Daughter with Anxiety & Tourettes- MCO assistance.

[DLgal]

What helps your daughter get through her anxiety/panic attacks? What does she need in that moment? Is that thing something she can have/do while standing in a line?

For my son, it's watching YouTube videos with headphones on or playing solitaire or Tetris on his phone. He can completely zone out doing that. All we have to do is make sure he always has a fully charged phone and external battery pack.

My other son needs a specific plush. He travels with it.

If you can't get Global Entry in time (I'd try for that first) just try and be as prepared as possible with coping aides for a long wait and explain it to her so she will be prepared.

 

[DisneyOma]

They are looking for the specific one that is part of the program.
according to the link I posted, they are available at the Orlando airport.

»Airport staff are trained to recognize the lanyards and to be understanding if additional help is needed.
Lanyards are available at the Main Terminal Information Booths, located on Level 3 (Departures Level, prior to the security checkpoint).
Wearing a lanyard DOES NOT guarantee fast tracking through security or any preferential treatment. Passengers are still required to arrange special assistance with their airlines and TSA Cares.

Thank you - that seems counterproductive to me though - you have to go wait in line at an information booth to get it! How does that help, as one still has to communicate that there is an issue, while in a stressful place. Also, doesn't the TSA Cares program do pretty much the same thing, or even more? And that can get set up before going to the airport. I wonder if people are allowed to keep the lanyards so they only have to wait in the line once - or do they have to return them (and then what happens to the lanyards, are they thrown way?) And when they say airport staff, do they mean airline employees as well, and police and security? Just not seeing the point of the lanyard right now, as it can't be taken care of until you are at the airport, and it does nothing but alert certain people that someone has been tagged with social/emotional/communication issues. Does staff assume those without the lanyard don't have those issues? Hopefully the TSA treats all people with the same level of empathy.

 

[leiaorgana]

The sunflower lanyards are a specific program for hidden disabilities that is recognised globally and is a specific design, so not just any old sunflower lanyards, that can be purchased easily online:

https://hiddendisabilitiesstore.com/

It’s for people that have hidden disabilities and who want to alert airline/airport staff (or in any other public settings) to that fact and let people know that they might need extra or special assistance at times. Nobody’s obligated to wear them if they don’t feel comfortable wearing one or already know that they don’t need any special assistance. I actually saw a couple children on our Virgin flight from Manchester airport wearing them at baggage claim at MCO this Sunday so they can get the lanyards beforehand if they wish to.

As for Global Entry, we actually sent an email to a certain address earlier in the week and selected the “flying within 3-5 days” option since we still hadn’t heard anything after applying in March and the day before we flew out to Orlando we got our emails saying we’d been conditionally approved and needed to do our interviews on arrival. Going through the Global Entry line and using the machines was a total breeze since the Belfast Virgin flight landed at the same time as ours because of a bad storm had us all circling for 40 minutes so the queue was very long for immigration but it actually took us a while to find someone who could do the interview for us since all of the TSA people we spoke to in the baggage claim area were incredibly rude and told us we could be waiting hours for someone to do it because they just didn’t want to deal with it there and then until eventually we did find someone who was actually helpful and took us right over to someone who could do it for us after getting our bags and it took around 10 minutes for all four of us to be done.

 

[DisneyOma]

The sunflower lanyards are a specific program for hidden disabilities that is recognised globally and is a specific design, so not just any old sunflower lanyards, that can be purchased easily online:

https://hiddendisabilitiesstore.com/

Not quite "globally recognized" according to the map on the above site, but in many countries, at least, mainly English speaking ones and Europe. Continents of South America, Africa, and a large chunk of Asia are not part of the program, yet.

I did find the lanyard for sale on Amazon, so that makes it a bit easier.

 

[lanejudy]

The sunflower lanyard has been discussed here on the disABILITIES Forum in the past. Recognition has been slow in the US though more places (airports and other businesses) are gradually learning about it. It is definitely "internationally" recognized if not truly "global" and I do think it is most widely recognized in the UK and Europe.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thank you - that seems counterproductive to me though - you have to go wait in line at an information booth to get it! How does that help, as one still has to communicate that there is an issue, while in a stressful place. Also, doesn't the TSA Cares program do pretty much the same thing, or even more? And that can get set up before going to the airport. I wonder if people are allowed to keep the lanyards so they only have to wait in the line once - or do they have to return them (and then what happens to the lanyards, are they thrown way?) And when they say airport staff, do they mean airline employees as well, and police and security? Just not seeing the point of the lanyard right now, as it can't be taken care of until you are at the airport, and it does nothing but alert certain people that someone has been tagged with social/emotional/communication issues. Does staff assume those without the lanyard don't have those issues? Hopefully the TSA treats all people with the same level of empathy.

I‘ve never seen long lines at the information booths at Orlando Airport and I don’t think the person who needs assistance would need to be the one specifically waiting in line. There are ways to get them ahead of time also.

TSA Cares is ONLY helpful for the process of going thru Security. It doesn’t expedite or shorten the wait in line (TSA Cares website does say that it doesn’t). In addition, we have not had much luck with assistance from TSA Cares in Orlando, even when we contacted them previous to our trip.

Staff would/should assume those with the lanyard are self-identifying as people who might need extra assistance. That doesn’t say anything about people without lanyards and doesn’t mean they don’t have any special needs