Madison Square Garden - is it accessible or just a facade?

I was recently in New York City and had the opportunity to go to Madison Square Garden on two occasions. Considering that I use a mobility device, and am also autistic, this provided a good opportunity to see how accessible it really was.

As a disability advocate, and of course, a disabled person, I use every opportunity when I visit a new event space or venue to experience first-hand just how accessible it is. Not only do I actively use accessibility services myself, but as an advocate I think it is important for me to be aware of accessibility and inclusion for disabled people in public spaces, and to also share my knowledge and experiences. Accessibility is slowly but surely becoming better over time, but until events and public spaces are fully accessible, these spaces are still excluding a large portion of the disabled community.

I am going to share my personal thoughts and experiences from my time at Madison Square Garden. For context, I am an autistic individual with ADHD. I am also living with ME/CFS, a chronic illness that leaves me with high levels of fatigue and I use a walker to help manage this fatigue.

Entering into Madison Square Garden was easy for me. As soon as employees saw my walker, they offered wheelchair-accessible routes into the stadium for me and my companion. Employees were polite and helpful, and we were able to enter the stadium without having to wait in queues or climb stairs.

Upon entering the inside of Madison Square Garden, I found that they had a specific stall that was especially for disability needs. This was clear to find (I found it unintentionally) and staffed by multiple people. I asked at this stall for a sensory bag as I noticed that they had posters promoting them. The sensory bag (pictured below) included ear defenders, a tangle fidget toy, a squishy ball fidget toy and a piece of card that had an emotions chart on one side and a needs chart on the other.

My thoughts on this are mixed. The ear defenders are a good choice, as lots of neurodivergent people can manage sensory needs better when they can dim outside sounds. This kit could be improved with earplugs as an option as well though, as sensory preferences are important - some people can't tolerate ear defenders but can tolerate ear plugs. I appreciate that they offered two different types of fidget toys. Personally, I despise the texture of those squishy fidgets, so I appreciate that there was another different fidget offered. I also really liked the card with the emotions and needs charts. Neurodivergent people as a group are more likely to be non-speaking or to experience times when speaking becomes difficult or impossible. Offering a basic communication card with needs and emotions is a wonderful tool, especially in places of high sensory stimuli such as stadiums.

a black sensory bag with the stadium in the background.

This sensory bag was good, but basic. Like most accessibility tools, it could be improved. As previously mentioned, include earplugs; some cheap generic earplugs are usually fairly inexpensive too. Another inexpensive option - provide social stories, which help to provide an idea of what to expect whilst at Madison Square Garden (you can do this in a simple paper booklet) Other options of things to include a packet of wet wipes, sunglasses, a weighted lap pad, and more, different fidget toys.

The sensory bag was only available to hire, not to keep. I am personally okay with this, but I think it is better if they have an option for keeping, as then people who actively need the tools can continue to use them as they make their eay out of the stadium towards their next destination if they need to.

Whilst my experience with the sensory bag was good, I don't rate my experience with my walker very highly. I was required to check in my walker at the disability assistance desk. That's all well and good until I checked in my walker and then had to walk about 300m around the stadium to my seat. Not ideal. It would be even less ideal if I were someone who relied on their walker even more than I do mine. A better option in my mind would be if once you enter the stadium seating area, a staff member takes your mobility device and checks it in on your behalf (although this does mean a loss of autonomy which is never good), and an even better option would be more disability assistance desks (so that you don't have to walk so far after checking in your mobility device).

So that's my two cents on the accessibility within Madison Square Garden, at least, from my experience visiting there. Many aspects were good, but they can still do so much better.