Respectfully, we don't doubt that you are an expert when it comes to WDW and disabilities. However every country and culture handles things differently. There are fewer people in wheelchairs in DLRP in large part because many people opt not to use them, when people with similar situations may in fact choose to rent a wheelchair or
ECV at WDW. And as someone else pointed out, DLRP is a much 'easier' situation as much can be done as a day park, has less ground to cover, and is not as warm for most of the year.
Several of us have been to DLRP multiple times, some hundreds of times. We have lived and worked in Europe under not only local law but EU regulations. More importantly, we know that there is a difference in the psyche, which is what we have tried to explain.
The number of guests using wheelchairs has in fact increased over the past five years or so at the parks, due to a combination of factors.
What I think (not to speak for another poster) Disneyadore is trying to explain is that the overall number of guests using wheelchairs is lower in part due to the differences in culture. I don't know how else we can explain it, but I understand the frustration.
I have recently been to HKDL a few times, and can make observations about things like the wheelchair exclusive busses they run, but I don't think that I am honestly fit to make more than generalizations because I haven't spent enough time in Hong Kong to really understand the laws, the regulations, the health care system, and the nature of the people.
About buses, my guess is that for many Americans coming to WDW, using the bus or monorail service is totally a new experience. Some have had absolutely no experience riding buses or other public transportation at all (other than airplanes). Some have had only experience riding school buses, where the bus stops are planned so that only as many children are picked up as there are seats on the bus. So, it's no wonder that some don't understand how riding the buses work.
I rode a bus to school (High School and college), but it was city transportation, with as many people as possible getting on the bus (funny, people are willing to cram onto a bus when they have been waiting for 20-45 minutes in below freezing weather). So, riding a bus at WDW is nothing different to me. My DH grew up in a small town and rode only school buses, so it was totally new to him and his family (it took some getting used to for them).
I am very aware that there are culture differences in how different cultures use public transportation, deal with people with disabilities and use/not use mobility devices.
Over the years, my family has hosted a total of 5 foreign exchange students, from Belgium, France, Albania, Thailand and Russia. Most were in our home for 10 months, but the young lady from Albania lived with us for 3 years and the one from Russia for more than 5 years.
All of them had very little to no experience with anyone with any disability before living in our home. They pretty much expected that my youngest daughter would have 'special treatment' where ever we went. They all asked if DD was "registered disabled" (except the student from Thailand and Albania) because that was what would happen in their country. They were surprised to hear there were not registries of "disabled" in the US, but this is how America is. Three of the young ladies accepted our daughter as their American sister. One never did end up with a relationship with our daughter, I think, partly because she could not get past pity (and partly because she was a teen with no experiences like living in our home).
Each of the students expressed to us that they thought our daughter likely would not be able to visit in their country because it is not very accessible.
I'm not saying the all of the US is so wonderfully accessible to someone who must use a wheelchair. If I visit my mother or my mother in law who live in small towns, it's not anywhere near as accessible as where I live. But, overall, we can get around.
In the US, there are people who think they need an ECV just because they are older (someone posted about taking their elderly parents - who were 66 - to WDW). Among the suggestions, some said, "66 is not old. Just go with the flow." Some said, "rent them an ECV." Do I think some people use ECVs in the US because they are readily available - Yes, some could get thru a day at WDW, but would be more tired or in pain. Some could not make more than a few hours. But for each who uses an ECV, there are probably some like my father in law who spent 10 years going to WDW with extreme pain every day from walking, but would not use an ECV. The last few years of his life, he did use one (but only at Epcot and the Studio) and said he wished he had swallowed his pride and used one earlier because he finally was able to not be in pain.
Each of the students came with us on a trip to WDW and all were surprised that we would take our daughter with us because they did not expect there would be anything she could do at WDW. They felt (their opinion) was that people in their countries with disabilities just did not go places outside of home and places they knew. They also were surprised that we had to pay for her to enter the park, since in their experience, that would be given to someone with a "registered disability."
They were surprised to find that many of the attractions at WDW were built so that someone with a disability could go in the regular queue with everyone else.
I was not the person who brought up DL Paris, but I gave my opinion that one of the differences between WDW and DL Paris is that WDW is more wheelchair accessible through the regular queues. I based that on having visited WDW many times and DL once. I could look at queues as I walked them and at the park map for DL Paris and see that many of the attractions there had special handicapped access routes.
I could also see that most of the queues at the Studio part of the park are accessible thru the regular line. This is a newer park, so something changed that made the builders design it to be more accessible without special treatment.
I don't know whether the changes were due to law, changes in culture/psyche or in expectations of people with disabilities, but I don't need to know why to have an opinion that WDW is more accessible thru the regular lines.
The specific example given by Disneyadore was a child getting a private meeting with Mickey and stating this was a difference that at DL Paris, these things are reserved for those with life threatening illnesses, and implying that WDW would not do it that way. I explained this would be the case for that type of experience at WDW also.
So anyway, different opinions, different experiences, different ways of doing things.
Different just means different. Not that one culture/way/opinion is right or wrong.
Disney has the transportation RIGHT, or the most "right" to incorporate the most guests from every walk of life. Able-bodied folks get frustrated with ECVs, and I would suppose that ECV riders get frustrated with even having to use a ECV.
I tried to carry this ECVS shouldn't get on the bus first torch just a few weeks ago, I have been invited to spend some time with a ECV user in October and still plan to. I have also said I will be an advocate for the ECVs from now on.
Disney has the transportation right. If we put the ECV riders in line, Or even their families. We start loading a bus and the line is running smoothly and then the ECV or the family of the ECV rider is next in line and the folks that would have loaded after the ECV would be complaining. I also felt a couple of weeks ago that having different buses to go around and pick up the ECVs was the answer. Disney would have to have a fleet of buses, new buses they would have to purchase, purchase with money they had to generate by RAISING ticket prices. I cannot make Disney buy enough buses for this function, suppose disney bought say 4 buses for this function, ECV riders would wait for hours for transportation.......what gives me the right? ECV riders pay the same admission I do. Disney has an obligation if they are going to make ECV riders pay the same admission I do, then they must provide equal methods of transportation.
It is more efficient to load the ECV first, it takes more time and after loading an ECV and their family then able-bodied can load easier as well. It is also much easier for able bodied folks to manuever around ECVs then ECVs to manuever around folks standing on the bus.
Disney didn't just throw this transportation system together in one day, My guess it has been studied and evaluated by folks for years, My guess is they researched mass transportation that has worked well overseas for years. I had a real change of heart about a week ago. I used to get frustrated about the ECV riders getting special treatment, I used to think that they negatively affected the outcome of my vacation......what the hell gave me the right? For all of the folks feeling as though they have somehow been wronged by getting on a bus after a ECV, once at a resort and you are either inside the park of handing your pass to the admissions attendant, look behind you and in most instances the Disney driver hasn't even lowered the bus in preperation of unloading the ECV.
Lastly, and more importantly to me, I would hope that all of you would remember the smiles and the laughs, the messy faces after eating a mickey ice cream far longer that the alleged frustration one might feel after an ECV rider boarded a bus before you. I have had a change in heart and I am thankful that I don't have to use special assist lifts, I am thankful I can board a bus after an ECV. I am also thankful that in the event I find myself in an ECV that I can rely on Disney that I can share the experiences with my able-bodied family members.
Thank YOU, scuba.
I was going to post a link to the thread that you started because it ended so differently than I expected it would.
Thank you for coming onto this thread and explaining your change of mind/attitude.
Gonna try this again.
YOU may have a problem with a Guest in an ECV or wheelchair being accompanied by other members of their party.
WALT DISNEY WORLD - the business owner - DOESN'T. They ALLOW it. They don't care that YOUR family chooses do travel a different way.
Disney ALLOWS the wheelchair/ECV Guest to board with UP TO five members of their party.
If you see MORE than six members of a party being allowed to board the bus together through the back door - a decision made by the WDW employee in charge, aka the bus driver - make a note of the location, the time, the bus number, the driver's name, and report the incident to your resort's management.
As for "jumping ahead":
It makes LOGISTICAL SENSE to allow the wheelchairs/ECVs to board the bus while it's empty:
... there are no toes to risk running over (except the poor bus driver, who should be wearing sturdy, closed-toed footwear)
... there is nobody with their behinds already in the seats that need to be folded so the wheelchairs/ECVs can be tied down
... there is nobody in the additional seats the ECV users (and wheelchair users who can transfer) need FOR SAFETY
FLORIDA LAW REQUIRES IT.
Guests who disagree with Walt Disney World's policies/Florida's laws for boarding wheelchair/ECV Guests in public transit are free and welcome to find alternate transportation.
Also, keep in mind that just because people are boarding thru the open door while the bus driver is busy tying down the ECV or wheelchair does NOT mean that these people are necessarily members of that party. We usually have only 3 members of our party board at the rear (DD in her wheelchair, DH and me - or if we have my mom or MIL along, one of them may board in my place). BUT, people seeing the open door often get on, even though there is a line of people waiting by the closed front door. That doesn't happen often, but has happened to us at least once on every trip.
Often the driver doesn't say anything (we have had situations where the driver has said something and the guests who got in the back door got very angry).
So, things may not always be as they appear.
, but it happens... 
