Marvel Stadium Plans To Retrain Its Staff After Chloé Hayden Slammed Them For Rampant Ableism

Chloé Hayden has met with Marvel stadium’s CEO following her exclusion from Marvel’s sensory room over the weekend. Chloé took to Twitter to outline her meeting with the CEO and the steps they discussed to ensure the stadium moves in the right direction for more inclusionary spaces.

“I’ve spoken with the CEO of Marvel Stadium and we’ve discussed steps forward.,” she wrote in a tweet.

“A second sensory room is being built, and they have committed to retraining their staff. I plan on keeping them accountable for both.”

She then encouraged anybody who has received similar poor disability access & discrimination from Marvel Stadium to reach out and share their story.

Chloé also took to Twitter to share that she will be taking a step back from social media to focus on herself, and as you should queen.

“The last few days have taken an immense toll. It is now my time to step back, breathe, and advocate for myself, too,” she said.

“I will never stop fighting. I will never not be thankful for having an army to fight it with me.”

The accountability from Marvel Stadium is a welcome development in this story, let’s hope they stick to their guns and continue to work hard to provide a safe environment for everyone.

ICYMI: Heartbreak High‘s ray of sunshine Chloé Hayden slammed Marvel Stadium after she was allegedly prevented from using its sensory room because she didn’t “look autistic enough”. In our Lord’s year of 2023. WTF.

Hayden, who is autistic and also has ADHD, tried to use the stadium’s much-hyped sensory room on Friday while attending a Harry Styles concert when she said she was rejected by security because she didn’t fit their stereotype of what someone who has autism looks like.

“Hey @marvelstadiumau, reminder that you cannot preach inclusivity and then not let me into the sensory room because you took one look at me and decided I don’t look autistic enough to access it,” she wrote in a tweet.

She then accused the venue of “demanding diagnostic papers to access sensory rooms and sensory packs, fat-shaming disabled people, refusing to accomodate wheelchair access and laughing at autistic people who are in melt down (sic).”

“I have received over 50 messages from people who were denied access and support, humiliated and hurt thanks to Marvel Stadium’s ableism and discrimination,” Hayden revealed in another tweet.

The activist then took to Instagram to call out the stadium for touting its accessibility with pride on its website yet failing to actually support people with sensory needs IRL.

“I just want to post my cute little Harry photos with my cute little Harry captions without the radical concept that disabled people accessing public spaces shouldn’t be fearful of being abused, discriminated against and humiliated — but, if we’re asking for the impossible, I might as well be asking for a One Direction reunion,” she wrote.

“In venues that preach inclusion, that pride themselves on their accessibility, that giddily placed ‘Be like Harry, Treat People With Kindness’ across their billboards, that was praised this week for their sensory rooms, their disability inclusion; how goddamn disappointing that the same venue has proven that flying it’s woke flag and ticking the disability box is where it’s values begin and end [sic].

“Accessing public spaces should not be a matter of ‘am I going to miss out, or risk being abused?’”

Hayden told PEDESTRIAN.TV that other disabled folk with similar experiences told her there were heaps of BS reasons they too were rejected from using the room.

“The justification was different for every person — sometimes it was ‘the room isn’t open tonight’, heaps of people got asked for diagnostic papers,” she said, claiming the room not being open was a “flat out lie”.

“People were flat out told ‘this room isn’t for people like you’, ‘that’s not what a panic attack looks like’, ‘you’re too pretty to have BPD’ etc,” she said.

Marvel Stadium has been widely praised for introducing its “inclusive” new sensory room, which it said was designed by medical professionals and includes sensory bags equipped with noise cancelling headphones, fidget tools, visual cue cards and weighted lap pads which are supposed to be available to all guests with sensory needs who might feel overwhelmed by the environment. Emphasis on the ALL.

“Stadium staff have undergone Sensory Inclusive Training 101 with KultureCity and Marvel Stadium is now officially an accredited Sensory venue,” says Marvel Stadium’s website.

“The certification process entails our team being trained by leading medical professionals on how to recognise guests and fans with sensory needs and how to handle a sensory overload situation.”

I’d love to know how exactly staff were trained to “recognise” guests with sensory needs — what exactly was it about Chloé Hayden that led staff to reject her access to a space designed specifically for her and others with these needs? Does “recognising” people with sensory needs simply mean demanding diagnostic papers or “proof” of any conditions?

PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Marvel Stadium with the above questions but is yet to receive a response.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV