Some observations for those with visual challenges and those using service animals

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We invited my sister and her family to join us for a trip to Disney World this year. She's been many times, both as a child and as an adult. We both grew up enjoying Disney World vacations with our parents, and have retained our love for visiting. I was really glad they were able to join us for a stay in the new Treehouse Villas at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort.

She has been completely blind since infancy. I told her about my compulsive planning for my Disney trips (warned her is probably a better term), and also told her about the Dis. We used the disABILITIES thread to learn some things that allowed her to enjoy the trip in a whole new way.

Thanks! It was very helpful.

Here were some of the specific observations we made during the trip. I hope others find them helpful.

Descriptive Services Device

When we arrived at Epcot, we stopped in Guest Relations to check out one of the descriptive services devices. They use the same device to provide close captioning, audio enhancement, and descriptive services. The cast member needs to make selections from a menu on the device to set it to the proper mode. The cast member who was helping us had received training on the device, but had never actually set one up for descriptive services. She had some trouble getting it to work. After about five minutes, she went to the back and swapped it out for a second device, but had the same problem with that one. She then asked a co-worker to help her, and together they were able to get it programmed. Both were very nice, and we didn’t mind the wait at all.

The device is a bit larger than we'd anticipated -- larger than a Walkman, and much heavier. It hangs on a strap that you're supposed to put over your shoulder. It needs to be above your waist for the device to see the transmitters in the rides. My sister found it more comfortable to wear with the strap around her waist (like a fanny pack). She'd take it off and hold it for the rides. She didn’t want to wear the headset around her neck, so finding a place for that to hang took some trial and error. It would have been nice if there was a pocket or clip to hold it when not in use. We wound up hooking the headset around the strap. This worked OK, but it would fall off every once in a while.

Speaking of the headset, she wasn't thrilled with it at all. They're like the type you might have gotten on a Walkman 5 or 10 years ago. She said she would have preferred an earpiece for a single ear. With the headset on, she wasn't able to listen to things around her as well. The jack is a standard 1/8" mini jack, so I suppose we could have brought some personal IPod headsets in with us to use with it.

One disappointment was when they handed me a photocopied list of rides in which descriptive services are available. There was no Braille version, so I had to read the list to her. The device is designed to vibrate (sort of like a Pal Mickey) when it's in the entrance area of an attraction for which the service is available, but you’d think a device being provided for blind visitors would have a Braille version of any literature.

For the rides in which the device worked, my sister said it was great. She got details about rides she's been on dozens of times that she'd never been told before. It goes into an awesome level of detail. The descriptive audio is also timed not to step on top of any narration from the ride itself. It really is a fantastic service.

Unfortunately, the attractions in which the device was fully functional weren't widespread. Not every ride has the service. And it is not reliable in some that do have it.

In Spaceship Earth, she said the descriptive services were wonderful. However, she soon realized she was hearing about things that weren't there. The program was never updated when the ride was changed during its last refurbishment. She had the same problem at the Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdom. The descriptive services program was still describing the old program. In that case, it was very noticeable because the old show was much shorter than the new, and hers ended long before the show let out.

In other attractions, she'd get sporadic connectivity to the transmitters. Holding the device up, out of the car, and at every angle possible didn't help. She had this difficulty in both the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

It took a while to check the device out, then get the refund at the end of each day. It was bulkier and heavier than we anticipated. It wasn't programmed for every attraction, and its performance was sporadic in those for which it had been programmed. All in all, though, she still wanted to continue to get and use it. She said it was a good thing.

Cast Member Roulette

This was probably the biggest issue we ran into: Cast Member Roulette. This is a term I’ve seen used here on the Dis to refer to the fact that you don’t always get good information from Disney cast members. Because they don’t deal with these types of questions as frequently as they do the typical tourist inquiries, Cast Member Roulette is unfortunately notable when asking questions related to special needs. I don’t think we ran into a single cast member who wasn’t friendly, and who didn’t try to answer our questions and help us. However, the level of training at Disney is far from consistent when it comes to policies and accommodations for service animals. If we asked the same question of 10 different cast members, we seemed to get 9-to-10 different answers. The policy of how to deal with service animals seemed to vary with each ride. And in some cases, the policy was different at the same ride when we returned on a different day.

We learned to be patient. When we heard something that didn’t sound quite right, we found someone else to ask.

Guest Accommodation Card

While at Epcot Guest Relations on that first day, we asked about my sister’s service dog, Chopper, and whether we needed to do anything special because of him. We were told we didn't. I then specifically asked if we needed a GAC. (Thanks, Dis!) The cast member said we probably didn't, but would write one for us anyway if we wanted. We asked that he please do so. I'm glad I knew to ask, and I’m glad we asked him to write it. My sister was asked to show it on numerous occasions.

Service Animal Rest Areas

Persons not to ask about service animal rest areas:

Security guards. You'd think they'd be the ones to know best, but they apparently don't have a clue. While in Tomorrowland, one gave me detailed directions on how to leave the park, catch the monorail to the transportation and ticket center, and walk to the kennel, which, according to him, is the only place the dog could relieve himself. We thanked him for his help, and walked away to find someone else to ask. (Thanks for playing cast member roulette!)

Cast Members in restaurants, at snack stands, or selling souvenirs. Many of them apparently never read the book "Everybody Poops" when they were young, and didn't seem to understand that service animals would need a rest area. We got some very creative answers at times, but mostly were told, sorry, they didn’t know. (Thanks for playing cast member roulette!)

After much trial and error, here's what we found regarding rest breaks for Chopper. The parks have many service animal rest areas. These are in behind-the-scenes areas, and are usually near a ride. Because they're near rides, cast members working at the entrances to rides are the best ones to ask. They always seemed to know. In some cases, they'd point us to a door or a gate and tell us to look for a sign back there. In most cases, though, they'd walk us back and chat with us while Chopper took his break.

Service Animals on Rides

We just learned to go with the flow when it came to rides. We'd usually ask the cast member at the FastPass entrance what the procedure was. It really was a mixed bag. In some cases, the cast member would treat the dog/GAC as a FastPass. In other cases, we'd be asked to use the child swap procedures. In some cases, we were directed to enter through the exit. And in others, we were told the dog could ride without special accommodations. A few times we were told one thing at an entrance, only to be turned around by another cast member further down the line. (Thanks for playing Cast Member Roulette!)

There may have been more, but I specifically remember that Chopper got to ride Spaceship Earth, Nemo's Clamshells, Haunted Mansion, Toy Story Mania, the Jungle Cruise, Ellen's Energy Adventure, and Journey into Imagination.

I remember that Chopper was specifically not allowed to ride Test Track, Mission to Mars, Soarin', Rockin' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Expedition: Everest, and Dinosaur.

On Spaceship Earth, my sister, Chopper and I all fit in the car. It was a tight squeeze, but we fit. Unfortunately, my sister was embarrassed on this ride because, despite the fact that we were in the car already, they stopped the belt and someone came over to admonish us for not using the handicapped entrance. We told them we'd been directed into the regular line by a cast member out front. (Thanks for playing cast member roulette!)

We also had a problem in the haunted mansion. I walked my sister and Chopper to their doom buggy and got them seated, but couldn't fit in the car myself. I turned around to get in the next doom buggy, but the cast member had already put another family in it. I wound up 3 cars behind her. This led to some issues at the end of the ride, because I wasn't able to get up to her when she was exiting. Chopper did a good job, though, and led her off the belt on their own.

Service Animals in the Florida Heat

One of the things my sister was very concerned about was the heat. We were there in early August, and the heat was intense. She was worried Chopper would burn his feet on the pavement. (To the extent that we even looked at infant socks in the resort gift shop before heading to the park the first day.) We were very conscious of this while we were there, and kept an eye on how Chopper was reacting to the different types of pavement. At the end of the week, there was only one place in Epcot (outside Ellen's Energy Adventure) where he appeared to be uncomfortable. (He wouldn't obey the command to sit and was very fidgety.) We found him some shaded pavement and he was fine.

Using a plastic bag as a bowl, we were always able to find him something to drink. Every vendor wanted to share some of their water with Chopper. Many cast members at the rides asked if he needed a drink, too.

Other People Reacting To and Interacting With the Service Animal

One of the other things I observed was how others were reacting to Chopper.

At character meals, we were very conscious about telling each character about the dog under the table. The last thing we wanted to happen was for Mickey Mouse or Pluto to trip and go sprawling. Once they knew he was down there, every character had a ball with him. Chopper wound up with more pictures with the characters than any of the rest of us.

In lines, everyone took note of Chopper's presence -- especially the kids. Most people were very respectful, and would ask if they could pet him. We’d also occasionally hear a parent telling their child that the doggy was working, let’s not bother him. When asked, my sister was always very nice to say of course they could pet him. She'd also have him shake hands with many of the kids. There were times that she’d have her own line – similar to one of the characters. I thought it was strange that on several occasions, people came up to her and asked if they could take her picture. I commented that this was strange, and she told me she'd experienced the same thing in other tourist destinations such as Las Vegas and Times Square. Some kids would just come up and pet Chopper without asking, and she'd be accommodating of it. My sister (as with all our family) is very outgoing and conversational with strangers. She didn't have any problems with the attention. Other service animal owners who may be shy, don't want the extra attention, or who want to try to keep their animals more on task while they're in harness may want to prepare themselves for this aspect.

(If you're not a service animal owner and would like some advice on proper etiquette with a service animal, you can check out this article on the Leader Dogs for the Blind web site.)

A few miscellaneous Chopper stories

My sister is a fantastic singer. (No bias here. LOL) While we were there, she auditioned for American Idol Experience, and was selected as a contestant. She won her 4:00 show, but was eliminated during the 7:00 finale. Chopper accompanied her on stage while she sang. I was concerned about how he’d react to the stage, the crowd, and the noise. During both performances, though, he lay down at her feet and closed his eyes. For the second show, he lay down with his back to the audience. I guess we’d worn him out with all the Disney walking. He did react, though, when she won. The PhotoPass photographer got some outstanding pictures of my sister jumping up and down in glee and Chopper jumping right along with her.

Another story has to do with Chopper’s favorite toy. When he was a puppy and during his training, his family apparently used a laser pointer as a toy. My sister has one, and he loves chasing the point of light. While at Epcot, we took him over to the sidewalks with the fiber optic lights in them, and he had a ball. He also had a ball in the ball. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite expecting this one. During the part of Spaceship Earth where the car turns around to go backward downhill, you enter a room that is filled with thousands of points of light. To Chopper, this looked like a room with thousands of his favorite toys. He tried to hop up and out of the car in excitement, and we both had to restrain him. (He’s otherwise a very, very good dog. In this case, though, I think his excitement got the better of him. It was his only “oops” all week.)

 

[robynchic]

Thanks for your post! I loved reading it, and as a CM, it helped me realize that I should be more aware of where the puppy potty areas are.

Just curious, where did your sister get her dog? My family used to raise Guiding Eyes for the Blind puppies (which I guess is why I literally laughed out loud when I read about Chopper and the lights; we had dogs that wanted to go after tennis balls on TV!)

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Just curious, where did your sister get her dog? My family used to raise Guiding Eyes for the Blind puppies (which I guess is why I literally laughed out loud when I read about Chopper and the lights; we had dogs that wanted to go after tennis balls on TV!)

Chopper is a Leader Dog. Their facility is in Michigan.

 

[jrc-elpaso]

Chopper is a Leader Dog. Their facility is in Michigan.

I'm from Michigan originally (now live in Texas) and had a co-worker (this was back in the early 70's) who was the leader of a 4-h group of girls who raised the puppies for them.

 

[cccdisney]

Thanks for posting your experiences! My son just received his service dog from 4 Paws for Ability earlier this month!
We frequent DL and can't wait to taker her on our next trip.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the really complete report. I am going to post a link to it in the disABILITIES FAQs thread.

It sounds like the CMs in Guest Relations did not give you a copy of the Guidemap for Guests with Disabilities for each park. That would have been very helpful, because it does have about a 1/4 page section about Service Animals which lists:

• Attraction entrance procedures: It says to follow the same attraction entrance procedure as listed for guests using wheelchairs and the map tells where to enter each attraction.
• Service Animal Restrictions: Listing the ones Service Animals are not allowed on and ones where guests should talk to a CM before riding (Spaceship Earth is one of those).
• Designated Break areas: There are fairly complete instructions to at least point you to the general area and tell you which gate the break area is behind.

The Guidemap lists Braille Guides as being available at Guest Relations for a $25 refundable deposit (must return on the same day to get the deposit back).

You have detailed some training opportunities for WDW and I hope you will send a copy of this to WDW. Also, their own literature says that you don't need a GAC to bring the dog into whatever is listed as the wheelchair accessible entrance, so those CMs who asked for a GAC were not handling things correctly. Having a copy of the Guidebook would have helped.

Some of the things that seemed inconsistent may not have been a result of poor training, but of changing situations.
For example, one of the last times we went on Haunted Mansion, we were directed to enter at the exit. The regular waiting line was not that long, so if we would have gone into the regular line, we would have reached the 'pull off' point for people with disabilities/wheelchairs in about the same time. The area where people with special needs wait had 8 parties already waiting; we passed one party coming out when we were coming in.
During the time we were waiting, the regular line grew by quite a bit and we saw another wheelchair party directed to wait in the 'regular' line by the same CM who directed us to go in the exit. My assumption is that we were directed in the exit because there was 'room' in the waiting area for us, but the area had reached the point of being 'full' when the other wheelchair party arrived. We have also been treated another way at Haunted Mansion - when we arrived, a CM told us the waiting area was full and they gave us a handwritten sort of Fastpass to return at a certain time.
Now, this may look like inconsistency or poor training, but knowing the situation changes the perception.

 

[SueM in MN]

One thing I forgot to ask - Do you have any pictures of the new descriptive assistance device?
I have some pictures that I got from other sites (including Disney and a newspaper), but I would prefer not to post them on the disABILITIES FAQs thread since I don't have permission to use those pictures.

Thanks

 

[LockShockBarrel]

There definitely is a lot of variation in how CM's handle the dogs. A lot didn't seem to understand that I'd have to walk my father up to the ride vehicle in a lot of cases because of his blindness and tried to tell me that wasn't allowed and I'd have to wait at the far end of the ride with the dog (this is on rides where we had to swap). After finding another CM, things were fine. I understand that procedures change and every situation is different, but I wish the CM's would be trained enough to know that they should offer to find one who does know the proper procedures and answers when they can rather than just saying they don't know.

I'm surprised to hear they let Chopper on Toy Story Mania, as Racer wasn't allowed. Is Chopper a smaller breed or dog? Racer is a 80 lb yellow lab, and very stockily built so maybe it was just a matter of his size that they didn't allow him on.

An interesting story to share was our encounter with Push, the automated interactive garbage can. The last time we were at the world, last October, we were kind of rushing through Tomorrowland on our way to an ADR and I heard a weird barking noise. I stopped and looked around thinking maybe there was a futuristic dog character hidden somewhere but it was Push! Had I not be in a hurry and had the need to catch up to my father at this point, I would have reported him... if we had been standing watching Push, it would have been a different story but this could have easily been a distraction for the dog. I posted this story on another forum and a cast member told me they're trained specifically to never talk to, touch, or distract a service animal in any way, that they're to be treated as a guest. This almost made me more angry, knowing that this CM who was controlling Push should have known better. I'm hoping this was just a one time thing, but I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone had a similar experience.

Also hi to the former raiser that worked with Guiding Eyes for the Blind! That's where Racer and our first guide dog are from.

 

[metime]

I really enjoyed your post. My 9 year old volunteers for playtime with puppies that will eventually be trained to be service dogs. She loves to see them in action and will love reading this.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

One thing I forgot to ask - Do you have any pictures of the new descriptive assistance device?
I have some pictures that I got from other sites (including Disney and a newspaper), but I would prefer not to post them on the disABILITIES FAQs thread since I don't have permission to use those pictures.

Thanks

No, sorry. I'm afraid it's the one thing I didn't photograph this year.

 

[christymarie]

Thanks for posting your experiences! My son just received his service dog from 4 Paws for Ability earlier this month!
We frequent DL and can't wait to taker her on our next trip.

We got our Service dog from 4-paws too. She did great at WDW!

 

[christymarie]

There definitely is a lot of variation in how CM's handle the dogs. A lot didn't seem to understand that I'd have to walk my father up to the ride vehicle in a lot of cases because of his blindness and tried to tell me that wasn't allowed and I'd have to wait at the far end of the ride with the dog (this is on rides where we had to swap). After finding another CM, things were fine. I understand that procedures change and every situation is different, but I wish the CM's would be trained enough to know that they should offer to find one who does know the proper procedures and answers when they can rather than just saying they don't know.

I'm surprised to hear they let Chopper on Toy Story Mania, as Racer wasn't allowed. Is Chopper a smaller breed or dog? Racer is a 80 lb yellow lab, and very stockily built so maybe it was just a matter of his size that they didn't allow him on.

An interesting story to share was our encounter with Push, the automated interactive garbage can. The last time we were at the world, last October, we were kind of rushing through Tomorrowland on our way to an ADR and I heard a weird barking noise. I stopped and looked around thinking maybe there was a futuristic dog character hidden somewhere but it was Push! Had I not be in a hurry and had the need to catch up to my father at this point, I would have reported him... if we had been standing watching Push, it would have been a different story but this could have easily been a distraction for the dog. I posted this story on another forum and a cast member told me they're trained specifically to never talk to, touch, or distract a service animal in any way, that they're to be treated as a guest. This almost made me more angry, knowing that this CM who was controlling Push should have known better. I'm hoping this was just a one time thing, but I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone had a similar experience.

Also hi to the former raiser that worked with Guiding Eyes for the Blind! That's where Racer and our first guide dog are from.

They let Gemini on Toy Story also but I will not take her on it again. It was way too jerky and not a good ride for her. She's an 80lb chocolate lab.

 

[robynchic]

Also hi to the former raiser that worked with Guiding Eyes for the Blind! That's where Racer and our first guide dog are from.

Awesome! We raised four dogs with them. Their names were Yankee, Tycoon, Troy and Chapman. We also puppysat Ginger, Parfait and Amigo.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

Our guide dogs are/have been Racer and Ty. Ty's name was actually changed from his original name by the puppy raiser. I'm sure if you know about GEB you know how each week has a letter assigned to it and all the puppies born that week have a name that begins with that letter. Ty used to be Piper. His puppy raiser worked at Tyler elementary school and Piper just didn't fit him, so with he became Ty, officially on his paperwork he was P-Ty.

I've also met Montana, Lolly, Oaxana, and a slew of others including the first Poodle named Sassy because our area puppy coordinator used to raise poodles and she's a sassy lady, so they decided she'd be the best to give the first poodle a shot and named her as such.

 

[robynchic]

Our guide dogs are/have been Racer and Ty. Ty's name was actually changed from his original name by the puppy raiser. I'm sure if you know about GEB you know how each week has a letter assigned to it and all the puppies born that week have a name that begins with that letter. Ty used to be Piper. His puppy raiser worked at Tyler elementary school and Piper just didn't fit him, so with he became Ty, officially on his paperwork he was P-Ty.

I've also met Montana, Lolly, Oaxana, and a slew of others including the first Poodle named Sassy because our area puppy coordinator used to raise poodles and she's a sassy lady, so they decided she'd be the best to give the first poodle a shot and named her as such.

It's every week now? It used to be every litter started with a different letter. That's why Tycoon's tat said what it did. He was the 10th pup from the fourth T litter of 1995. His birthday was in December, so we knew he was one of the last litters of the year.

I still think Chapman was my favorite. He was a golden/lab cross (he was a Boomer pup aka of legen....wait for it...dary parentage) and was hilarious! Though it's funny how Yankee would tease us and you just knew he was laughing at you. You could see it in his eyes.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

Hm maybe you're right that it's a litter to litter letter... I could swear I heard it was every week but I could be wrong. It would make sense your way though because Ty was P492 and Racer is R103 or some combination of those letters and numbers. When I was about 11 I sent GEB a giant list of names, mainly out of the dictionary and word search puzzle books.

 

[robynchic]

Hm maybe you're right that it's a litter to litter letter... I could swear I heard it was every week but I could be wrong. It would make sense your way though because Ty was P492 and Racer is R103 or some combination of those letters and numbers. When I was about 11 I sent GEB a giant list of names, mainly out of the dictionary and word search puzzle books.

Tycoon was 10T495. I don't know why his is the only one I remember, but there ya go.

 

[OneLittleSpark]

This is a really great report, thank you so much! It's extremely helpful to have such a comprehensive report of the new Audio Descriptive Devices - both their good points and their weaknesses! Thank you!!

 

[LockShockBarrel]

OneLittleSpark I have to say I've seen you in other posts and I just love your warning.

 

[OneLittleSpark]

OneLittleSpark I have to say I've seen you in other posts and I just love your warning.

Thank you very much! I put that up after causing a huge argument on one of the 'interesting' disability related threads on other areas of the DIS. I tried to post something calmly explaining that a disability doesn't actually get you front of the line access, yadda yadda yadda, then someone on the 'other side of the fence' went rooting around on disABILITIES, found a joking post I put up about wanting to run over idiots, and suddenly there was a huge flame fight going on over little old me! And I wasn't even awake at the time (many of the lovely disABILITIES people came to my defence, though )! Ever since then, I've felt the need to warn some people that I'm not always deadly serious