1.
One visit to Pine Knob after a week in Toronto provided a stark contrast in accessibility between the two countries.
The only “sight-seeing” place we went in Toronto that felt hostile to people with disabilities was Casa Loma, and even it has a page about its accessibility access. Ripley’s Aquarium had two sensory tents, which, while small (two people, max), were placed after high-sensory-impact areas. I sat in one and genuinely felt more relaxed afterwards. The subway cars have priority seating, which the riders respected more often than not. Ramps and elevators are widely available most places we went, although there were a few places on the subway where the elevators and escalators were either broken or missing. Yes, there are Mark of Gideon numbers of people most places downtown (the population has doubled since we went there last, decades ago), but there’s little the government can do about that.
It’s also been decades since we went to Pine Knob, and little has changed for the better. If you’re in a wheelchair, you’re sitting in the rain-risking back of the pavilion. The men’s bathrooms to either side of the pavilion are at the bottom of a long flight of stairs. We saw two wheelchair users after the show pushed to the West Entrance by Pine Knob escorts, who then had the users walk down a flight of steep stairs. The East Entrance has non-step access, so why didn’t the escorts take them there? 
(I’m not saying there’s not a valid story there, but….) And the general population parking is an absolute nightmare of hills (sure, if you have a proper tag, there’s paved parking, but if you don’t, you either pay extra for the paved lot or hope you get there before it fills up).
Also: We followed one of the wheelchair users and their escort after the show along the boardwalk. We weren’t following them deliberately, that was just the flow of the crowd. But what was *AMAZING* was the number of people who were just flat-out pushing in front of them and making it difficult for the escort to keep up with the rest of the user’s family, who asked multiple times for other people to be mindful.
July is Disability Pride Month, and this experience (*HARDLY UNIQUE TO PINE KNOB*) emphasizes why we, as a country and a culture, have a LOT of work to do.
2.
Accessibility is not and should not be limited to wheelchair users. I mentioned the sensory tents in Ripley’s Aquarium, which, while small and unmonitored and really making a tiny dent in the sensory overwhelm that the rest of the aquarium is, are better than nothing.
But accessibility to wheelchair users and other people with mobility issues is often the most visible and blatant thing to review. If a site can’t do something about THOSE, then what hope does any other sort of accessibility measures have?
Pine Knob, for instance, has three huge monitors. Last night, two (left and right) were showing a camera feed of the stage, while the center one was showing footage provided by the band. Okay, great, but with that level of technology, they could also provide something for hearing-impaired guests. As far as I know… nope. There certainly wasn’t a signer on stage. (Their website says that people needing interpreters need to make that request at least a month before the concert.)
The sides of the pavilion have what appear to be sound-absorption panels. It seems like they understand the concept and could easily built a sensory room, but… I didn’t see one. Their website mentions access to quieter spaces, but that’s not the same thing as an explicit sensory room. And (apparently new this year) they offer sensory bags, which they’ll trade you for a driver’s license or credit card. What’s in a sensory bag? See the image (only two of these items cost more than a dollar). Better than nothing. Sure. Okay. (Those are basically the items provided, for free, in the Ripley’s sensory tents. I’ll agree it’s better to have a personal set, and I would hope the headphones are sanitized after they’re returned, because if not, I ain’t using them.) And their bag policy makes it difficult for people to bring in personal security items discreetly, so if you’re wearing noise-cancelling headphones, you’re most likely wearing them through the gate.
Pine Knob is not exceptional in any of this: This is par for the course in the country, and if anything, Pine Knob is “better than most”. We need to do much better.
