Accessibility

For the most important accessability info in plain English, visit the accessibility blogpost that is also available in plain German.

Need acute help? Please visit help.ccc.de

In general: For a lot of physical disabilities, the CCH has good accessibility. The Congress Center Hamburg is newly renovated and up to code. There are good toilets, guidance systems for the blind and visually impaired and everything (including stages) in theory is wheelchair accessible. But there are caveats with wheelchair access.

More info on the centre’s accessibility can be found on its website.

For everything Chaos-made, these will be your points of contact:

Important Facilities

These facilities will aid with accessibility:

  • CERT for medical care.
  • Can store medication that needs to be refrigerated.
  • Awareness for help against discrimination.
  • A point of contact right next to the Infodesk will give out hidden Disability badges and act as first level accessibility support.
  • QuietQube and c3auti provide mutual aid for autistic creatures and also quiet or silent places.

Contact us before the event

Get info on the Event

Accessibility Helpdesk

Next to Infodesk, there's going to be a dedicated point of contact for accessibility. If you need some assistance on a small personal quest, they may even be able to find you a helping hand. However: if you foresee the need for a personal assistant, please bring your own.

The desk will, similar to Infodesk, act as first level support, but has more awareness and sensitivity about the do's and don'ts of disability support.

You can also assemble or get help with assembling your hidden disability badge:

Hidden Disability Badges

Hidden Disability Badges will be available. Those are made to be compatible with your angel badge (you can glue them together). Your Hidden Disabilities Badge has room for some pre-made stickers (such as “sign with me” or “no flirting”) and room for writing down notes/instructions. It can also be folded and flipped in case certain disability info does not require being on display all the time.

You can also get stickers for informing others that you have to skip long queues or use priority seating at the stages. (And in many cases, asking politely will likely get you those “benefits” as well.)

Example of a Hidden Disability Badge. In Handwriting, it says fnord, it/its, ask me about rust. Don't worry when I am non-verbal. There is a sign with me sticker with the sign language gesture. The badge has a decorative top with a stylized a11y, a sunflower and a Hidden Disabilities Headline.

QuietQube and c3auti

Our mutual support crew for autistic creatures organizes support for autistic creatures and all attendees with similar needs. They provide a Silent Room, a Meltdown Room, Gadgets and emotional support when you need it.

They also organize QuietQube. This is not a silent room, but a cozy place to socialize and recover from the noise and lights of congress.

Heres an Overview of Facilities provided by c3auti and a detailed summary of c3auti support and conduct.

Assistants and Assistance Dogs

Bring them. Please also provide a certificate of disability (German: Schwerbehindertenausweis) if you want to bring an assistant. Please give 38c3-tickets@cccv.de a heads up to bring multiple or changing assistants.

Priority seating in Lecture Halls

There are seats in the lecture halls for people with disabilities and special needs. Please leave them for or give them to people that need them.

As the needs are very different, they are scattered throughout the halls.

Plans for Halls not listed here are still to be determined. Info will be updated in time.

♿️ Spots for wheelchair users listed below.

Hall 1

  • lower level:
  • front blocks
    • front row center 1-7
    • front row right 1-7
    • row 18 left 1-7
  • hind blocks
    • rows left 18, 1-7
  • upper level
  • front row center 1-3

Hall GLITCH (Hall G)

  • center area
  • middle column, first row, 1-7
  • middle area, last row, directly in front of the camera (it is rather quiet there and must also be occupied by someone who will be quiet)

Hall ZIGZAG (Hall Z)

  • Row 12, seats 1 to 7, directly next to the door on the left, no stairs
  • Row 1, seats 1 to 7 (right, front) and 13 (left, front), no steps

Wheelchair Spaces

There are places in the lecture halls for wheelchair users and accompanying persons.

  • Hall 1: 6 seats directly at the door “Parquet left”
  • Hall GLITCH (Hall G): 4 individual seats to the right of the left and right aisle
  • Hall ZIGZAG (Hall Z): 3 seats next to the right door

Wheelchair spots for other halls are to be determined.

Blind and Low Vision Participants

Due to the complex venue layout, dense crowds and dim lighting, congress is challenging. We're trying to make CCH more accessible and better to navigate. We're planning to label (important) locations with tactile signs, improve the guidance system, and put up tactile maps. Here is what we know so far. We will update this site with new information, please do check back from time to time:

The built-in tactile guidance system has been modified in places that were impractical. A mobile tactile paving, courtesy of the ACCESS @ KIT research group will be available. The exact details will be documented here and shown in c3nav. We will also put more effort into ensuring the guidance system is recognized and cleared by attendees.

  • Door Signs are placed to the right of their corresponding doors, 130 cm above the ground.
  • Elevators have markings inside the door frame indicating the current floor level.
  • Elevators will also have signs indicating what to find on which floor.
  • Floor plans will be put up at several locations on each floor.
  • Bars price lists will be accessible via QR codes.
  • Large signs may only contain embossed lettering or Braille.

Tactile Signage Conventions

  • All signs use German 6-dot Braille without contractions (Basisschrift).
  • Embossed letters are always capitalised.
  • You may encounter German letters like Ä,Ö,Ü,ẞ (⠜,⠪,⠳,⠮).

All signs are created according to these rules: - Rounded corners (r=5mm) - 1 mm border around the edges - Some signs have QR codes - The QR code is always in the lower right corner, its edges are marked with right-angled lines - QR codes usually contain text - Codes with URLs will lead to a screen reader friendly web page

Example sign with QR code, according to the above rules, text: Example

You can help us by printing signs or bringing your 3D printer, visit tactile.c3w.at

Barriers to expect and Lessons Learned

This is meant to point out some barriers that you might not expect under other circumstances, but may run into at Congress. You can help reduce the list by volunteering and expand the list by contacting us via mail and telling us about barriers.

Wheelchair Access Limitations

At 37C3, we learned that wheelchair access was a lot worse than we had hoped for. This is what you need to know:

  1. Most of the convention centre has carpets.
  2. There are only three elevators available, located near the foyer. Those will overheat when in use 24/7 and that caused a lot of downtime last year. There are plans to prevent this situation this year.
  3. Signs showing the shortest route to the elevators will be available from day one.
  4. We must insist that you not use the escalators even if you do that day to day.
  5. You will need to use a special backdoor elevator to get to the lounge. There will be signs.

Blind and low-vision Access

Due to the venue layout, paths colliding with facilities and assemblies, and lacking awareness amongst attendees, blind navigation received many enhancements.

Issues reported by people with night blindness due the dim and colorful lighting on congress are still to be expected.

Induction Loops

We noticed some induction loops for hearing aids have been installed incorrectly last year. CCH assured us this has been resolved.

Noise and Lights

Congress will be overwhelming and over-stimulating. It is advised to bring ANC Headphones and maybe sunglasses if you are easily overstimulated or exhausted.

Strobe Lights

Lounge will use 20 Hz strobe lights, avoid that area if you are at risk of having photoepileptic seizures. Art and Play installations will not use strobe lights. Many community members will build a lot of things, so be careful and don’t hesitate to ask for overly intense light installations to be tuned down.

Sign Languages And “Simple German”

We cannot offer translations to sign languages or “simple German”.

Community Projects

A lot of what is provided at the event is made by wonderful enthusiasts who will very likely not follow code consistently.