DAS and Visual Impairment

[daisy37]

Hi,

I will be traveling to WDW with my adult daughter who is visually impaired and two other adults. My daughter uses a white cane. Will she need a card or is her cane enough.

We have asked for a GAC in the past for the following:
-Sitting up close at shows such as Beauty and the Beast. (she has minimal vision and can see the colors)
-She finds it difficult to be part of the regular line at splash mountain, it is wet, crowded and the steps are uneven.

I have also read that as part of the lawsuit settlement, guests with Visual impairments are able to sit in the reserved areas for parades. Is this correct, and if so, can the rest of us join her?

thanks for the help.

 

[aaarcher86]

Hi, I will be traveling to WDW with my adult daughter who is visually impaired and two other adults. My daughter uses a white cane. Will she need a card or is her cane enough. We have asked for a GAC in the past for the following: -Sitting up close at shows such as Beauty and the Beast. (she has minimal vision and can see the colors) -She finds it difficult to be part of the regular line at splash mountain, it is wet, crowded and the steps are uneven. I have also read that as part of the lawsuit settlement, guests with Visual impairments are able to sit in the reserved areas for parades. Is this correct, and if so, can the rest of us join her? thanks for the help.

Lawsuit settlement?

 

[cmwade77]

Hi,

I will be traveling to WDW with my adult daughter who is visually impaired and two other adults. My daughter uses a white cane. Will she need a card or is her cane enough.

We have asked for a GAC in the past for the following:
-Sitting up close at shows such as Beauty and the Beast. (she has minimal vision and can see the colors)
-She finds it difficult to be part of the regular line at splash mountain, it is wet, crowded and the steps are uneven.

I have also read that as part of the lawsuit settlement, guests with Visual impairments are able to sit in the reserved areas for parades. Is this correct, and if so, can the rest of us join her?

thanks for the help.

Edit: Sorry, I thought I was on another thread.

Those with Visual impairments have always had this option, this is not what the lawsuit was about, but it was covered in the settlement to ensure that this happened.

That being said, the DAS is not used for visual impairment, you are supposed to be able to simply let the CMs know at the shows and parades, but many have reported that this is a mixed bag.

 

[Objectivity]

Hi,

I will be traveling to WDW with my adult daughter who is visually impaired and two other adults. My daughter uses a white cane. Will she need a card or is her cane enough.

We have asked for a GAC in the past for the following:
-Sitting up close at shows such as Beauty and the Beast. (she has minimal vision and can see the colors)
-She finds it difficult to be part of the regular line at splash mountain, it is wet, crowded and the steps are uneven.

I have also read that as part of the lawsuit settlement, guests with Visual impairments are able to sit in the reserved areas for parades. Is this correct, and if so, can the rest of us join her?

thanks for the help.

With the new DAS, a card is no longer provided. You speak with a CM (or CMs) at every attraction and hope they are appropriately trained to direct you in the proper direction.

From reading other comments, the process is somewhat hit or miss. Some CMs take you at your word, others want you to justify your disability. The rare few are clueless and ignorant, just like real life.

Overall, I'm sure it's a system that works well 95% percent of the time. But to be honest, we're going next week and our biggest apprehension is having to have repeated conversations with CMs about seating needs when before we only had to provide an explanation once.

 

[cmwade77]

Lawsuit settlement?

There was a lawsuit involving guests with service animals and/or vision issues.

The upshot was the following:

• There will be crates available for service animals on any attraction that service animals are not permitted to ride. In other words this pretty much just means any attraction with a height requirement.
• Disney would allow the use of any grassy area that could be accessed without jumping over a fence (i.e. not fenced or the fence has a gate) as a service area for service animal.
• There will be permanent braille maps posted at key locations throughout the parks.
• There is to be a mechanism put in place that allows guests with vision issues to be guarantted the ability sit in the appropriate location for their needs. This is assuming that there were not enough others with the same need ahead of the person that arrived.
• Disney will provide an accesible version of their website, including for those with limited vision. I believe part of this also stated that those with limited vision would be allowed to purchase tickets at the ticket booth at the same price as any web only deals, but I am not positive if the final settlement contained that detail or not.

Disney actually was pretty quick to settle this lawsuit, which probably means they knew they were in the wrong, but by settling this, they make it go away without admitting any wrongdoing.

Another factor that likely played in was that there are certain areas where they are not in compliance, such as the number of handicap spaces at Paradise Pier Hotel and the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure. In addition, many of the spaces that are available at the parking structure may not qualify, due to distance from the entrance, even if they convinced those that enforce the laws to count the tram as the entrance. From what I have read, this briefly came up in some discussions, but was quieted very quickly, due to how complicated it would be to fix these issues.

 

[ttintagel]

Yeah, I'm a bit nervous about my next trip, too. While some things were always hit-or-miss, like being allowed to use alternate entrances if the regular one was too dark or had too many steps or an uneven floor, at least with the GAC and the stamp I could be confident I'd be OK for show seating.

And with the other issues, at least it gave me something visual to start the conversation with - when they see a wheelchair or other assistive device they know they have that conversation with the guest coming and they start thinking abut it.

It didn't take care of everything, but it showed the CM that I had taken the time and trouble to go the Guest Services and discuss my needs.

 

[lanejudy]

Hi,

I will be traveling to WDW with my adult daughter who is visually impaired and two other adults. My daughter uses a white cane. Will she need a card or is her cane enough.

We have asked for a GAC in the past for the following:
-Sitting up close at shows such as Beauty and the Beast. (she has minimal vision and can see the colors)
-She finds it difficult to be part of the regular line at splash mountain, it is wet, crowded and the steps are uneven.

I have also read that as part of the lawsuit settlement, guests with Visual impairments are able to sit in the reserved areas for parades. Is this correct, and if so, can the rest of us join her?

thanks for the help.

Since you have concerns about her ability to safely navigate the line queues -- at least for certain attractions -- I suggest you stop by Guest Relations and have that very discussion with them. Keep your conversation to the concern about safety in lines. The DAS will do nothing for seating and if you bring that up, the CMs at Guest Relations may "tune out" the rest of your concerns. Discuss seating options at each attraction. You may choose to use the DAS for only select attractions that are of concern to you, and utilize FP, FP+ and/or standby lines for others.

My experience with reserved areas for parades...they will usually allow 1 person to accompany the "disabled" person into this area, maybe more if it isn't a crowded time of year. However, unless something has changed, there is no seating provided in such areas -- most people are in wheelchairs or ECVs and squished in quite tightly; able-bodied family members are allowed to sit on the curb in front or stand behind their family member (not others). So whether or not this is your best option is up to you. We have found that we prefer to stake out our own space along the curb in advance and use that as a break time.

Enjoy your vacation!