It’s not easy to become bored in Chicago.
If you have even a passing interest in sports, the city has two major league baseball teams, a
national championship basketball team, a football
team, two pro hockey teams and four colleges with renowned men’s and
women’s teams. Native Chicagoans and visitors alike attend trade shows,
conventions and conferences ranging from trade exhibits to dog shows.
People with disabilities will find that stadiums and
conference centers usually have people trained in helping them enjoy the
facilities. Chicago also offers tours to show you many sides of the city.
Here’s how to start to enjoy these landmarks, listed according to their Chicago community and neighborhood. For details on particular venues, consult the Metromix Landmarks Channel database.
Stadiums and sports arenas
United Center
Near West Side
Creation of the United Center, which hosted the National Democratic
Convention in 1996, was carefully monitored by the City of Chicago to make
sure it met all accessibility codes. All entrances are accessible, and
seating for events is located on each level at this big arena, which is home to the Bulls basketball and Blackhawks hockey teams.
Levels are accessed by elevators, located near
the main escalators. Restrooms are designed with spacious, safety rail-equipped stalls and special height sinks and lever handle faucets, as well as dispensers
at proper heights. The gift shops have aisle space that makes browsing for
souvenirs easy. Pay phones are at wheelchair height and have volume
control. Drivers with permits for special parking for people with
disabilities will find reserved parking at the west end of the building,
near the entrance.
Address: 1901 W. Madison St., Chicago, IL 60612. Phone Number: 312-455-4500; TDD 312-455-4519
Comiskey Park
Armour Square
Like the United Center, Comiskey Park — South Side home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team — was recently built. Although nearly on the site of the original park, the new Comiskey has everything a person with
a disability could want these days — short of a league championship. Reserved
parking for people using wheelchairs is in Lot D on the west side of the
park. You may borrow a wheelchair from the park if necessary. Seating is on all levels and easily reached by elevators.
Don’t buy tickets for the top deck if you have any uneasiness with
heights. The stadium was built for optimal sight lines, which
resulted in a steep slope on all levels. Restrooms have spacious stalls
with safety rails, and all sinks and dispensers meet accessibility code requirements.
Each bank of pay phones has at least one wheelchair-height phone and volume
control for those with hearing impairment.
Address: 333 W. 35th St., Chicago, IL 60616. Phone Numbers: 312-674-1000; TDD 312-674-5235
Wrigley Field
Lake View, Wrigleyville
North Siders love the Chicago Cubs — even though the last time the team went to
the World Series, the country was involved in World War II. The Cubs’ home, Wrigley Field, is also a beloved landmark dating back to the early days of baseball. Because the field was built in a time when people with
disabilities (PWDs) didn’t go out and accessibility wasn’t in the
architects’ vocabulary, the Chicago Cubs have mounted a special effort to
make Wrigley Field a PWD-friendly park. The Cubs have a
specially trained person in the ticket office to make sure people with
disabilities get accessible seats: one block right behind home plate and
others on the terraces for reserved seats. Ushers in those areas are
trained to give assistance if it is needed. A special lift behind home
plate shortens the distance to the concourse where fully accessible
restrooms and accessible telephones and TDDs are located.
Wrigley was built when people still used horses and carriages, so parking is really at a
premium. The Cubs solve that for PWDs by reserving the Red Lot, adjacent
to the park, for wheelchair users with vans. The Green Lot is half a block
away; another lot is across the street and the phone system will
give you detailed directions to the best parking for wheelchairs when you
punch the numeral 4 on your Touchtone phone. You may request a guide to
enjoying Cubs’ game for PWDs from the telephone operators.
Address: 1060 W. Addison, Chicago, IL 60613. Phone Number: 773-404-2827.
Rosemont Horizon
Suburbs, Near Northwest
The Horizon is home of the Chicago Wolves IHL hockey team and frequently the
site of rock spectacles and DePaul University basketball. The arena has wheelchair parking on the
east and south sides. The front entrance is accessible and
seating for people in wheelchairs is on the ground level in each of the
four corners of the arena. Restrooms are accessible, as are pay phones.
Address: 6920 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont, IL 60018. Phone Number: 847-635-6601.
UIC Pavilion
Near West Side, Little Italy
The University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion is host to many college sporting events, national tennis
tournaments and a wide variety of entertainment. The UIC campus — located
on Chicago’s reviving Near West Side — isn’t a particularly easy place to find
parking in, but once you get to the Pavilion, you’ll find seating for
people using wheelchairs is located on the ground-level concourse level or
— for some events, such as basketball — on the main floor. The main
floor is accessible by elevator and ushers are well aware of the location
of all seating areas.
Address: 1150 W. Harrison, Chicago, IL 60607. Phone Number: 312-413-5700
Soldier Field
Near South Side
Like Wrigley, Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears pro football team,
is an old structure. However, parking for those using wheelchairs is
located conveniently close to the south entrance. Once
inside the stadium, sports or rock concert fans who use wheelchairs
can go down the ramp to the front of stadium seating. The area is raised
so you can see over the action and seats are available on all four sides of
the stadium. Restrooms are accessible, as are pay phones. Skyboxes — in
case you or your friends are rich — are accessible by elevator.
Address: 1600 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60616. Phone Number: 312-747-1285
Convention centers
McCormick Place
Near South Side
As a person who uses a wheelchair and has spent 98 percent of her career working
at trade shows in all parts of the country, I give you one piece of advice
about going to a major exhibition center: Try not to. But if you do, take a
power wheelchair and a battery charger — or a well-trained team of
wheelchair pushers.
McCormick Place has 2.2 million square feet of exhibit area, so there always is a lot of traveling — usually on carpeted surfaces
that make pushing a wheelchair more difficult.
McCormick Place has done the best job possible of accommodating people who
use wheelchairs or have mobility limitations. There is reserved parking
for wheelchair users across the street from the South Building, another lot
one block west of the North Building on Martin Luther King Drive and the
underground parking under the East Building, or Lakeside Center, is
accessible with accessible passages to the exhibit and theater areas.
The problem is that, after you get to the parking, you still have long,
long distances to go before you get to the event.
Alternatives to arriving
by car include Chicago Transit Authority bus or taxicab — which can drop you at the main entrance of
the new South Building. The Metra regional train station on Level 2.5 of the South
Building is also accessible (but is the Metra station where your trip starts accessible?).
A lot of thought has been made by McCormick Place to assure that restrooms,
dining facilities, pay phones, water fountains and other features
comply to accessibility codes. A new climate-controlled, enclosed walkway,
bridging over Lake Shore Drive that connects the South and North Building
to the East Building, is easier than the former open sidewalk.
THE ARIE CROWN THEATRE in the East Building has been totally remodeled and
now has seating for people using wheelchairs on several levels. Elevators
and ramps have been added to make the theater accessible.
McCormick Place’s page on the World Wide Web even has a section marked
“Visitors with Disabilities.” The URL (address) is
http://www.mccormickplace.com/disabil.html
Address: 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60616. Phone Number: 312-791-7000; TDD 312- 791-6505.
Rosemont Convention Center
Suburbs, Near Northwest
The Rosemont Convention Center will spoil the PWD attending a conference.
If you arrive by a lift-equipped Pace regional bus, you’ll be dropped off at the
front door, only a short distance from the main exhibition halls. If
you’re driving, there is inside reserved parking from which you can push
your wheelchair a few hundred feet into the exhibit areas. Accessible
restrooms are located around the perimeters of the exhibit areas. All meet
the accessibility standards. Banks of pay phones include phones at
wheelchair height and with volume adjustments.
The shops and food facilities
are roomy and easy to use. The cafeteria just outside the exhibit hall is
recommended. A variety of food is offered at reasonable prices and
employees offer assistance if you wish. The cafeteria is preferable to
food services that are inside the exhibition hall (unless you really like
over-priced, dried-out pizza and hot dogs).
Address: 5555 N. River Rd., Rosemont, IL 60018. Phone Number: 847-692-2220
Tours
American Sightseeing Tours
I’ve always heard that the way to get to know a city quickly is
to start with a Gray Line Tour. Lots of luck for those of us who use
wheelchairs … until American Sightseeing came along and equipped all of
its colorful trolleys with wheelchair lifts on the sides. Now a PWD can
catch a trolley at Sears Tower, the Historic Water Tower, at Wacker and Michigan (by the boat tour area), on the Adams and Michigan side of the Art Institute and at Navy Pier. In warm weather, the trolleys are very frequent to accommodate the high number of tourists. In less friendly weather, it’s best to
call and find out when tours leave.
Be sure not to confuse the American Sightseeing trolleys with the red,
orange and blue Navy Pier trolleys that run from parking lots west of the
pier to the pier. These trolleys are not accessible.
Phone Number: 312-251-3100
Chicago Motor Coach Tours
The double-decker buses borrowed from London (well, the idea for them
was) are not accessible.
Chicago Architecture Foundation
Near North Side, Magnificent Mile/North Michigan Avenue
Chicago has one of the nation’s widest ranges of variety and leadership in
architecture. A tour of the city is a visit to a living museum of
architectural trends. While the older examples — such as Frank Lloyd
Wright houses — weren’t designed with accessibility in mind, the folks at
the Chicago Architecture Foundation go out of their way to help PWDs
enjoy the city’s architecture. They will arrange for a lift-equipped maxi-van if a group with some wheelchair users requests a tour. Many people
using wheelchairs have enjoyed the walking tour of the Loop and guides know
all the accessibility features of the buildings visited. If you can get to
the dock area where Chicago’s First Lady — the boat used by the foundation
for river tours to view architecture — you can get aboard. (However, the
Mercury docks near Wacker and Michigan are accessed by a flight of steps or a convoluted route through Lower Wacker Drive.)
Address: 875 N. Michigan Ave. (lower level), Chicago, IL 60611. Phone Number: 312-922-3432
Boats
Seeing Chicago from the lake or river is a pleasant adventure for a warm
day. A number of boats have crews that will give you a hand up the gangway
and on board. The big cruise boats — the Odyssey and the Spirit of
Chicago — have wheelchair-accessible restrooms and accommodate people
using wheelchairs on the middle-level deck. Most cruises by these ships
include a meal.
Smaller boats are also available from both Navy Pier and
North Pier. The Shoreline Sightseeing company — which offers the Cap Streeter,
the Shoreline and the Marlyn — has friendly people who will give you a
hand onto the boat. You’ll be limited to the lower deck, and restrooms
aren’t accessible, but the trip is 30 minutes and gives you a great view of
the skyline from the lake. The Fort Dearborn and the Marquette leave from
North Pier — about four blocks west of Navy Pier — and offer tours along the
river with guides pointing out architectural high points of Chicago.
To find out more about lake and river cruises, call the following numbers:
– Odyssey Cruises, 630-990-0800
– Spirit of Chicago, 312-836-7899
– Chicago from the Lake (Fort Dearborn and Marquette), 312-529-2202
– Shoreline Sightseeing, 312-222-9328
