Music Commission to continue push to improve venue accessibility

The Music Commission plans to continue its work in making music venues of all sizes more accessible to the disabled, following the positive results from a task force on that issue convened last year by the Circuit of the Americas.

At Monday’s meeting, commissioners discussed how they can interact with members of the Mayor’s Committee for People With Disabilities to push major event promoters – such as COTA and C3 Presents – and smaller venues to improve their accessibility.

The Music Commission became involved in the matter last year after Bruce Elfant, who is Travis County’s tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, brought to light the many difficulties he had at COTA while using crutches to attend a Rolling Stones concert in late 2021. The attention caused the racetrack and concert venue to assemble a task force of public and private disability advocates, as well as Music Commissioner Oren Rosenthal, who spent most of 2022 identifying the improvements COTA needed to make.

The changes were revealed last month and included creating better pathways throughout the 1,600 acres of property, taking steps before major events to identify hazards and potential disability concerns, rebuilding the website to be more accessible for those with impairments and offer more information about accessibility resources, pushing ticket vendors to notify staff of events with large numbers of accessible seats sold, identifying areas in grass lots that are most friendly for disabled parking and shuttle pickups, and expanding the disabled platform and other accessible areas for “super show” concerts that take place during large racing events.

Also on that task force was Diane Kearns-Osterweil, who recently concluded two terms on the city’s disability committee. She praised COTA’s changes, including the addition of adult changing tables for attendees like her son who has a mobility impairment.

“If there is no place to use the restroom, if you are someone with acute disabilities like my son, you don’t go out and you most certainly don’t go out to a venue that’s way out in East Austin like COTA if you have no place that is appropriate to use the restroom,” she said. “I would love for all the work you have done to expand across other venues, whether permanent or temporary like ACL Fest because it will make a huge difference making music events in Austin accessible.”

Kearns-Osterweil also brought up the issue of encountering a lack of accessible seating in lower-priced general admission sections of concert venues, with accessible seats in higher-priced areas making entertainment more expensive for those with disabilities.

“There is no equity with regard to buying tickets, and if I want to buy a $15 ticket it shouldn’t matter if I’m in a wheelchair or not,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to spend $100 because that’s where the accessible seats are.”

Chair Anne-Charlotte Patterson said the commissioners looking to improve venue accessibility should try to identify possible financial assistance for smaller venues that may not be able to afford capital improvements to their restrooms, entryways and other areas covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Rosenthal noted that task force members and COTA leaders including founder Bobby Epstein see the continuance of the COTA task force and the city commissions’ accessibility focus as an opportunity to burnish Austin’s reputation as a premier live music destination.

“I like the aspirational goal that we heard expressed by Bobby Epstein. They really get that by making COTA and their events completely inclusive for people of all abilities they are expanding their market and including everyone,” he said. “It’s actually a money-making idea and you can move all of the costs for the accommodations out of the expense column and into the investments column for things that do pay off.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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