reach these rooms, allow yourself an extra four minutes to ride the very slow short-distance platform elevator. Enter the elevator backwards so you can firmly pull the door shut behind you to engage the motor. The call button on the outside and the car up/down button inside both require constant pressure. Unfortunately the exterior door next to Assembly has steps outside, so you can't just zip out the front door and around the corner.
Avoiding the Lines at Dessert Salon & Sign-out: Some people enjoy waiting in line on Sunday afternoon for the Dessert Salon to open, and Monday morning for the Sign-out to begin. This is not mandatory -- neither event is based on scarcity. The dessert table is constantly refilled throughout the Salon; the Sign-out lasts 90 minutes. The tables for the dessert salon are closely packed: contact a Safety Volunteer to get seated before the doors open.
Long-term, free accessible parking is provided in the City of Madison ramp catty-corner from the Concourse -- you can leave your vehicle for the entire con. Almost every block that has any parking has one accessible stall. However, some of these stalls have three-hour limits even for disabled-permit holders. Downtown Madison is thoroughly curb ramped, and downtown there are barely a dozen public places lacking a level entrance.
The Concourse has three sleeping rooms with roll-in showers, as well as more rooms that are suitable for folks who can briefly stand. These rooms are on one side of the 4th floor; the other end of this floor contains the handful of smoking-permitted sleeping rooms, the only place in the hotel where smoking is allowed.
The smallish Concourse Hotel pool is on the third floor, with a 4-6 person hot whirlpool in one corner. The pool room is all on one level, but you may need a hand with the heavy door. There are lockers, a changing room, and many towels. The deep end is 5', and has a steel entry ladder. The shallow end is 2'6" with a shallow staircase of four 9" risers and 18" treads, with steel handrails on both sides. One could possibly use it as a transfer stair, although it's not designed for that purpose.
Given our fiscal limitations, our commitment to our current conference venue, and the reality that sometimes one member's accommodation is another member's barrier, we can't make WisCon perfectly accessible to everyone. We don't want to make promises we can't keep. We want you to know about these potential barriers so you can make informed decisions. "No" is not the same message as "we don't care" or "we don't believe you" or "we're comfortable ignoring your needs." The Concom has and will continue to wrestle with these issues. Contact access32@wiscon.info for background on these remaining barriers:
We all learn contradictory messages about people with disabilities. Disabled people are the archetypal "other": the fate-worse-than-death, the sainted and spiritual, the cursed and amoral, the sub-human, the super-human, the sexless and the over-sexed. These conflicting stereotypes support a weird stew of fear and fascination. All members create a universally accessible con by paying attention to our own behavior and attitudes.
Beneficial behaviors
Elevators - convenience vs. necessity. If you can use the stairways to move between program floors, please do! If you can only travel down, that still makes an important difference. Some of us absolutely depend on the elevators just to access the con. The reason might not be visible (arthritic knees or limited breathing); or might be obvious (wheelchair or canes) -- but the need is still there.
Maintain clear paths. WisCon provides fantastic opportunities to talk, but clogged doorways and hallways make navigation time-consuming for all, and impossible for people with disabilities. Crossing a packed hallway is daunting when one has to individually ask 40 people to move. So, tuck your belongings in front of your feet or under your seat. Remind members gathered in doorways or hallways of the need to share the limited space so all of us can move freely.
Respect Blue Zones: The blue squares in program rooms mark wheelchair parking. If you move an extra chair into the zone, remove it when you leave. The blue striped chairs up front are for people who need to be close to hear or see: use them if your body needs them.
Share the air: or those of us with asthma, migraine, and chemical sensitivities, fewer fragrances, vapors, and particulates make the con a place we can attend. We ask members to minimize fragrance when it's not deleterious to your own health. Some of us smoke, and some of us don't. The hotel is completely non-smoking, and we ask that you use the Concourse's dedicated smoking area at the parking ramp entrance. WisCon is not, however, a fragrance-free con. Our "zoned fragrance" policy balances various realities: more details at Breathing.
Speak up! You don't need to have a disability to advocate for access. If you see barriers, feel free to suggest how to clear them -- whether this means talking respectfully to other members, alerting Safety or contacting a Concom member.
Adjusting Attitudes
Offer help -- don't assume it's needed. While most kids are taught to "help the handicapped," this truism hides unpleasant realities. Those of us with disabilities spend a lot of energy managing other people's need to help. The question, "Can I help?" is about the helper's need to perform. Instead, "Do you need a hand?" allows people with disabilities to determine what we might need. When we say, "Yes," listen to the details -- we're experts at directing helpers. Please don't be offended when we say, "No, thanks." Our ways of doing things may be idiosyncratic, may look difficult, but they work for us. Let us decide whether you doing it "easier" or "faster" is worth ceding autonomy.
Don't assume we want to be fixed. Members with disabilities are here for the same reasons non-disabled members are: SF, feminism, politics, chocolate. These are much better conversation starters than "my nephew cured his fibromyalgia with a yak-milk diet" or "Don't they have a wonderful new medicine for that?" or "Why take drugs when you just need a positive mental attitude and yoga?"