Disillusioned

[aaarcher86]

Why do so many of these threads have to end up debating what accommodations should be given to people with autism? It's contentious and discriminatory to continuously single out autism and debate what accommodations they should or SHOULD NOT get or whether or not they are largely the cause of the GAC being changed to the DAS.

It was used as an example because that is what the poster teaches. No one was singling out autism as the bad guys.

 

[OurBigTrip]

Why do so many of these threads have to end up debating what accommodations should be given to people with autism?

It's contentious and discriminatory to continuously single out autism and debate what accommodations they should or SHOULD NOT get or whether or not they are largely the cause of the GAC being changed to the DAS.

I don't think anyone is saying that people with autism are the reason that GAC was eliminated. However, in the forums I frequent other than here, it is the parents of autistic children that are complaining the most and the loudest about the changes.

 

[ttintagel]

It just seems to me that wdw had traditionally been a very friendly and welcoming place for all of those who needed accommodations for whatever the reason.

Absolutely. It was the number one reason my family chose WDW as a vacation destination over all the other places in the world we might have gone and spent our money. We have complicated medical situations, and we always felt like WDW had a commitment to accessibility as one of its core principles, so we could go there without fear that they wouldn't work with us to make our trip as enjoyable as everybody else's.

I'm still planning on trying at least once more, once all the dust has settled from the most recent changes. Maybe next Fall or Winter. But I get less optimistic the more I read.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

As someone who has a severely mentally handicapped and moderately physically handicapped brother, and as someone who has their own health issues, I have a few thoughts. 1. Having special needs in today's society is much different than how it used to be. It used to be that people tried to keep special needs hidden, and tried to function as normally as possible. If you couldn't adapt, you didn't go. Now that special needs are more accepted in society , more people are ok with using accommodations and not trying to hide it. 2. The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. Now more people can research online how to get the accommodations they need. We saw it with the GAC's (threads talking about what to say to get stamps). This has allowed both those who need accommodations, and those who want to abuse the system access to a ton of information that wasn't available before. The same will happen with the DAS if It perceived to be a way to avoid lines or have more than one FP at a time. 3. It's not fair to expect Disney to provide for free what other places charge for or don't offer at all. Other theme parks and amusement parks offer front of the line passes if you want to pay for them. Do you expect your local amusement park to give you the same accommodations that you expect from Disney? What about your local movie theater, or grocery store? What makes Disney different? Change is hard, especially when you see it as losing something. I get it. But you have to be reasonable about what you expect, given how the world has changed. Disney is trying to do their best to allow ALL guests to have the best time possible.

 

[aaarcher86]

As someone who has a severely mentally handicapped and moderately physically handicapped brother, and as someone who has their own health issues, I have a few thoughts. 1. Having special needs in today's society is much different than how it used to be. It used to be that people tried to keep special needs hidden, and tried to function as normally as possible. If you couldn't adapt, you didn't go. Now that special needs are more accepted in society , more people are ok with using accommodations and not trying to hide it. 2. The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. Now more people can research online how to get the accommodations they need. We saw it with the GAC's (threads talking about what to say to get stamps). This has allowed both those who need accommodations, and those who want to abuse the system access to a ton of information that wasn't available before. The same will happen with the DAS if It perceived to be a way to avoid lines or have more than one FP at a time. 3. It's not fair to expect Disney to provide for free what other places charge for or don't offer at all. Other theme parks and amusement parks offer front of the line passes if you want to pay for them. Do you expect your local amusement park to give you the same accommodations that you expect from Disney? What about your local movie theater, or grocery store? What makes Disney different? Change is hard, especially when you see it as losing something. I get it. But you have to be reasonable about what you expect, given how the world has changed. Disney is trying to do their best to allow ALL guests to have the best time possible.

I think that's a really fair point. To someone who has never been the DAS is not the anti-christ that people who are used to the GAC might perceive it to be.

Sometimes people can be too close to a situation to see it objectively.

 

[Talking Hands]

I used DAS at the most crowded time at Disney and found that it was fairly reasonable but it did make the wait longer than the standby line even with the 10 minutes taken off. I think this is something that we will have to deal with during high crowd times. DAS was not needed for the shows I went to as the interpreter is considered our fastpass in. If you us interpreting to access shows they will make every effort to get you into the show.
While I was very nervous about using DAS, I am pleased at how well it went.