Tracking Accessibility Requests

Justin,

What we do is a system developed over trial and error over years, but it seems to work pretty well.  It took a long time to get to this point and there were plenty of ups and down to it, but I will try to outline where we are now and how it tends to work.

• Firstly, for identifying patrons with disability needs in general, we have an ADA Constituency we apply to their account.  Since constituencies have start/end dates, these can either be open ended (e.g. for someone who is blind and has an animal who will always attend with them) or closed (e.g. for someone who is using a wheelchair due to broken legs).  For the closed ones, the date is usually simply applied as the day after the day of their performance.
• Secondly, since a constituency is simply a marker on the account with dates, a research note of a specific ADA type is added to the account.  This is where the specifics as to what accommodations are necessary are outlined.  Have a large scooter and need additional seats removed, seeing eye dog, can sit in any chair but needs assistance getting to/from, etc...  That way, anyone who looks at the account sees the ADA constituency and then goes to look at the note to see exactly what the situation is, and thus the Box Office can assist in seating requests when taking orders easily.
• Lastly then, for performances, as background, from almost the beginning, the Box Office has always provided what we call a "Show Sheet" for the Front of House staff.  This has many things on it like closed sections, ticket counts, start/intermission times, etc...  We then got the idea to simply put a place at the bottom for ADA needs.  This "Show Sheet" used to be a Word Template that the Box Office Supervisor for the evening would fill out.  They would run a list of ADA constituencies who had tickets for that evening's shows, look at the accounts, see what was needed and add the requisite information to the Show Sheet so that FOH staff could make the necessary adjustments in the hall/let the ushers know/etc...
  • This Show Sheet has since been turned into a simple custom report by me that they can just pull and print out, but the infrastructure there is all based on the above.

Not sure what in there might help anyone else, but this is our sort of "system", and it has worked well for us.

John A. Moskal II

Justin,

What we do is a system developed over trial and error over years, but it seems to work pretty well.  It took a long time to get to this point and there were plenty of ups and down to it, but I will try to outline where we are now and how it tends to work.

• Firstly, for identifying patrons with disability needs in general, we have an ADA Constituency we apply to their account.  Since constituencies have start/end dates, these can either be open ended (e.g. for someone who is blind and has an animal who will always attend with them) or closed (e.g. for someone who is using a wheelchair due to broken legs).  For the closed ones, the date is usually simply applied as the day after the day of their performance.
• Secondly, since a constituency is simply a marker on the account with dates, a research note of a specific ADA type is added to the account.  This is where the specifics as to what accommodations are necessary are outlined.  Have a large scooter and need additional seats removed, seeing eye dog, can sit in any chair but needs assistance getting to/from, etc...  That way, anyone who looks at the account sees the ADA constituency and then goes to look at the note to see exactly what the situation is, and thus the Box Office can assist in seating requests when taking orders easily.
• Lastly then, for performances, as background, from almost the beginning, the Box Office has always provided what we call a "Show Sheet" for the Front of House staff.  This has many things on it like closed sections, ticket counts, start/intermission times, etc...  We then got the idea to simply put a place at the bottom for ADA needs.  This "Show Sheet" used to be a Word Template that the Box Office Supervisor for the evening would fill out.  They would run a list of ADA constituencies who had tickets for that evening's shows, look at the accounts, see what was needed and add the requisite information to the Show Sheet so that FOH staff could make the necessary adjustments in the hall/let the ushers know/etc...
  • This Show Sheet has since been turned into a simple custom report by me that they can just pull and print out, but the infrastructure there is all based on the above.

Not sure what in there might help anyone else, but this is our sort of "system", and it has worked well for us.

John A. Moskal II