HOB pays fine, makes changes to accommodate disabled

September 5, 2011 – Seven years after telling a young woman in a wheelchair she could not watch a concert from the dance floor, House of Blues Chicago has paid a $100,000 fine and made its venue more accessible to fans with disabilities.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced on Friday that HOB’s owner, Live Nation Worldwide Inc., has completed interior renovations, trained staff, and made other changes to comply with state and federal laws and a 2009 settlement agreement.

In 2004, Kristina Allen, who was diagnosed with lupus at age ten and paralyzed by a rare virus five years later, was attending a concert at House of Blues when, according to a news release from Madigan, she “was told by House of Blues staff that she could not observe the concert from the dance floor with her friends. Instead, she was escorted to an area of the facility where the view of the stage was blocked by other patrons.”

Allen (left) was crowned Ms. Wheelchair South Dakota in April 2010.

(Photo by Hannah Parker.)

There are now reserved areas at HOB for wheelchairs. The venue has installed automatic doors, modified bathrooms, removed protruding objects that could be hazardous to the vision-impaired, and made stages and backstage areas more accessible. When the Department of Buildings issued a building permit on January 24, 2011, the estimated cost to renovate dressing room bathrooms on the third floor, to make them ADA-compliant, was $34,000.

Employees at HOB will be trained to accommodate guests with disabilities and determine in advance if private parties will have accessibility needs.

“My goal all along has been to ensure that no other individual with disabilities will have to experience what I encountered during my visit to the House of Blues Chicago,” says Allen. “I am ecstatic that partnering with Attorney General Madigan has resulted in a fully accessible and accommodating venue and I look forward to returning to Chicago and enjoying a concert there.”

HOB general manager Ryan Shea did not respond to a request for comment.