Hall is a dream for the disabled
Suppose, back on that historic day in 1955, that Rosa Parks had been ushered to the best seat on the bus. Now imagine how Miss Parks would've felt if she'd been given a hot towel, honey-roasted peanuts and a doting valet. History would've been radically different, and all it would've taken was a little respect, common courtesy and the firm conviction that all people are created equal.
If you are disabled or mobility-impaired, and especially if you use a wheelchair, entering Seattle's new performance palace, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, is like riding Rosa Parks' dream bus. Granted, racial prejudice and disability access are two entirely different issues, but they share symptoms of inequality, neglect, and discrimination. At McCaw Hall, like nowhere else in the Pacific Northwest, wheelchair users have been granted complete equality. It is an historic achievement, matching and exceeding the first-rate access of Benaroya Hall.
Access at McCaw is equally extensive for public patrons and McCaw personnel alike. Dressings room, technical-control rooms, ticket booths, backstage areas and cafeteria counters are all accessible, increasing opportunities for disabled employees.
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For the public, access to the hall couldn't be easier. The Mercer Street skybridge offers the most efficient route: Disabled parking has been relocated immediately adjacent to an elevator in the Mercer parking garage across the street, and the covered skybridge leads directly to McCaw's entry lobby. Ground-level access is similarly simple, using ramps from Mercer to the stunning Kreilsheimer Promenade, which now serves as an all-new, all-accessible gateway to Seattle Center's campus.
Fronted by a five-story wall of high-transparency glass, the Promenade is McCaw's aesthetic nexus. Once inside, disabled patrons will find abundant elevators and a similarly awesome set of seating options in the Susan Brotman Auditorium, which offers 30 different wheelchair-accessible locations, up to and including — this is a first — the best seats in the house.
At each of these 30 locations, seats normally used for able-bodied patrons can be easily removed to accommodate wheelchairs, walkers and anyone with impaired mobility. Front-row seating is available on the main orchestra level, and accessible seating can be found on virtually every level of the auditorium, from the "nosebleed" sections at the rear of the second tier (still an excellent option for those with tight budgets) to the exquisite views from the gallery, first tier and dress circle balcony.
On the sides of the auditorium, four boxes are fully wheelchair accessible — two on the first tier and two on the second.
Restrooms are abundant and, without exception, fully accessible. Essentially, what all of this adds up to is something truly rare and, in some respects, revolutionary. In McCaw Hall, at least, the tide has turned, and disabled citizens can enjoy genuine equality with their able-bodied neighbors.
Much of the credit for McCaw Hall's extensive accessibility goes to Stephanie Van Dyke and Jill Crary, the senior project managers responsible for enforcing accessibility codes established since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. Long before groundbreaking began at the site of the old Opera House, they consulted with Barbara Allen, a disabled ADA consultant from Easter Seals, and Charlene Curtiss, the region's best-known disabled performer and founder of Light Motion, a disability dance and movement group.
"We tried to go above and beyond the basic requirements of the ADA," said Van Dyke.
Van Dyke had another expert consultant close at hand: Her 15-year-old daughter uses a motorized wheelchair, and she accompanied her mom on several tours of McCaw Hall as construction proceeded, including a visit to the fully accessible catwalks beneath the performance stage.
At a recent press tour of McCaw Hall, Pacific Northwest Ballet director Kent Stowell stated "this hall represents the better part of human nature." In terms of equal treatment for all, he couldn't have said it better.
Seattle-based free-lance writer Jeff Shannon has been a C-5/6 level quadriplegic since 1979.