Final Fantasy 14 fans have accused Square Enix of accessibility negligence with its forthcoming Fan Fest event in California. After the “accessibility shitshow” of the previous event in the US, fans fear the production company of next year’s event is ill-equipped to deal with accessibility needs and are vowing not to attend.
The Fan Fest events are huge conventions held regularly in the US, Europe, and Japan, where details of the MMORPG’s next expansion are typically revealed. The last of these in the US, held in Las Vegas in 2023, was criticised for accessibility issues. I attended myself and, while I’m not disabled, can attest to general poor organisation, lengthy queues for food, and a lack of facilities; the London event, by contrast, ran smoothly.
As such, the move to Anaheim California for the 2026 event was initially seen as a positive move, away from the desert heat. However, accessibility is once again proving to be an issue for the event organisers, as concerns have been raised by fans about how the third-party company Square Enix has hired is handling accessibility needs.
Upon purchasing a ticket for the event, fans are able to highlight their need for ADA assistance (relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act). While this initially appeared to be a positive step, these attendees are then emailed and required to have a personal phone call with a third-party organisation to raise their specific needs. Attendees then have 24 hours to agree to any accommodations.
Eurogamer can verify these emails, which are sent from The Trade Group, a company specialising in trade shows and conventions. Its work includes events for the Pokémon 2023 World Championship Series in Japan, and exhibits for Twitch, Stadia, and Magic the Gathering among others.
Unfortunately, there is seemingly a single point of contact at The Trade Group dealing with accessibility concerns, who must now personally call all potential attendees with accessibility needs. As such, fans believe their accessibility needs will not be met, that The Trade Group isn’t taking concerns seriously, and the convention will not be safe to attend.
“The way that FanFest handled accessibility in 2023 was the worst accessibility experience I have had at a con, and their booth at PAX East 2024 wasn’t much better,” wrote Final Fantasy 14 player Sara Winters on the game’s forum, under the username divisionten. “However at PAX West 24 and then East 25, the booth took some wonderful and active strides to make its space accessible and friendly for all players. It was clear that SQUEX took the criticism of prior events to heart and actively improved.
“When there was an ADA marker in the sign-ups for FF 2026, that gave me hope that you all had learned the lessons of FF 23. However, the third-party company Square hired has been fumbling the bag repeatedly. There is one singular point of contact for accessibility at this third-party company, and [they’re] under orders to call each person who requests ADA assistance.”
Winters, who is a blind player of Final Fantasy 14 and an accessibility consultant, conducted their own survey of 1000 attendees of nerd conventions and found about 14 percent have accessibility needs. They also spoke on this issue with the head of panels at MAGfest and organisers of PAX. In the case of Fan Fest, 15,000 tickets were sold at the previous Las Vegas event – assuming a similar attendance in Anaheim, that’s over 2,000 people that just one person is expected to personally call to discuss their needs. What’s more, access to outside food and drink or a quiet room are seemingly considered accessibility needs in this instance, rather than general convention norms, meaning many attendees will not have their assumed needs met.
“It’s very clear to me that this is not the fault of this individual employee, who was clearly assigned a task vastly outside [their] scope,” wrote Winters in their forum thread. “But if you – SQUEX – actually want to follow through with your commitment to accessibility, then you need to hire actual accessibility consultants and do what they recommend.”
Winters also shared their experience on BlueSky, adding: “Means testing doesn’t work. You are making it harder for disabled people to access services they need, and the non-disabled who really want to game the system will do so anyway. You help nobody and harm the people who need assistance.”
#FFXIV FanFest is neither a safe nor accessible convention.
-People asking for disability accessibility need to have a phone call to prove their needs
-they then must agree to specific accessibility accommodations within 24 hours of a follow up email or schedule another full phone call.
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— sara winters, MAGfest Soon, and looking for new opportunities (@divisionten.bsky.social) 24 November 2025 at 19:00
Winters confirmed to Eurogamer the consultant at The Trade Group has experience in special education, which appears to have been conflated with accessibility needs. “Special education is adjacent to accessibility – it’s not the same thing,” said Winters. What’s more, a phone call itself is not accessible as a means of communication, especially for those who are deaf or have auditory impairments among other disabilities.
“They’re functionally treating accessibility like an IEP [individual education plan], giving each individual a call with individual accommodations,” said Winters. “That’s just not enforceable, feasible, or usable.”
Other players have shared their concerns on both the Final Fantasy 14 forum and reddit in response to Winters’ thread. One player didn’t tick the ADA box when booking a ticket as the phone call “seemed like too involved of a process” for their accommodations. “I’d hoped that provisions would be available without me needing to jump through hoops before the event, but based on FanFest 2023 experiences and the vibe you’re getting from jumping through said hoops, I’m now getting a little nervous,” they wrote.
Another player noted at the last event their medical needs changed the day before attending, but the new phone call system wouldn’t account for this. They added the system isn’t the fault of the single consultant, but it “will inevitably fail disabled attendees and overwhelm the staff member responsible for them unless this is properly addressed and adjusted”.
The Anaheim Convention Center itself does have a guide to accessibility on its website. This includes such basic provisions as wheelchair access, elevators, and accessible seating, but notes individual events are responsible for contracting with ASL interpreters, for example. The convention centre has not responded to Eurogamer’s request for comment.
This would suggest that basic accessibility needs will be provided at the convention, as is required by law. Yet beyond that, attendees are concerned their individual needs won’t be met. As one forum poster wrote, “accessibility improvements are a boon for all”.
“I cannot in any sort of good conscience waste my time and money to attend this con,” surmised Winters on Bluesky. “’23 was an accessibility shitshow, and I won’t spend a grand to be subjected to that again.”
Eurogamer has contacted both Square Enix and The Trade Group for comment, but received no response.
The last expansion for Final Fantasy 14, Dawntrail, was less well-received by players than previous expansions and, anecdotally, player numbers have dropped since its release. As such, the next round of Fan Fest events are particularly important for Square Enix to ensure a strong future for its award-winning MMORPG, especially as main rival World of Warcraft will receive a new expansion next year.
