Jon Hetherington has been a fan of Beyoncé since he was about 9 years old, recalling his love for the artist during her Destiny’s Child days, The New York Times reports. Despite his affinity for the icon, up until this year, Hetherington had never seen her perform live. Born with cerebral palsy, it’s a little harder for Hetherington to get around. Still, he’s developed a love for live music, as evidenced by the six times he’s seen Lady Gaga.
But Hetherington admits it is oftentimes difficult to navigate getting to and from these shows, not to mention accessibility issues at venues. During a recent trip to see the opening show of Janelle Monae’s tour in Seattle, his flight was delayed 20 minutes as they tried to load his wheelchair onto the plane. And when the show ended around midnight, no accessible taxi ever showed up despite multiple calls, Uber and the police were unable to accommodate, Hetherington’s GPS stopped working, and his wheelchair lost power after wandering around the city from midnight until 9am trying to get back to his hotel.
“I figured if this happened at Janelle, what was going to happen at Beyoncé? I thought, maybe I just don’t go. Am I going to get stranded again?,” recalled Hetherington.
Read the source article at Because of Them We Can
