Music Fans With Disabilities Are Still Fighting Venues For Equal Access

DENVER — Kirstin Kurlander Garcia loves going to concerts, from Planet Bluegrass shows in Lyons to Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. She’s also a big sports fan, and has seen games at Ball Arena, where her beloved Colorado Mammoth play lacrosse.

But as a deaf person, she often has to fight for basic information. At the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest at Planet Bluegrass in 2019, for example, it took 20 minutes “and the intervention of a band member’s wife” to tape off an area where an American Sign Language interpreter could be seen. At Ball Arena, there was no way for her to learn about penalties or injuries on the stadium’s screens.

“We pay the same price (as everyone else) and should be able to enjoy the entire event,” Garcia said. As for concerts, she explained that more deaf people attend than you might expect. Not being able to hear music doesn’t preclude someone from feeling the vibrations, having a social experience with friends or family, or cheering and dancing along with thousands of other fans.

As is often the case, it fell to Garcia and other disability-rights advocates to force the issue. She contacted Disability Law United, a Denver nonprofit legal organization, to push Ball Arena to add LED open-captions, as they’re called, or standard subtitles. It eventually did. Garcia and others also fought for Red Rocks Amphitheatre to add more seating for people with disabilities and better parking (it eventually did), and got Planet Bluegrass to explore on-stage interpreters.

Despite the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which prohibits discrimination based on disabilities and sets standards for public accessibility, music venues in particular have been slow to respond. Red Rocks, for example, has been hit with three lawsuits related to accessibility over the last decade, while disability rights advocates had to pressure the owners of Ball Arena and Empower Field — which both host big shows in addition to sports — to add subtitles to the big screens.

But things are improving slowly, said Emily Shuman, director of the Rocky Mountain ADA Center, which provides guidance and training to organizations for ADA compliance. More arts and culture purveyors are stepping up to see what they can do, and she’s lately been showing them how technology can assist in accessibility.

That includes assistive listening systems — such as hearing loops, which transmit sound directly to hearing aids equipped with telecoils, reducing background noise and enhancing clarity — as well as live captioning, wayfinding apps for accessible seats, online tools for ADA reservations, touchscreens and Braille displays, and adjustable-text websites with easy-to-see color contrasts.

Some newer venues such as Mission Ballroom and Levitt Pavilion, as well as the organizers of July’s sprawling Underground Music Showcase, are also finally doing right by people with disabilities, advocates said, with accessibility guides and options for patrons with disabilities that go beyond the average venue.

Still, most venues only meet ADA compliance because they’re forced to, activists said. About 27% of U.S. adults, or 70 million people, have a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC defines a disability as any condition that makes it more difficult to do certain activities, from vision, hearing and movement issues to memory and mental health.

Last year, 4,605 ADA lawsuits were filed nationwide — a stunning 42% increase from the previous year, according to a report from ADA Site Compliance.

“It’s amazing to me that the ADA has been around so long, and yet so many (business owners) still aren’t aware of it,” Garcia said. “It’s a constant battle to ask venues to set aside disabled seating, or have an on-stage interpreter, or really anything (disability-related).”

No excuses

Training is important, Shuman said, since even businesses with good intentions can create obstacles. That means accidentally blocking an ADA bathroom stall with a trash can, but also not training staff on disability etiquette, or the best interior routes for people with disabilities.

“I tend to avoid venues where there’s no seating and all standing,” said Gene Drumm, 76, who has a heart condition brought on by strenuous activity. He’s been attending concerts at Red Rocks for 40 years, but stopped going after he got tired of “hassling” staffers for assistance and information on easy routes to his seat — or any accessible seating at all.

“It was actually painful to deal with the stairs and slopes, and getting in and out in general,” said Drumm, who named Lyle Lovett and Van Morrison among his favorite Red Rocks shows. “And it’s too bad because I loved going. But I have no desire to put up with that anymore.”

There have been recent improvements at Red Rocks, such as an accessible shuttle that runs on a continuous loop during shows from the Upper South Lot to a drop-off point approximately 275 feet from Row 1, according to city staffers.

But it was too late for Drumm. He said he could understand if Red Rocks were a private business, but as a city-owned venue he saw no excuse. In 2022, Denver paid $48,000 to settle discrimination claims that Red Rocks charged more for accessible seating — an average of $130 per seat — than regular seats (promoters Live Nation, AEG and PBS12 also settled). The move recalled a 2016 class-action lawsuit that claimed concertgoers who use wheelchairs were restricted to “all but the most distant seats.”

That was followed by a 2017 lawsuit against the city to force ticket resellers to stop controlling the accessible seats at Red Rocks (also settled).

Earlier this year, however, Denver Arts & Venues, the city agency that runs Red Rocks, touted some improvements. Slopes in parking lots and along ramps have been adjusted to increase accessibility and comply with the ADA, said venue manager Tad Bowman. New parking spots were also added on the south side for those with disabilities, and some bathrooms were updated.

“We’ve heard from fans about not having places to use a restroom while standing in line, but also about keeping the top-circle lot as accessible parking for shows,” he told The Denver Post in February. “This has all been designed to meet ADA requirements.”

Alison Butler, who helped push for the Red Rocks changes and is now Denver’s Division of Disability Rights director, echoed Drumm, saying there is no excuse for taking decades to comply.

“The ADA is almost 34 years old, so it gets difficult to sympathize with businesses who say, ‘How can I possibly do that?’” Butler said. “I fully understand that operating a business is difficult and that there are lots of rules you have to learn and follow.

“The ADA is one of them,” she continued. “So it’s like saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to pay my workers? I have to pay taxes?’ It should just be the cost of doing business.”

The ADA is supposed to be self-enforcing

However, venue owners — particularly at historic and independent clubs — have said there are only so many pricey, time-consuming upgrades that can be done before they go out of business.

Even venues with progressive politics struggle with compliance. When Skylark Lounge manager Bob Ashby applied for a permit to voluntarily install a platform lift in the back of his indie venue’s staircase, he was turned down by the fire department, which said it would narrow the stairway too much. His only other option was to build an exterior elevator shaft, which was quoted by contractors at $100,000.

“It’s a totally prohibitive cost and I’d have to borrow a ton of money,” said Ashby, whose friend, Denver-based rocker Nathaniel Rateliff, co-owns the venue. “It’s just not a sustainable thing to do, but it was a real heartbreaker because we had totally planned on making the upstairs accessible.”

The lack of an elevator still prevents people with physical disabilities from heading upstairs, something that rankles Kalyn Heffernan, a musician, artist and disability advocate who uses a power wheelchair. This year she put together the 24-year-old Underground Music Showcase’s first-ever accessibility guide.

To do it, she and consultant Jessica Wallach audited venues on their disability access, though she said they weren’t trying to shame anyone or force compliance. They were simply providing information for people with disabilities so they’d know what to expect.

The Skylark hosted one of the stages for the July 26-28 fest, which took place along a mile-long stretch of South Broadway. An accessibility team was stationed at The Youth on Record tent near the Showcase Stage, and roamed throughout the festival footprint, Heffernan said, with signs identifying them as such. Heffernan did not judge the character of the 12 venues and four outdoor stages or assign blame, she said, but rather assessed them as straightforwardly as possible.

Heffernan understands that Denver doesn’t provide resources to upgrade venues, and that accessibility is often a negotiation, not an objective state of being.

“If you’re building a playground, I don’t want you to cut out the monkey bars just because I can’t use them,” she said. “I don’t want to take that away from kids, and maybe not everything is perfectly accessible, or equitable to make it that way.”

This year, the UMS website and app offered standard and large-print versions of the guide, rating indoor and outdoor spaces for their ground slopes, proximity to accessible bathrooms, air circulation and views of the stage. It’s helping set a standard for other festivals to follow, she said, although there is still a need for on-stage interpreters and low-sensory areas for people to decompress.

Business operators have some protection in not upgrading. The ADA isn’t enforceable in the traditional sense, Butler said, and buildings constructed before 1992 can be excepted from certain upgrades — even when they’re renovating or building new spaces.

There’s no database that tracks local compliance, either, which puts the onus on people with disabilities and legal entities to pressure venues into paying attention.

“The ADA is supposed to be self-enforcing in a sense,” said Shuman. “The Department of Justice has authority to enforce it, but there’s no ADA police, and buildings are not inspected for that.”

A glimmer of hope

A few forward-thinking venues such as Ruby Hill Park’s Levitt Pavilion have started going beyond basic requirements by spending tens of thousands of dollars on ADA upgrades — no lawsuits needed, Heffernan pointed out.

Levitt’s project, completed in 2023, included the installation of a level concrete dance floor and an ADA-accessible path connecting it to the main plaza. The venue now has a safer and more durable surface for all audiences, and ADA-accessible areas up front and farther back, said executive director Meghan McNamara. There is also sensory accessibility ASL interpretation during concerts and events.

Drumm, meanwhile, praised the Buell Theatre and other Denver Center for the Performing Arts venues, as well as Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre for their accessibility options. Large venues are quicker to upgrade, he’s noticed, given their resources and scale.

“I think it’s incumbent upon artists and music festival promoters to say, ‘We’re not going to go there,’” the city’s Butler said. “Ultimately, (businesses) will find a way. We’ve made historic buildings accessible, but only if there’s massive pressure. They’ll say, ‘We can’t do it. It’s going to cost $50,000 … ‘ Well, you just lost two major concerts, and that’s $50,000!”

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