handicap seating: part 2

i just wanted to follow up about my recent handicap seating post. i wrote it because i was having issues getting accessible seating for an event on new years eve. when no one returned our calls about handicap seats, we ended up just getting our tickets in an inaccessible area, which they told i could roll up right next to my seat and transfer over.  meaning, no carrying me or going up and down stairs. they said it would be level with my chair. unfortunately no one ever seems to know what's going on, or they lie so they can stop dealing with angry customers. either way, it's irritating. when we arrived, my sister ran to check out our seats to see how "accessible" it would be, and found out there was a huge cement step in the way, that we'd have to carefully squeeze around, not to mention we were high in the arena right on the ledge, where god forbid we slipped trying to get me into my seat. so apparently it was a potentially dangerous, or less dramatically, kind of scary to attempt..at least that's what my paranoid sister said (i didn't actually see the seats) but i really didn't want to deal with the fear or hassle.

so on we all went to our seats on the upper level, when we were racing down the empty path we came across a nice security guard who asked where our seats were. when we told him, he let us know it wasn't accessible and we told him i would just be picked up.  thankfully, he was the first person with a brain in his head and offered to switch our seats to accessible ones. it's always a shock when someone is helpful. we followed him down, sat in our new seats, looked around....and realized there wasn't a single wheelchair anywhere in near sight.  which means, every handicap seat was open. which means, all the fighting and arguing we did for handicap seats was for what?

if you remember from my last post, handicap seats cost more than the cheapest ticket in the arena, giving us no option but to pay more, like a fee for being handicapped. i was about to give in to paying a little extra for the accessible seats, but they would only sell us 2 seats, while we needed 4. i still don't think that is right or fair, but they refused to budge. i can't begin to express how angry i was to get there and find all of the handicap seats empty. they refused to sell 4 seats together because of "policy" yet they were empty. if i wasn't so damn excited and giddy about seeing the show like a little child, i would have exploded.

it's frustrating how helpless these people in the offices with their strict dumb policies make you feel. it's the ones who are there, can see what's going on and the way things really are who are helpful. i am so grateful for that man who helped us, and that we happened to bump into him at the right time. in conclusion, we ended up getting infinitely better seats and it was a blast. point for the handicapped!