Getting to the Venue

• The hotel is a 5 minute walk from Cork bus station and a 15 minute walk from Cork (Kent) train station. Local buses and taxis are available from the train station to the hotel.
• There is a cycle path on the footpath directly outside the hotel. It has no tactile difference and may be a hazard.
• The hotel car park is under the hotel, with lift access to reception.
• The main entrance of the hotel has a rotating door and a regular door on each side of it. The regular doors push open but are heavy – reception is staffed if help is needed.
• To get to Octocon, there is a flight of stairs which brings you up to the first floor and our registration/info desk.
• For guests of the hotel, the lifts in reception go to the first floor with a card. If you are not a guest in the hotel, you need to ask reception or a member of the Octocon team to get lift access to get to Octocon.  

Venue

Registration/Info

• Our registration/info desk has a lower height section. Reserved seating will be available for access needs.
• A map of the venue will be displayed at Registration.
• We will provide printed maps of the venue that can be collected from the registration/info desk. The map will also be available online.
• The programme book will be available online. Printed grids of the day’s programme will be available at the registration/info desk.
• We have seats in our social spaces and space for mobility scooters and wheelchairs to manoeuvre.

Quiet room

• We offer a quiet room in the Corvus meeting room, to the left when you cross the bridge after Registration.
• The quiet room is for anyone who finds the convention overwhelming and wants a quiet place to rest and recover or regulate sensory overload. We ask that you respect this space and the people using it.

Bathrooms

• Unfortunately we are unable to offer gender-neutral toilets. The accessible bathroom on the first floor is separate to the gendered toilets.
• There are accessible bathrooms on the ground floor but there is a heavy door to access the doors to these bathrooms.
• There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor, but this is behind an extra door.
• The nearest Changing Places bathroom is in Dunnes on Patrick Street, a 5-10 minute walk from the hotel.

Allergens

• We do not intend to introduce known allergens to the venue without being clear with our attendees.
• If you have an allergy (food or otherwise) or dietary requirement and would like this information passed on to organisers or to the hotel, we are happy to do this. If the allergy relates to your hotel bedroom or included breakfast rather than the function rooms, we ask that you contact the hotel directly.

In-person Programme

• There will be at least one wheelchair/scooter space marked in each programme room, and we will ensure that the layout has space for a mobility scooter to manoeuvre. 
• Programme items last 60 minutes in 90 minute slots to aid travel and breaks. 
• We do not anticipate any queueing will be necessary except at registration. There will be seats available in the registration area and we aim to have a volunteer tasked with ensuring that those who need to sit are kept in the queue.
• We will mark some seats as reserved for those who need to sit or who need to be in a specific area e.g., close to the front for sight or hearing, and close to the back for anxiety or other needs.
• Staging and platforms are not being used in our programme rooms. We appreciate this may limit visibility and recommend that anyone who is affected by this takes a reserved seat at the front, if able to do so.
• We will use microphones for speeches, readings and panels. Panellists will be provided with paper masks in line with our Disease Mitigation Policy, because these work better with microphones.

General

• We recognise that not all conditions are visible and trust our attendees to make their needs known without having to disclose medical information or “proof”. This means that we do not require a visible badge or sticker to indicate access needs. However we are happy to provide a sticker for your membership badge that allows this to be communicated without verbal explanation. Attendees may choose to use the sunflower lanyard as an alternative.
• There is no specific dress code for the con and we encourage everyone to bring whatever fidgets or assistive technologies they need to feel comfortable. We have a policy banning all forms of Smart Glasses.
• We ask all of our attendees to refrain from applying scented products while in the convention spaces, including in the toilets. It is fine to wear scented products, but please apply them in your own hotel room or outside.
• We aim to provide pronoun stickers, but they are optional.
• We have a Disease Mitigation Policy that includes a requirement for all attendees to wear a mask unless exempt. Please read it carefully.

Online Access

• We will plan to stream live and record our main in-person programme where appropriate, from Pegasus 4 in Maldron Hotel.
• Automatic Zoom and YouTube captioning will be used for all our online programme, including streamed items.
• Attendees should know the items are being recorded and will be informed of this. 
• Our Code of Conduct will apply to online spaces and direct messaging as well as in-person places.

Please see our Online Accessibility Guide for full information.