[Sca-cooks] Peers, Pressuring the BoD

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> As I said in a message I sent of a little bit ago this morning, I guess the
> idea of having them make a ruling that all SCA sites must be handicapped
> accessible, I was going too far.  Perhaps it should be more of a statement
> that there should be a reasonable attempt to make them so.  My only thought
> was that if it came from the BoD, it might have more of an impact.

I'm not idly arguing here, though I'm not arguing to defend my personal
experience either. This January, I realized at the end of an event which
we bill as handicapped accessible that there is not a single handicapped
accessible toilet on site. I was really, really embarrassed.

However, the site is the only one we've found that we can hold a
reasonable indoor tourney in (it's affordable and we don't have to put
down mats). We could rent a handicapped port-a-potty and put it outside,
but that would be very, very cold, not to mention we'd have to watch it
like hawks (it'd have to be down by the page fighting area, and we already
have problems at our summer events with things happening in the
portapotties.) It would also raise the cost of the event by about 75 cents
to $1 per person, and we've never had a person in a wheelchair try to
attend the event.

So, what are our options? Should we
a) not use the site anymore and quit having indoor tourney events in
January?
b) rent the port-a-potty?
c) ask people to contact us and rent the port-a-potty if we need it?
Which would be sufficient?

There's a church within a block that might have an accessible restroom.
Would contacting them and getting access be sufficient? What if we did
both?

I'm seriously asking here.  We're likely to make arrangements for people
in our local group (like diabetics or nut allergies, or people who can't
walk too much) but we aren't experienced in dealing with possible
wheelbound attendees.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."