Audio By Carbonatix
Chris Bryant went to see the Beach Boys perform at the Starplex Amphitheatre several years ago, but the California-happy music did not make up for his rude experience.
A paraplegic who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident when he was 21, Bryant had purchased a general admission ticket for the performance. The amphitheater’s general admission seating is a grassy knoll, where concertgoers typically spread blankets and enjoy picnics under the open sky.
But Bryant found that the Starplex lawn has no wheelchair access. In order to sit with his friends that night, Bryant later alleged, he was “forced to endure the indignity of being bodily carried to the grass.”
The next time Bryant attends a Starplex concert, he most likely will find markedly different circumstances. Last week, Starplex officials and Bryant confirmed that they are near agreement on settling a lawsuit Bryant filed against the facility.
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After attending the Beach Boys concert, the paraplegic from Weatherford hired Dallas attorney Steve Gardner, and filed suit in Dallas federal court against MCA/Pace Amphitheatres Group L.P., the company that operates the facility, and the City of Dallas, its landlord.
In his claim filed last March, Bryant sought to make Starplex comply with guidelines established in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The law went into effect in 1990, two years after Starplex was built.
Bryant alleged that Starplex and the city–as the theater’s landlord–had discriminated against him on the basis of his disability by preventing him from “full and equal enjoyment of the services and facilities.”
Barring last-minute hitches, the suit will soon be settled, with Starplex agreeing to improve access for the disabled.
Starplex managers are seeking to keep the terms of the deal confidential. But both sides say Starplex operators plan to make a number of changes to address Bryant’s complaints.
“That part of the community is as important to us as any other,” says Larry Fontana, the general manager of Starplex.
“Presuming that Starplex goes through with the promises it has made, this is an absolute victory for disabled people,” says Gardner, Bryant’s lawyer. Gardner says Starplex managers and lawyers have not vigorously fought the lawsuit, but instead have responded by “setting the gold standard for compliance” with federal laws protecting the disabled.
The knottiest issue will be developing a way to get wheelchairs onto the Starplex lawn. “Lawn seating is, by its very nature, hanging out,” says Fontana.
Until now, Starplex has offered disabled concertgoers tickets at general admission prices, but then seated them in special areas in the more expensive reserved section. Fontana concedes that Bryant’s lawsuit made the company acknowledge that–in order to be in compliance with federal laws–Starplex needs to provide general admission seating so those in wheelchairs can enjoy the show with their friends.
“We are trying to see how to integrate some sort of seating in that area that wheelchairs could access,” says Fontana. Architects are devising plans to build some type of platform area on the lawn that will be accessible for wheelchairs, he says.
Starplex is also taking steps to address other issues raised in Bryant’s suit, Fontana says. The concession booths and ticket windows already have been modified, he says, so concert attendees in wheelchairs no longer must rely on waitress service to get food or drinks or to buy their tickets.
In addition, the wheelchair area in the covered, reserved seating section has been upgraded, due in large part to Bryant’s suit.
When Bryant had gone to Starplex in May 1995 to see a Yanni performance, he had been told by a ticket agent on the phone that he would be getting one of the amphitheater’s 7,500 reserved seats. When he arrived at the performance, Bryant alleged in his suit, he was wheeled up a ramp and onto a platform that was “unreasonably dangerous to the persons using it, as well as persons nearby.”
The ramp, Bryant alleged, had a grade twice as steep as the maximum permitted by the federal laws. “The ramp was like a ski slope,” Bryant recalls. The guardrail was also inadequate, Bryant alleged.
Starplex managers have already altered the railing–“It was one quarter of an inch too low,” Fontana says–and they are planning to make additional changes.
Bryant, who says he lives on Social Security payments, apparently will not receive any money in the settlement. “He is neither seeking to make money, nor is it likely that he will,” his attorney says.
