Some Swifties faced a ticketing nightmare. There's a new move to address it

Securing tickets to major events can be a nightmare for people with disability. Now, an Australian ticketing giant has attempted to address community concerns with a move advocates hope will see widespread uptake.

Taylor Swift will perform her Eras tour shows in Melbourne from 16-18 February and in Sydney from 23-26 Febraury. Source: AAP, AP / Natacha Pisarenko

KEY POINTS

• Taylor Swift fans with disability faced added hurdles when trying to buy tickets to her Eras tour earlier this year.
• Now, ticketing giant Ticketek has made a new move to address community concerns.
• Advocates have welcomed its new accessible online platform and say they will be watching its rollout closely.

It wasn't easy for Taylor Swift fans to get an Eras tour ticket when they went on sale earlier this year, but for Swifties with disability, the process was even more frustrating.

Presale tickets sold out within two hours in late June after four million people joined a virtual queue hoping to secure one of the 450,000 tickets to see their idol perform on the Australian leg of her tour.

But those chasing accessible tickets were left uncertain days later. Rather than booking via Ticketek's online platform, they had been asked to do so via a phone support service or email.

The hurdles even sparked a call from a disability advocate to boycott major events that aren't accessible.

Dane Cross, senior advisor for Advocacy and Access at Spinal Life Australia, who uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury, says this has been a common experience for people with disability, Swiftie or not.

"You have to call a special line and then leave a message, and then await a call back for when someone has time to call you back," he said. "It's just been such a poor experience in the past, that I've chosen to not attend events."

But now, Cross and other advocates have welcomed the ticketing giant's new move to address these concerns.

Ticketek this week launched a new accessible online platform that will allow those using it to buy accessible and non-accessible tickets within the same transaction for the first time.

This gives concertgoers with a disability the chance to sit with or near their family, friends, or support workers, where previously they might have been seated in a completely different area.

Presale tickets sold out within two hours in late June after four million people joined a virtual queue hoping to secure one of the 450,000 tickets to see their idol perform on the Australian leg of her tour. Source: AAP / Rounak Amini

Cross said he is happy to have an equal opportunity to book tickets for high-demand events with other Australians for the first time.

"It puts you in the race," he said. "You're able to - live, in real-time - book those tickets, and if I miss out, at least I've missed out equitably."

Paralympian and People with a Disability Australia vice president, Marayke Jonkers, said seeing the Ticketek logo on an event in the past has discouraged her from trying to book tickets at all.

She said the new platform "sounds amazing", but will be watching closely to see how it is rolled out.

The platform is the product of consultation with community members, including Cross and Jonkers, and organisations like Spinal Life and the Physical Disability Council of NSW.

Mark Townend, CEO of Spinal Life Australia, said equitable access was central to requests from the community.

"This all started with a complaint from members of Spinal Life Australia to the Human Rights Commission, then we talked and had a mediation with Ticketek, and they found a solution," he said.

"People with disabilities mostly don't want priority, they just want to be treated normally and to make sure they can be accommodated.

"This platform gives everyone an equal footing, that's what we asked for."

Jonkers said co-design is essential to rebuilding previously broken trust.

"That is how you really engender trust with people who have disabilities, because we’re the ones who have the experiences and we’re the ones who are the experts in seeing how it could be made easier," she said.

"So that wins a lot of trust, that it wasn't somebody deciding something for us instead of with us."

Cross said now that a platform has been developed, with early sign-ups including venues like the Sydney and Melbourne cricket grounds, he wants to see greater uptake by venues.

Other ticket providers contacted for this story say they are also striving for greater accessibility to ticketing for events.

Ticketmaster said it was the first ticketing platform in Australia to introduce online sales to customers for accessible seats, through 500 tickets at the 2020 Australian Open.

Humanitix said it has collaborated with Vision Australia and the Australian Network on Disability to educate venues and make its app and check-ins more accessible.

Taylor Swift will perform her Eras tour shows in Melbourne from 16-18 February and in Sydney from 23-26 February.