#lbce2019

As some of you know, I am disabled - I have fibromyalgia and am dependent on a cane when attending cons. At Long Beach Comic Con 2018 last year, convention staff made several decisions that made it very difficult for disabled attendees like myself to get around.

Probably the biggest choice they made was to actively close off one of the main convention center elevators, taping over the buttons and actively roping off the door. The elevator was functional - neither con staff nor security could explain why it had been closed. Con staff blamed the Long Beach Convention Center staff for the decision, while the convention center told me that it was a decision Long Beach Comic Con had made.

They also made people exit the con by going down one flight of stairs, through the panel hall rooms, and up another flight of stairs, as opposed to simply walking out a door that was right there leading out onto the street. @mandyquesadilla had to argue with a member of staff in order to get me out of the convention center without making me struggle with two flights of stairs.

This is particularly hilarious because I was there to participate in a panel on invisible illness and disability - a panel that the target audience couldn’t reach because the main elevator had been shut down.

When I posted about this publicly, both on Twitter and on Facebook, I was contacted via Facebook by Martha Donato - President of MAD Event Management who handle both Long Beach Comic Con and Long Beach Comic Expo. I got what appeared to be a boilerplate apology designed to placate me and make me feel better. When I asked whether a public apology would be offered to the hundreds of disabled attendees who attended the con and had issues getting in and out of the event, and whether the con would be making a public commitment to improved disabled access to their events, I got no response. I know the message was seen. But they chose to ignore my questions, and they’ve ignored me every time since that I’ve reached out.

(For those wondering: I did file an ADA complaint, but I got a letter back from the DoJ telling me that they can’t investigate every complaint because they don’t have the resources, and they wouldn’t be looking into this one.)

Over the weekend I noticed that the Long Beach Comic Con Twitter account had changed to promote Long Beach Comic Expo, but rather than just change the name they also changed the handle - @LBComicCon had become @LBComicExpo. I wondered whether they’d set up a placeholder account to preserve the old name for when they want to start promoting Long Beach Comic Con again.

They hadn’t. So, naturally, I snapped it up. Mandy noticed they’d done the same with their Instagram account, so we snagged that one too.

We’re using the accounts to call attention to Long Beach Comic Con’s active disinterest in serving their disabled attendees. We’re calling on Long Beach Comic Con, Long Beach Comic Expo, and MAD Event Management to publicly commit to improved disability access. Once they do that, we will happily hand over the keys to these accounts.

Their response to discovering these accounts exist was to block us on social media.