DAS changes coming WDW May 20/ DL June 18, 2024

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can't think of a single time that I have had a 30+ minute wait outside a theme park, not even at the DMV and there they give you a seat to wait at and you can go to the bathroom, etc. with no issues. Generally if the line is more than 5 minutes long outside a theme park, it would be very rare and the max would be about 10 minutes. Is this not the norm everywhere or are we just lucky where we live?

We established last fall you live a very different life than the majority of folks when it comes to lines. Unfortunately that makes it difficult for you to see how the majority of people do encounter lines. That's as simple as I can make it.

 

[lanejudy]

disability IS tied to family income if you worked less than a certain number of continuous years before becoming disabled

household income is counted if they have worked for less than a certain number of years before becoming disabled, although there can be exceptions if they were disabled before 16 years old I believe is the cut off.

You've given 2 specific scenarios when income is considered. How does that differ from my broader statement that "assistance is not necessarily tied to family income" -- we're saying the same thing. Where we disagree is that income level/economic status cannot be identified by whether or not one qualifies for disability assistance.

I also did a Google search and found links to sites that won't post on here that explain asking this does indeed violate ADA and how it does so, as it is a form of discrimination for .much the reason I have mentioned.

Anything I've found was specific to employment. Nothing about accommodations at a theme park. And again, the theme park is not basing accommodation on whether or not an individual receives government disability assistance. It was one question within context of a specific discussion about one individual's needs. Context matters.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Ok, this just doesn't make sense, but it is hard to explain why without specifics, but a person should be able to simply state something along the lines of: When situation X occurs, problem Y happens and maybe results in Z being added. Now the reality is situation X is often something that ONLY occurs in theme park settings, I am not saying that is the case for everyone, but for a lot of people. This seriously shouldn't need to be more than a 5 minute discussion and other theme parks have proven that can be done and keep abuse to a minimum. Anything beyond 5 minutes is going into too much detail, really it isn't necessary.

It is also possible that situation X is occurring outside theme parks, but due to the nature of how things are handled on a normal basis, you may not realize that an accommodation is occurring that handles situation X. The closest example to a theme park queue I can think of would be TJ Max and if you have a mobility device, they already make it clear that you are to come to the front of the line, so the length of the line doesn't matter, situation X is already resolved. But even their worst line is nothing compared to the wait at a theme park.


I can't think of a single time that I have had a 30+ minute wait outside a theme park, not even at the DMV and there they give you a seat to wait at and you can go to the bathroom, etc. with no issues. Generally if the line is more than 5 minutes long outside a theme park, it would be very rare and the max would be about 10 minutes. Is this not the norm everywhere or are we just lucky where we live?

What does being in a mobility device at TJMaxx have to do with anything? DAS isn’t for mobility related issues nor for bathroom related issues. It’s for the inability to wait in a standard queue for an extended period of time, most commonly due to developmental disabilities.

Sure, you might not be in a “queue” for hours on end on a daily basis, but you might have to deal with heavy traffic on occasion. Or if you are sensitive to noise/chaos how do you deal with that in an open office environment (for an adult) or a lunchroom (for a student)? If the press of people bothers you, be thankful you have never had the “pleasure" of riding NJTransit when TPTB decide to call board your train on 5/6 or 7/8 at the same time that another train is unloading, or when 2 trains are called at the same time. There have been a couple of times when I have almost had a panic attack because of so many people pushing and shoving to try to get to the stairs. Heck, even just being in Penn Station when there are major transit delays is on par with just about anything I have seen at Disney World.

In the context of travel, when traveling abroad TSA pre-check doesn’t apply, and with so many invisible disabilities one can’t count on being pulled from customs lines. I have stood for more than an hour trying to get into foreign countries. Or even sometimes the standard checkin line for economy can snake down the hall depending on how many people are working. Even with the best planning things go awry, and you have to have a backup plan for this. Disney might want to know what that backup plan is.

When preparing for this interview it’s important to stop thinking super rigidly and think more broadly about why you or your loved one needs DAS, and whether there are any situations in day to day life that will trigger the same sort of responses that you or they have in a theme park queue. If there are none, so be it, but then you had better have an extremely clear and detailed rationale about why being at Disney is so incredibly different from everything else.

 

[SueM in MN]

I believe you are in Canada and rules may differ. It’s not a violation of the ADA. Privacy - the guest is already on a private call talking about disability needs and accommodations. It’s basically the same question as “do you have accommodations at school (or work)?” The guest doesn’t have to answer if they’d prefer but may need to share more as explanation for the DAS request.

I agree if the person was asked the question the way it was reported, it would not be a violation of the ADA.

It is likely trying to determine if the person has accommodations in their life for their disabilities.

AGREE, but, we don't know what the question exactly was.

We’ll never really know what was said in the conversation. But as @lanejudy pointed out, asking about government assistance is not a common line of questioning, so something the parents said was likely to have sparked it. I can speculate on what it might have been, but we have been asked not to so I’ll refrain.

The other thing I’ll say is that while there are jobs where someone who is profoundly developmentally disabled could do, the majority of jobs (for one reason or another) would probably not be a good fit. So while having a job does not automatically disqualify someone from DAS (just like not having one doesn’t mean someone is automatically granted DAS), it’s fair game for the CM to ask what accommodations have been made so that (or what characteristics of the job enable) someone requesting DAS is able to do that job.

This is only a guess, but is based on reading a lot of accounts online....
My guess is the person wasn't actually asked specifically about government assistance, but misunderstood the exact question or it was not stated clearly enough for them.
One of the common questions asked in the DAS interviews is "What assistance or accommodations do you use in your daily life?"
I can see someone hearing that and thinking they are being asked what government assistance they are on, for example SS Disability, a Developmental Disabilities waiver, etc. That would be especially understandable due to the person being stressed about the call.
It doesn't make sense for Disney to ask about government programs the person might be on - it's not pertinent information because it doesn't tell anything about the person's ability to handle or not handle waiting in lines. Some people on those programs might have many pertinent needs and others would have few to none.

Asking about accommodations used in life outside of WDW parks DOES make sense and I think this was the (misunderstood) intent of the question.

 

[jennab]

I agree if the person was asked the question the way it was reported, it would not be a violation of the ADA.

AGREE, but, we don't know what the question exactly was.

This is only a guess, but is based on reading a lot of accounts online....
My guess is the person wasn't actually asked specifically about government assistance, but misunderstood the exact question or it was not stated clearly enough for them.
One of the common questions asked in the DAS interviews is "What assistance or accommodations do you use in your daily life?"
I can see someone hearing that and thinking they are being asked what government assistance they are on, for example SS Disability, a Developmental Disabilities waiver, etc. That would be especially understandable due to the person being stressed about the call.
It doesn't make sense for Disney to ask about government programs the person might be on - it's not pertinent information because it doesn't tell anything about the person's ability to handle or not handle waiting in lines. Some people on those programs might have many pertinent needs and others would have few to none.

Asking about accommodations used in life outside of WDW parks DOES make sense and I think this was the (misunderstood) intent of the question.

Thinking back, they may have prompted me by asking something like “does your child receive any assistance or accusations”? I already had written down to discuss anyway, but it just helped transition the conversation after explaining what his issues with the queue were. I’m sure I was rambling and forgot

 

[OurBigTrip]

Ok, this just doesn't make sense, but it is hard to explain why without specifics, but a person should be able to simply state something along the lines of: When situation X occurs, problem Y happens and maybe results in Z being added. Now the reality is situation X is often something that ONLY occurs in theme park settings, I am not saying that is the case for everyone, but for a lot of people. This seriously shouldn't need to be more than a 5 minute discussion and other theme parks have proven that can be done and keep abuse to a minimum. Anything beyond 5 minutes is going into too much detail, really it isn't necessary.

It is also possible that situation X is occurring outside theme parks, but due to the nature of how things are handled on a normal basis, you may not realize that an accommodation is occurring that handles situation X. The closest example to a theme park queue I can think of would be TJ Max and if you have a mobility device, they already make it clear that you are to come to the front of the line, so the length of the line doesn't matter, situation X is already resolved. But even their worst line is nothing compared to the wait at a theme park.


I can't think of a single time that I have had a 30+ minute wait outside a theme park, not even at the DMV and there they give you a seat to wait at and you can go to the bathroom, etc. with no issues. Generally if the line is more than 5 minutes long outside a theme park, it would be very rare and the max would be about 10 minutes. Is this not the norm everywhere or are we just lucky where we live?

First, other theme parks haven't proven that they can cut down on abuse. Using a third-party to gather documentation that doesn't prove that one needs a line accommodation is pretty useless, IMO.

Second, no, it won't always be, nor should it be, a 5 minute conversation about why the guest thinks they need the DAS because that "easy way out" is how DAS became so out of control.

Given the impact of DAS overuse - on disabled and non-disabled guests alike - it shouldn't be easy to get one.

Finally, letting someone in a mobility device jump to the front of a TJ Maxx line is simply ridiculous; glad that no businesses where I am do that.

 

[jods]

First, other theme parks haven't proven that they can cut down on abuse. Using a third-party to gather documentation that doesn't prove that one needs a line accommodation is pretty useless, IMO.

Second, no, it won't always be, nor should it be, a 5 minute conversation about why the guest thinks they need the DAS because that "easy way out" is how DAS became so out of control.

Given the impact of DAS overuse - on disabled and non-disabled guests alike - it shouldn't be easy to get one.

Finally, letting someone in a mobility device jump to the front of a TJ Maxx line is simply ridiculous; glad that no businesses where I am do that.

My guess is they jump the line because it isn't accessible. My atJMaxx is a zoo and I don't shop there for that reason. I'm not the DAS holder in my house but I don't wait in long lines regularly. Just reading the last few pages makes me realize how much I avoid crowds lol. I shop off hours or order food. If a store is crowded I leave it. I get most of my stuff delivered. If elevators are packed I wait for the next one. I don't travel on crowded subways, I take the express bus if i need to travel. I don't eat I'm crowded lunch rooms, I eat at my desk. I never realized just how much I make my own accommodations.

 

[Evita_W]

First, other theme parks haven't proven that they can cut down on abuse. Using a third-party to gather documentation that doesn't prove that one needs a line accommodation is pretty useless, IMO.

Second, no, it won't always be, nor should it be, a 5 minute conversation about why the guest thinks they need the DAS because that "easy way out" is how DAS became so out of control.

Given the impact of DAS overuse - on disabled and non-disabled guests alike - it shouldn't be easy to get one.

Finally, letting someone in a mobility device jump to the front of a TJ Maxx line is simply ridiculous; glad that no businesses where I am do that.

No, DH has been to plenty where they have shown they can keep the abuse down, including Silver Dollar City, Dollywood and a few smaller parks as well. But not saying it should be easy, but it shouldn't be needlessly complicated. TJ Max lets them jump to the front of the line because the design of their queue is such that many mobility devices cannot safely navigate it, but that is picking out the wrong point, the point being that some people may not realize that need A is being met by the fact that need B (mobility in this case) being accommodated.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

No, DH has been to plenty where they have shown they can keep the abuse down, including Silver Dollar City, Dollywood and a few smaller parks as well. But not saying it should be easy, but it shouldn't be needlessly complicated. TJ Max lets them jump to the front of the line because the design of their queue is such that many mobility devices cannot safely navigate it, but that is picking out the wrong point, the point being that some people may not realize that need A is being met by the fact that need B (mobility in this case) being accommodated.

According to this website (https://www.tripinfo.com/tips/top-20-north-american-amusement-theme-parks-by-attendance) neither Silver Dollar City nor Dollywood are even in the top 20 of US amusement parks by attendance. Comparing their practices to Disney isn’t an apples to apples comparison.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

According to this website (https://www.tripinfo.com/tips/top-20-north-american-amusement-theme-parks-by-attendance) neither Silver Dollar City nor Dollywood are even in the top 20 of US amusement parks by attendance. Comparing their practices to Disney isn’t an apples to apples comparison.

Silver Dollar City is also in the Ozark mountains with some parts having steep inclines, you can stay on flat parts as much as you can but WDW is more flat by far. You also don't see many strollers at all. It also is a place where many people go for just the crafts and demonstrations aspect not the ride aspect, the park is kinda 50/50 there as far as design.

That said SDC has been ranked the best out there so I wouldn't write it off. Your point is like I've discussed ad nauseum different places do things differently often based on their own clientele and their own specific area. What works at one won't necessarily be as appropriate or feasible to another which a few other parks have been mentioned in this thread.

 

[jennab]

My guess is they jump the line because it isn't accessible. My atJMaxx is a zoo and I don't shop there for that reason. I'm not the DAS holder in my house but I don't wait in long lines regularly. Just reading the last few pages makes me realize how much I avoid crowds lol. I shop off hours or order food. If a store is crowded I leave it. I get most of my stuff delivered. If elevators are packed I wait for the next one. I don't travel on crowded subways, I take the express bus if i need to travel. I don't eat I'm crowded lunch rooms, I eat at my desk. I never realized just how much I make my own accommodations.

Same!!! I won’t go to Disney or other places at high crowd times

 

[SkyGuy]

According to this website (https://www.tripinfo.com/tips/top-20-north-american-amusement-theme-parks-by-attendance) neither Silver Dollar City nor Dollywood are even in the top 20 of US amusement parks by attendance. Comparing their practices to Disney isn’t an apples to apples comparison.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to comment, but I’m a season ticket holder at SDC because my in-laws live there, so it gets me out of the house since we spend lots of time in the area. I haven’t seen any instances of outstanding DAS practices in my dozens of experiences in the park. It’s a difficult one to navigate as well.

As far as the best out there? I’m gonna side-eye whatever group made that determination.