Disability rights advocates who spoke at a City Council hearing on disabled access to World Cup games and other 2026 activities slammed the city for persistently failing to ensure accessibility at a wide range of public events and facilities.

The hearing Tuesday began with city officials and an organizer for next year’s World Cup soccer events describing the work being done to make those activities accessible to people who use wheelchairs, are visually impaired, are neurodivergent or who have other disabilities. 

That includes work now under way at Lemon Hill in Fairmount Park, where a FIFA Fan Festival will host thousands of people attending watch parties during the games next June and July. The city is adding new accessible paths, realigning curbs, rebuilding sidewalks with 12 new wheelchair ramps, and installing a new inclusive playground, said Meg Kane, the host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026.

“Accessibility is the cornerstone of our operational planning,” Kane said at a hearing of the Committee on People with Disabilities. “Whether it’s through physical infrastructure or the distribution of information, we recognize our duty to ensure that all individuals have opportunities to experience the magic of the World Cup in support of that goal.”

There will also be infrastructure improvements around Lincoln Financial Field, where the games will take place, and in neighborhoods where celebrations of the World Cup and the nation’s 250th anniversary will take place, Streets Commissioner Kristin Del Rossi said. A transit accessibility plan is being developed, and at the Linc, a sensory room and a host of other existing accessibility features will be available, officials said.

But Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who led the hearing, and disability advocates also highlighted repeated complaints that events like the annual Christmas Village, as well as many city facilities, including City Hall and Rebuild-funded recreation centers, have numerous unaddressed barriers to access.

“This is not just about one event. This is about the city’s systemic failure to enforce its own accessibility policies,” said Vicki Landers, executive director of Disability Pride PA. “I’ve been through the city’s event-planning process, and the truth is, accessibility is not even a part of the conversation. There is no required accessibility plan, no checklist, no mechanism for proactive inclusion. It’s not even an afterthought. It’s just absent.”

Fears of an inaccessible Philly 250

Landers said the Christmas Village, a festive marketplace held at LOVE Park and Dilworth Plaza every fall, is “blatantly inaccessible.” Vendors are allowed to repeatedly violate accessibility guidelines, year after year, without consequences, she said.

Booths are often too high to reach or too cramped to approach, she said, there aren’t clear navigation aides for blind attendees, accessible seating is in short supply, portable restrooms are not ADA compliant, and signage for the accessible restrooms is inadequate. Uneven ground and oversized cable covers make navigating the sites “a nightmare” for people using wheelchairs and other mobility devices, she said.

“As we look towards the Philly 250 celebrations in 2026, I’m deeply concerned. This will be a major milestone in the city’s history, a global stage, but unless major changes are made now, Philly 250 will replicate the same exclusions that we’ve seen for decades,” Landers said.

“If that doesn’t change, Philly 250 will not be a celebration for all. It will be another missed opportunity, another example of ableism in action,” she said.

She called on City Council and Mayor Cherelle Parker to enforce Philadelphia’s accessibility policies, conduct event inspections similar to health and safety inspections, require accessibility audits led by people with disabilities, deny permits to events that don’t meet standards, and include disability community leaders in Philly 250 planning.

Landers also said she was disappointed that the city’s Office of Special Events, which enforces event regulations, did not send director Jazelle Jones or another representative to the hearing. A spokesperson for the office said Wednesday they couldn’t send someone because the hearing had been rescheduled and conflicted with a critical out-of-state training event for Fan Festival operations. 

The office relies on expertise from several city agencies — including the Office for People with Disabilities, Risk Management, License & Inspections, and others — “to review the necessary applicable documents in advance of each event to strengthen accessibility and inclusivity,” the spokesperson. The statement did not address the claim of lax enforcement.

A broken door at City Hall

The speakers described a host of other events, from that very committee hearing in City Hall to political rallies and concerts on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where a variety of problems make it difficult or in some cases impossible for people with disabilities to meaningfully participate.

Yvonne Hughes, a commissioner at the Mayor’s Commission for People With Disabilities, described being with a group of people with disabilities heading to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Fairmount Park. Staffers wouldn’t let their vehicle get close to the festival site, and told them to park some distance away and walk instead, she said.

Sponsors of events also often invite the public to attend without making accessibility plans in advance, requiring people with disabilities to alert them that they’re coming, said Hughes, who has a visual impairment.

“Are you accessible? Are you going to have closed captions? Is there going to be an interpreter there? That should be done automatically. Any time an event or anything is being done, we should be included. Most of the time we’re not included,” she said.

She and others noted how difficult it is even to get to City Hall. 

There’s no accessible parking spot, so drivers of paratransit vans stop in traffic and passengers have to roll their wheelchairs through the street and onto a sidewalk, Hughes said. Brooks, who for years worked for an organization that provides services to kids with disabilities, said there’s no way for wheelchair users to get to City Hall by subway.

Once they arrived outside City Hall for the hearing Tuesday afternoon, some of the speakers couldn’t get in initially because “the dumb door is broken again,” Landers said. 

There was no screen with close captioning in the meeting, so one participant who recently lost their hearing was using a captioned feed on her phone to follow the conversation, a speaker said. An American Sign Language interpreter was present to help hard-of-hearing participants who know ASL.

Brooks said she’d also heard complaints that some of the city’s Rebuild projects to reconstruct playgrounds, rec centers and libraries have had accessibility features removed to save money. 

Carousel House, a rec center in Fairmount Park for people with disabilities, has been shuttered for years as its Rebuild project has been delayed, leaving former users without any adequate recreation facility, said Tamar Riley, a member of the Carousel House advisory council.

A call to fix access now

In addition to cracking down on non-compliant event vendors, Landers, Hughes and other speakers asked the city and 2026 organizers to make several improvements to next year’s events.

They want seating space that accommodates wheelchairs and walkers; ramped entrances and exits; subtitles, sign-language interpretation, assistive-listening devices, and printed materials in accessible formats; accessible bathrooms, since most portable restrooms aren’t accessible; sensory-friendly zones; and ample handicapped parking.

They also asked SEPTA and rideshare companies to ensure availability of accessible transportation, and asked organizers to provide free or discounted event tickets for medical assistants accompanying people with disabilities.

Next year’s events include six World Cup games at the Linc next June and July and associated fan events. Those are expected to draw more than half a million people to Philadelphia from around the world.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will have games at the Xfinity Mobile Arena (the former Wells Fargo Center) in March, and the Major League All-Star game is scheduled for Citizens Bank Park next July 14. The PGA Championship will be held in Newtown in May.

Numerous commemorations and celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary are planned throughout 2026. They include artistic and patriotic displays, block parties and neighborhood tours, weekly events in the city’s Historic District, a TED Democracy symposium, and a “supersized” Wawa Welcome America Independence celebration from June 19 to July 4.

To prepare, the city is spending $100 million to beautify commercial corridors ahead of the celebrations.