Rob Kerr / The BulletinAshley Stone, 22, helps Anastasia Perone, 40, navigate from grass to asphalt at the Les Schwab Amphitheater Thursday. Perone said she has been to many events where she had difficulty seeing over the crowds in front and needed help getting her wheelchair through the grass. Perone believed the paved area by the stage was supposed to be the general admission area for accessible seating, but amphitheater Director Marney Smith said the accessible seating area is on the grass.

A Bend woman has filed a complaint against the Les Schwab Amphitheater, alleging the facility violates accessibility requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The federal law requires public facilities, such as amphitheaters, to be accessible for people with disabilities. But Bend resident Anastasia Perone says the amphitheater failed to set aside accessible seating on a paved area in front of the stage at the Steve Miller Band concert last year. Instead, Perone said, she was directed to a seating area on the grass that was difficult to navigate in her wheelchair. Perone filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice on Jan. 8.

“The area that was designated as ‘accessible’ had no sidewalks getting to the area, and it was in a grass field going uphill. So I had to have someone push me up the slope, and I was stuck in one position for the entire concert because I was unable to propel my manual wheelchair in the grass,” Perone, who is 40, wrote in an email to the Department of Justice.

Perone said the problem made it difficult for her to do one of the things she enjoys. “I’m a huge music fan and I love to go to concerts.”

Marney Smith, director of the Les Schwab Amphitheater, said there were designated accessible seats on the concrete slab for the concert, but they were in the reserved seating area, where ticket prices are higher for both accessible and inaccessible seats.

Smith said amphitheater employees worked in recent years with former city of Bend Accessibility Manager Susan Duncan to design a seating area that would comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and the result was the general admission accessible seating area on the grass. The Les Schwab Amphitheater was built in 2001.

“There is accessible seating for every concert, and we have accessible seating in general admission, as well as in reserved seating when there is reserved seating,” Smith said.

“I’ve honestly never had anybody complain about getting on the grass with a wheelchair,” Smith said, although she added that did not mean the grass surface was not a problem for people.

The amphitheater provides an accessible portable toilet on a paved area near the accessible seating area, but people who use wheelchairs and have other mobility challenges have to cross a grass area to reach food vendors at concerts.

Staff at the Department of Justice review complaints and depending upon the situation, they might contact the complainant for more information, refer the case to a mediation program, forward it to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office or another federal agency or pursue litigation. It can take three months or longer for the department to review a complaint, due to the high volume of complaints it receives, according to the agency’s website.

Karin Morris, the city’s current accessibility manager, said she was unable to locate any files from Duncan regarding the seating area. The city has jurisdiction over accessible paths of travel, such as sidewalks, but it does not oversee seating requirements, Morris said.

Under the law, venues must provide accessible seats for people with disabilities at all price levels for which inaccessible seating is available. Amphitheaters and other event venues qualify as public accommodations, which means operators of these facilities cannot deny people with disabilities equal access to the “goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations” offered to other people, according to a federal ADA manual.

Bob Joondeph, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon, declined to comment on this specific case but wrote in an email that “a grass area, accessed by a paved path, may be accessible if it provides for safe, accessible and disbursed wheelchair seating with lines of sight that are equivalent to that of other patrons.”

Morris agreed. “Just because it’s grass doesn’t automatically trigger a violation,” she said.

Perone said she believed the concrete slab in front of the stage was built to provide accessible seating.

“There is a concrete slab at the base of the venue, in front of the stage, which is supposed to be designated as general admission seating for people with disabilities and their parties,” Perone wrote to the Department of Justice.

At the Steve Miller Band concert, “not only was the ATM pushed off into the grass, but the ADA area was roped off and sold as ‘prime’ seating for the general public,” she claims.

Colin Stephens, who manages current planning for the city, said the amphitheater owner submitted plans in 1997 that showed a paved area in front of the stage as designated for people with disabilities. However, the amphitheater did not add the paved area until several years after the original facility was built, and by then, the purpose had changed.

Smith said the amphitheater built the concrete slab in 2008 because crowds always destroyed the grass in front of the stage during concerts on Labor Day weekend, and it was less costly than continually replacing the turf.

Perone said she also ran into problems in the summer , when she attended the Bend Brewfest with her father. Perone was reluctant to go because she knew it would be difficult to get around on the grass. But her father was set on going, and he ended up pushing her around the event.

“So once again, anywhere I had to go, I was dependent on someone else,” Perone said.

—Reporter: 541-617-7829, hborrud@bendbulletin.com