Syndicate
Thank you for visiting Arisia's site!
Access Services
Arisia is committed to being a diverse and inclusive event which attempts to provide accommodation for people with disabilities to whatever extent we can.
If you need a particular type of hotel room or need a fridge in your room, please make a normal hotel reservation, and then contact innkeeper@arisia.org and let them know what you need.
We will have Braille and large print versions of our Program Book (schedule). If you'd like one, please visit the Info Desk in the hotel lobby.
The parking garage has disabled parking spaces. To get from the garage to the hotel, you'll need to take the elevator down to the ground floor.
If you have any questions about accessibility or would like to request some sort of accommodation, send an email message to: access@arisia.org. We'll try our best to accommodate your disability.
Update: December 14, 2009
The Tactile Tour of the Art Show has been moved to Saturday, 12 - 1 p.m.
Additional Access Services for to Arisia '10
Added: December 2, 2009
1. People with disabilities attending Arisia who wish to bring a physical assistant may request a ribbon which will allow the assistant to go anywhere the attendee goes. If the physical assistant never leaves the side of the person with the paid membership that they're assisting, they can get a free "adult-in-tow" membership, otherwise if they wish to occasionally explore the convention on their own, they must get a paid membership
2. Arisia '10 will be offering an accessible tour of the Art Show on Saturday, 12 - 1 p.m. There will be a tour guide providing description and an opportunity to touch some of the art. Arisia will provide cotton gloves for anyone attending this event.
Thank you to the many artists who graciously agreed to participate in this event!
3. The New England Folk Festival has offered Arisia the loan of two hearing-assistance transmitter/receiver sets, which will be made available to attendees on a first come, first served basis.
However, if people have their own FM receivers, they can bring those and they'll be able to pick up the transmission.
We are working on a list of panels and GOH events at which these transmitters might be of the most use, but if attendees have specific requests, please feel free to send them to access@arisia.org and we will do our best to make it happen.
Once we have a tentative program online, we will link to it from here.
Note: the transmitters can only be set up in rooms with augmented sound (microphones, amplification, etc.). This means that likely rooms wired for transmission will be the Presidents Ballroom and the Programming rooms that host Anime, Video, and Films at night.
More details from --Mike Bergman, NEFFA Sound Committee Chair:
These are short-range, low-power (legal) FM transmitters that broadcast in the commercial band. So they can be picked up with any walkman-style FM radio that's tuned to the correct frequency. They are NOT commercial Assisted Listening Devices (ALDs), and they have a very limited range -- generally speaking, one large room up to about 150 feet on a side (if the transmitter is in the center)(which is about the same range as the Conversor and probably all systems that don't require licenses). Whether they can be used with a hearing aid or not depends on the radio receiver and its headphones/earbuds/whatnot.
4. The hotel typically has one or two folding wheelchairs which can be made available to convention attendees. In the past, these wheelchairs have been lent out early in the con. If you would like to reserve the use of one of these wheelchairs, contact innkeeper@arisia.org.