State Fair Accessibility
By NW ADA Center and Rindi White, Anchorage Daily News
State Fairs offer a glimpse into our past, a time when the summer celebration brought people together. Unless, of course, someone had a disability, in which case much of the fair was inaccessible. Today many state fairs still offer pre-1990, pre-ADA levels of accessibility, but not Alaska.
Alaska? Indeed, two years of work with the Fair Staff and vendors by David Barton, Northwest ADA Center’s Alaska affiliate and his parent organization Access Alaska, and a number of concerned citizens with disabilities, has put substance and teeth into accessibility requirements. The summer gathering in Palmer brings not only a lot of people, 295,530 in 2008, and world record 127 lb cabbages, but an increased focus on making the State Fair accessible to people with disabilities.
Barton says that compliance boils down to trying to provide the greatest number of people the greatest amount of access. He and his colleagues from Access Alaska initially met with vendors in the fall of 2008 and began talking about making their booths more accessible. Vendor and Exhibit Manager Pamella Meekin said that accessibility has been a requirement for fair vendors for a long time – it’s been in the vendor handbook for 10 years, she said. But few vendors paid attention and fair organizers never enforced their rules.
Barton and his colleagues at Access Alaska met with Meekin throughout the year and helped draft letters offering suggestions for ramps and reminding vendors of accessibility laws. Meekin said fair organizers hoped to get vendors to come into compliance without resorting to enforcement, but the new emphasis on accessibility this year comes with a threat: fix it by 2010 or don’t come back in 2011.
Today the vendor information for the 2010 fair includes the podcast, “Rampin’ up access to fair booths” with Carpenter Chuck - http://cast.pod-alaskastatefair.org/2009/09/02/rampin-up-access-to-fair-booths.aspx - that features the creation of short ramp from a cedar log, complete with chain-sawed access symbol. Other illustrations offer practice advice for creating safe ramps and turnaround areas, service shelves and counters, and handrails. All examples are drawn from vendor booths at the fairgrounds. The podcast helps vendors realize that creating access is not all that difficult, and will bring in more business.
New orientation materials for vendors include the “Vendor Booth ADA Accessibility Checklist” - http://www.alaskastatefair.org/EXHIBITOR HANDBOOK Accessibility PolicyChecklist Handout FINAL.pdf - created specifically to help them create more accessible services. For example, vendors may not even be aware that protruding and hanging objects can be dangerous for a fair patron who is blind, and need to be well above head level. Vendors can be unaware of the concept of “equivalent facilitation” when it is technically infeasible to provide the accommodation, and the checklist offers suggestions to help vendors think through access issues to their booth.
- Has the staff received special instructions or training for providing access to patrons who have disabilities, particularly if assistance is requested in acquiring your goods or services?
- When in operation, is there an effective way to communicate with patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing?
- Always consider the full experience of your display from all perspectives, such as sitting, standing, or without sight or hearing.
- Vendor Checklist, Alaska State Fair
In March, Barton will present information about the State Fair to the Alaska Fair Association, representing other fairs in the state. He believes that the changes made at the State Fair will be incorporated by other fairs. “Our work may have a snowballing effect,” he quips.
Prior to the opening of the 2010 State Fair next summer, David Barton and Access Alaska staff will on site, giving presentations and helpful information to vendors, in hopes of providing a summer celebration that brings everyone together.