Disney Tweaks Approach To Disability Access
Disney is quietly making updates to its Disability Access Service. (trvlto/Flickr)
Disney is making a small — but potentially significant — change to its accommodations for visitors with disabilities.
The company recently updated the description of who its Disability Access Service is intended for on websites for both Disneyland and Disney World.
Previously, the websites had indicated that the program “is intended to accommodate only those Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period of time.” Now, the word “only” has been removed.
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The change, which was made quietly in recent weeks, comes after Disney overhauled its Disability Access Service last year, severely limiting who qualified for the program that allows people with disabilities to request a return time for one attraction at a time in order to avoid physically waiting in line.
At the time, Disney described the updates as an effort to weed out misuse amid explosive growth in the program. Since then, however, many people with disabilities have complained that they have been denied needed accommodations.
Disney did not respond to questions about the recent wording update on its website or whether the change signaled that there would be greater leeway in who would qualify for the Disability Access Service.
DAS Defenders, a group that has pressured Disney to back off its more stringent Disability Access Service criteria, said that their members hadn’t seen any immediate impact.
“If this leads to a greater range of approvals for a wider spectrum of disabilities it is certainly welcomed,” the group said soon after Disney’s website was updated. “It is however, too soon to tell if this rewording will lead to more leniency in approvals. We have continued to receive reports of group members being denied DAS.”
In addition to the wording tweak, Disney also recently extended the amount of time that individuals with disabilities have to request the Disability Access Service in advance of their visit from 30 to 60 days.
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