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We're standing at the south end zone of Gillette Stadium.
It's about 1,800,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art, NFL and entertainment venue.
There's all different types of people that come here for all different reasons, and disabilities
they could be hearing or sight or mobility issues.
We want anyone who comes to our building to have the exact same experience.
Back when we were operating Foxboro Stadium we were the most unaccessible venue for fans
with disabilities.
Really we have gone from the worst stadium to the best stadium. We exceed all ADA requirements
and a lot of that is due to the work of Kevin.
I get hired to do three things: one is to work on the design, to ensure that the architects
are complying with state or federal access laws, like how do you integrate wheelchair
seating into the design of a bowl.
Look this way with me. We have a typical wheelchair and companion platform. A wheelchair user
comes, you fold up the folding chair, and then what we did is we created this barrier
to allow wheelchairs to get around each other, and not worry about people surging into their
seating space.
The other issue was dealing with providing wheelchair users sight lines over standing
spectators. So that when something happened, like Tom Brady throwing a touchdown pass,
row one would stand up, row nine would stand up. When you got to where the wheelchair users
were they can see over the shoulder of the people in front of them.
You need to give wheelchair users the same type of choices that non-wheelchair users get.
How do you make the building compliant from a path of travel?
We're surrounded with accessible parking spaces located at every entrance point. We also have
12 or 13 elevators and a wide ramping system on both ends of the building.
We have about 16 family restrooms. It could be a 7-year-old son who has had a car accident
who is here with his mother. If they need assistance in a restroom, they can come right in here.
We had to work on the concession stands to make sure that they were all accessible, that
someone using a wheelchair could get access to any point of sale.
So we have accessible bars at all of our locations at 34 inches.
But the big, big issues that we're addressing now are what do we provide people that are
deaf, or hard of hearing, or blind, or partially sighted.
When you go to museums now, they're just not sterile exhibits anymore.
[Museum audio: "It was called the Patriot's biggest win since. . ."] / [Kids cheer.]
If you're blind or partially sighted you're wearing a headset, these 90 some odd sensors
will know that you're at a certain point and will begin audio describing what everyone is seeing.
If you're holding it and you're deaf, captioning is then across the screen.
The second thing I do, is I design policies and procedures to make sure that the buildings
comply; whether it's ticketing, it's emergency evacuation, it's employment.
But the last thing I do is training.
So I've developed these videos on how do you service someone blind at a retail store, how
do you service a quadriplegic at a concession stand.
So we're always tweaking the design of buildings, the training of people that work in the buildings,
and the policies that make this building function correctly.
When I have people come up to me because they had great experiences at a movie theater
or a sporting venue, I feel good knowing that I had a big part in making their experience
a positive and good one.