Do you need a disability access pass when visiting the Disney theme parks? Get ready, because things are about to change.
The Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks are about to revamp their procedures for accommodating guests with accessibility needs. The changes come after use of Disney's DAS [Disability Access Service] pass among guests has more than tripled at the Disneyland Resort over the past five years, according to park officials.
The DAS pass will remain, however Disney is putting together a new team of cast members and medical experts to determine which guests will get that accommodation, which allows guests to use Lightning Lanes after waiting the equivalent of the standby queue elsewhere. Starting later this spring, Disney visitors no longer will go to Guest Relations for accessibility passes. Instead, they will go to the new team, who will recommend accommodations based upon visiting parties' description of their needs and how they are accommodated elsewhere.
"Disney is dedicated to providing a great experience for all Guests, including those with disabilities, which is why we are so committed to delivering a wide range of innovative support services aimed at helping our Guests with disabilities have a wonderful time when visiting our theme parks," a Disneyland spokesperson said.
The changes will go into effect May 20 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and June 18 at the Disneyland Resort in California. Until then, applications for DAS passes will continue as before, though validity periods may be reduced to 30 days in advance of the procedure switch.
Guests are encouraged to read about Disney's accommodations on the Disneyland or Walt Disney World websites in advance of their visit. [Those links go directly to each resort's accessibility services pages, which have been updated as of today.]
The pages include links for people to browse options by disability category, including mobility, neurodivergent, hearing loss, and blind & low vision. The linked pages list, for example, which attractions can accommodate mobility-impaired guests through the normal, standby queues and what alternatives exist for others. The pages also detail where guests can find other services, from sign language interpretation to support animal relief locations.
Under Disney's new procedures, if a guest believes that their party will need additional accommodation or if they are unclear about what they should do when visiting the parks, they should initiate a conversation with Disney's new assistance team. That contact can happen online in advance of their visit, but Disneyland will repurpose former ticket booths in the esplanade for in-person consultations as well. At the Walt Disney World Resort, on-site consultations will happen virtually through video chats.
U.S. federal law prohibits businesses serving persons with disabilities from asking for medical records or details about their customers' medical history in order to determine accommodations. Disney will be partnering a third party - Inspire Health Alliance - and providing specialized training to its new teams to help them determine which accommodations will be most useful for a party of guests while ensuring that provided accommodations are reserved for those for whom they were intended, park officials said during a press briefing in advance of today's changes.
Unlike at other theme parks, which have outsourced the disability access process to a third party, trained Disney cast members will be making decisions about access in consultation with Inspire Health Alliance employees, as needed.
Disney's cast members may ask guests about other accommodations that they use in other locations, including at home, school, work or travel, in order to determine an appropriate accommodation at the Disney theme parks. Accommodations may include a suggestion to use a mobility device such as a wheelchair, clearance for use of a stroller as a wheelchair, using newly defined "return to queue" options, rider switch, or a DAS. For more specific information, see the websites linked above.
Park officials said that they want to ensure that DAS is reserved going forward for guests with developmental disabilities, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, who are not able to wait in queues, rather than have it continue as a catch-all solution.
Disney's teams will consider the needs of guests on a party by party basis, rather than for individuals within a party, to help make a visit easier and more consistent for people in a party where individuals might need a range of accommodations. However, DAS no longer will include two advance reservations by default. And DAS will be limited to an immediate family or a party of no more than four people when a person needing the accommodation is traveling with people outside their family.
Once enrolled, a DAS accommodation will be valid for the duration of a party's theme park tickets, if they are using daily tickets. For Magic Key holders at Disneyland or annual passholders at Walt Disney World, an enrollment will be valid for up to 120 days once the new system goes into place. That's an increase from the current 60 days.
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This was a long time coming. There's no easy solution here, but abuse of the system ruins accomodations for guests who actually need it. Disney should absolutely be asking what reasonable accomodations guests require without running afoul of the ADA, especially if guests have disabilities that don't significantly impair their ability to wait in a queue or board an attraction.
Hopefully this will also reduce the amount of non-service animals in the parks as well. Unfortunately, since there's no certification system for service animals, many owners will put a service vest over their pet and call it a day. This new protocol will ensure only pets that are trained in providing a service [such as seeing-eye dogs] are admitted into the park.
Disney's new pages explicitly define service animals as "a dog or miniature horse," and state that emotional support animals and non-trained service animals will not be admitted. I hope that the new training that cast members will be receiving will help them to call shenanigans on guests trying to pass non-trained pets as service animals.
I think this is a no-win situation for everyone. Guests with disabilities deserve and need accommodation to safely and comfortably enjoy a day at a Disney park, and ADA mandates that companies like Disney provide reasonable accessibility standards for all of their attractions. The problem is that every system that has been put into place is going to either encourage fraud, invade guest privacy, not really accommodate anyone, and/or cost a ton of money to administer.
I think it all comes down to unethical guests trying to take advantage of DAS systems that has ruined pretty much anything that's put into place. I think like most of the prior systems, this will work for a while until clever guests who don't really need accommodation figure out how to exploit the system to their advantage. I wish it didn't work like that, but sadly, the insane crowds and ridiculous waits for top attractions make people think twice about doing whatever it takes to reduce intolerable waits.
I only seem to hear about troubles relating to disability access at Disney, not other theme parks. Do Knott's, Universal, Six Flags, and others also face the same level of difficulty devising and maintaining an accepted but not abused system? What is it about Disney and disabled access that makes them such a repeated target for distrust and abuse? Enlighten me.
Well, Six Flags is facing lawsuits over its disability program, so it's not like Disney alone is having issues with this. Disney has the most popular theme parks, so it always gets the most attention. Disney's wider range of family attractions also brings in more people with disabilities who might not consider other parks that are known more for thrill rides.
Universal similarly revised their system last year, but as Robert notes they off-loaded the burden onto a third party the same way Six Flags did. Having worked for Knott's in attractions, I can tell you that there are a lot of guests with passes ... but because the queues are not as outrageous or competitive as at a Disney park, it never felt like a problem the way it did when I worked at Disneyland.
Anecdotal, but that's the info I have!
Well, the changes went over sooo well last time, can’t imagine anyone having any issues now.
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Seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. People with disabilities probably don’t want an interrogation on their break, but we’ve all heard the stories about kids with disabilities being “rented out” to score front of line access.