Marco and the AbleGamers E3 wrap up

E3 is not an event that is easily described to someone who has never been.  When you picture E3, you think it’s all fun and games but not exactly.  Besides having some of the world’s latest and greatest games at your fingertips, there are wall to wall people, security, public relations representatives and giant eye-catching booths and backdrops.  I can’t say that I’ve seen so many bright lights outside of Las Vegas.

E3, on the floor, is quite physically accessible.  There are ramps, elevators, disabled washrooms and plenty of event and security staff that are more than accommodating in helping you with whatever you need.  As a matter of fact, everyone including the exhibitors is quite accommodating for people with disabilities.   I don’t recall seeing any Braille on any of the signage or any accommodations for persons with hearing impairments.  The briefings were not closed captioned nor did I see anyone handing out FM systems or anywhere that one might get such a device.

The one major issue I had in accessibility was the thickness in the carpets.  My girlfriend needed to push me every time we visited a booth as the carpet doubled in thickness from the main walkways to the booth areas.  You should know, I’m not usually someone who lets people push me around.  In that regard, the sheer number of people made navigating the floor very difficult, though people were obliging in getting out of the way.

Being a media representative with a disability is extremely difficult and would be nearly impossible without an attendant simply because of the amount of things to hold and do.  I had, at all times, a SLR camera, a digital voice recorder, a laptop and my flip cam video camera and I simply did not have enough hands to work everything and still push my way around.

My greatest difficulty, one shared by all media representatives is the limited access of wifi.  There is one area in the entire conference that has wifi access and it is in the West Hall section which is down a long corridor that is very far from both the main site (South Hall) and the secondary site (West Hall).  My girlfriend actually ran from South Hall to the media room and back to see how feasible it was, and it took her 20 minutes round trip navigating through the throngs of people.

On the surface, the folks who set up the floorplan and logistics for E3 have done the best they can from the standpoint of a person without a disability preparing for those who may have a disability.  In reality, it is very difficult to navigate or to explore all of your favorite exhibits.  The majority of PR representatives who met me did their best to accommodate to my specific needs; so, I can say they at least tried.

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0 #3 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Marco and the AbleGamers E3 wrap up — knight666 2011-06-11 13:07

you did a great job.:cry:

 

 

0 #2 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Marco and the AbleGamers E3 wrap up — Mr. Pasqua 2011-06-11 11:32

Thank you very much rrreeefff but I couldn't have done it without the help of my fellow writers, my girlfriend and of course Steve Spohn (Editor-in-Chie f) and Mark Barlet (President and CEO) it was definitely a group effort. Glad you enjoyed it and know that there's more to come soon.

 

 

0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Marco and the AbleGamers E3 wrap up — rrreeefff 2011-06-11 11:14

You did such an amazing job covering E3. thanks for sharing!

 

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