Hey! I’m Eva (They/Them), a mentor of FRC team 461 and a representative of NDoF. Last weekend, I was present at the FIN Mishawaka district event as a mentor and a game announcer. It was a standard Friday to Sunday district with no other complications, right?
Wrong. Shortly after I drove up to my parent’s house in La Porte (where I was staying for the weekend), a blizzard hit the area. My planned half-hour commute turned into an hour and a half to get to the venue in perilous conditions. While attempting to get back, my front wheel drive car unsurprisingly slid off the highway. Realizing I was stranded, I ended up making use of a spare hotel bed another mentor had generously offered.
The venue itself had closed early the night before, meaning that we wouldn’t start opening ceremonies until 11 AM. For talent team, that meant a lot of waiting. Opening ceremonies commenced and were actually a lot shorter than years past. Match play subsequently began with only an hour until lunch.
As far as accessibility goes, this wasn’t a bad event. However, I’ve known Penn to be the loudest venue we go to purely because of crowd noise (which I absolutely love). With my earplugs, this wasn’t an issue. The biggest auditory difficulty to overcome was the audio setup itself. It was impossible to understand a word anyone was saying outside of certain parts of the stands. As a game announcer, having that constant audio feedback is something I’d rather have to make sure my voice isn’t causing anyone any headaches. Being without created some difficulty, as it would for anybody. Several people voiced this complaint, but nothing could really be done about it.
It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that I learned there was even a quiet room at the event. It was very much there, just poorly advertised. I can’t speak on the lighting setup, as I was using my (now legal!) black tinted safety glasses to deal with the harsh lighting most venues have. I’m actually very pleased that FIRST changed that rule so I don’t have to knowingly break it at every event.
To summarize, this was a good event with a few common accessibility issues that NDoF is working with FIRST to fix. As a matter of fact, I’m personally working with FIN on a “Mobile Quiet Room” that can be shipped from event to event. The whole setup costs less than $200 and focuses on creating a sensory neutral space with certain amenities such as fidget items available. As it stands, now, we could be trialing it at the state championship. This would make FIN the first district with a standardized quiet room and create something for other districts/regions to follow.
This was week 1 from the perspective of a mentor. We will be posting a series of these from different perspectives as the season carries on. Stay tuned for the next part of the series and other exciting things coming from NDoF!
(On a side note, 461 picked up our 7th Impact award and our 1st win in 24 years of competing. The Westside curse has been broken. Hail the pineapple!)
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