Ticketing and Admissions
General Overview
If your organization sells tickets or manages admissions for events and exhibitions, specific requirements must be met to ensure equity and accessibility for all. Your ticketing procedures and protocols must be designed to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as to ensure equal opportunity and equitable access. Specific considerations include providing accessible seats, transparent purchasing processes, and effective communication throughout the ticketing and admissions experience. Meeting these accessibility requirements fulfills legal obligations and enhances inclusivity, ensuring that all patrons have equitable access to events and exhibitions.
Implementation
Ensuring accessibility in your ticketing and admission practices involves several considerations, including in the following areas:
- Seating options: Organizations are required to provide accessible seating options at all price levels, seats are distributed throughout the venue and integrated with general seating (visit the Hub page on Seating for more information). If accessible seating is not available in every section or are of then venue, then the venue can use proportional pricing to provided similar price points in other areas.
- Ticket availability: Ensure that your ticketing platforms and maps clearly identify accessible seats. Also ensure that your platforms allow patrons to purchase these seats during the same stages of sales and through the same methods of purchase as standard tickets.
- Users of accessible seats: To ensure consistency and set expectations, venues should have simple and clearly written policies and protocols that account for accessibility features beyond wheelchair seating. These include viewing areas in closer proximity to sign language interpreters or captions, as well as protocols and procedures for addressing specific requests for accommodation.
- Holding and releasing of seats: In reserved seating environments, accessible seats must be held and released according to the ADA ticketing regulations to ensure availability for those who need them. For general admission events, accessible seating areas should be clearly marked, with staff monitoring to ensure equitable access.
- Companion seating: Most venues are designed and built to provide one companion seat adjacent to each accessible seat. Depending on the configuration of the venue see if you can provide more than one companion seat per person, and make it a policy to make every effort to seat a wheelchair user with their entire party. Build in flexibility where you can to keep parties from being split up.
- Auditing: Regularly audit seating configurations, zoning and pricing of tickets, and the hold and release of accessible seating to ensure compliance and address evolving circumstances dependent on specific performance and production requirements.
- Digital access: Select ticketing software that complies with the voluntary standards of WCAG 2.2 AA or the most recent iteration of the WCAG standards (see the Resources section for WCAG standards).
Ensuring that your staff are trained, knowledgeable, and comfortable with accessibility practices can streamline the ticketing and admissions process for all. Keep these components of customer service in mind:
- Information and choice: Train staff to be knowledgeable about venue layouts, legal requirements, policies, procedures, and accessibility features and services you offer. Also ensure that they can effectively guide patrons, provide clear information on seating options and ticket choices, and explain available accessible services and how to access them.
- Feedback mechanisms: Venues should develop feedback mechanisms to continuously evaluate and improve their ticketing protocols, ensuring that they meet the needs of all attendees.
- Attestation: Ensure that staff know to avoid invasive questions (such as asking what someone’s disability is), while still engaging in conversation with patrons to be informative and helpful. Staff may ask for an attestation at the time of ticket purchase using language such as: “These seats are reserved for patrons requiring accessible seating features. Do you or someone in your party require the features of this seat as an accommodation?”
Your organization can benefit from implementing a checklist to ensure that all parts of your ticketing and admission process are accessible, such as the one below:
- Do you have the correct ratio of accessible seats for the size of your venue?
- Are your accessible seats available in all methods of sale (in person, online, over the phone, via third party vendors with whom you sell other tickets)?
- Are your accessible seats provided at each price level?
- Are you asking for an attestation when selling accessible seats?
- Have you established clear policies and protocols to manage your accessible seating?
- Have your staff been made aware of and trained to offer and explain accessible seating and services at your venue?
Although not explicitly required by the ADA, venues should have policies and protocols to address admissions and ticketing for personal care attendants (PCAs) or caregivers assisting individuals with disabilities. Organizations should:
- Provide clear information on PCA admission policies on their websites and ticketing platforms to avoid confusion.
- Consider offering free or discounted admission for PCAs, acknowledging their essential role in facilitating access and participation.
- Train staff to handle these situations respectfully, avoiding invasive questions and prioritizing a dignified experience for all patrons.
Associated Legal Requirements or Obligations
Please note that, while this content was developed by people with expertise in the ADA and legal requirements related to access, it was created for informational purposes and should not be considered legal advice.
- 2010 Standards for Accessible Design
- Seating:
- Accessible seat (Section 221.2) – Wheelchair-accessible seating must be provided in proportion to the total seating capacity of the venue.
- Companion seat (Section 221.3) – At least one companion seat must be provided adjacent to each accessible seat.
- Designated Aisle Seating (Sections 221.4 and 802.4) – Aisle seats with retractable or flip-up armrests must be provided and identified as such.
- Seating:
- Title II of the ADA or a Title II Entity and Title III of the ADA or a Title III Entity
Both Title II and Title III entities that offer ticketed events must ensure that individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity to purchase tickets for events. The ticketing regulations under Title II and III are the same. Eight sections of ticketing regulations were added by the U.S. Department of Justice to the regulations in 2010. These regulate the ways in which tickets for accessible seating must be managed.
- Ticketing (28 CFR 36.302(f)) – Eight sections:
- Ticket sales. Accessible tickets must be sold at the same times, through the same methods, and under the same terms as other tickets.
- Identification of available accessible seating. Accessible seating locations must be clearly identified on ticketing platforms and seating charts.
- Ticket prices. Accessible seating must be available at all price levels and cannot be priced higher than non-accessible seats around the accessible seats.
- Purchasing multiple tickets. Patrons with disabilities must be allowed to purchase the same number of tickets as others, including up to three companion seats.
- Hold and release of tickets for accessible seating. Accessible seats may only be released when all other seats in the venue, in a section or in a specific price range, are sold out.
- Ticket transfer. Accessible seats must be transferable under the same policies as other tickets.
- Secondary ticket market. Venues must exchange non-accessible seating for accessible seating purchased on the secondary market so long as seats comparable in location and price are available at the time the ticket is presented.
- Prevention of fraud in purchase of tickets for accessible seating. Venues may not require proof of disability but may require patrons to confirm that they or someone in their party is a person with a disability that requires the features of accessible seating. Venues may not request documentation or proof of disability.
See also:
- 2010 Standards for Accessible Design
- ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
- Readily Achievable Barrier Removal
- Reasonable Accommodation
- Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- Safe Harbor
- Seating
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
- Ticketing
- Title II of the ADA or a Title II Entity
- Undue Burden/Hardship
- Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS)
- U.S. Access Board
- WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
Learn More
While external resources have been vetted and reviewed, the Hub does not have ownership or oversight of these external resources. If you’d like to add or suggest resources or if you encounter any issues, please let us know using this form.