GAC to Become DAS

[BaconPancakes]

If human beings were honest and didn't abuse systems then none of this would be needed

It wasn't the abusers though, it was the mass amount of people with disabilities who were taking advantage.

 

[unkadug]

Lawyers love stuff like this....they get 25% of the take.

So if there are 1000 plaintiffs and the award is 1 Million.

The lawyer gets $ 250,000.00
Each plaintiff then gets $ 750.00

 

[JerseyDad]

Didn't know that, thanks. Then what is the basis of the lawsuit, people have to wait now?

...the "basis" or ...maybe the correct word should be 'purpose of this lawsuit is twofold (it's early ...only had 1 cup coffee ...so forgive the limited thought capabilities):

• First: The basis is emotion / anger / selfishness / entitlement ....that's what I see as the fuel driving the whole uproar and subsequent lawsuit
• Second: The purpose ....is Exposure ....NEGATIVE ...exposure for Disney. In the court of law ...they will prevail ...because there are SO many "details" about the DAS that scream, "We knew some faction of the h'capped crowd would go bonkers ...and we're ready for them and their lawyers". The inclusion of the word "disabled" ...the exacting and maybe tedious questions / answers that GR personnel are allowed to give / ask / respond with to issue the DAS ....all indicate that they were ready for this.
  
• Disney will definitely prevail in the lawsuit ...and it may likely be thrown out of court early in the process. However ....in the Court Of Public Opinion ....Disney will likely suffer .....and I'm sure they know that too ...and I wouldn't be surprised if they already have a 'counter-attack" ready to spin things their way (ie: new adds ...commercials that strategically place handicapped persons in view or front-n-center)

....this suit ...I can assure you ...is not only being carefully followed by theme park / amusement and entertainment venues ....I think any business that has had to provide some accommodation to the h'capped community will be interested to see what happens.

 

[JerseyDad]

"Doubtful that Disney will be held to a higher standard than other venues are to be considered ADA compliant. My gut is leading me to lean in the direction that this lawsuit might indeed backfire. It would be easier for Disney to not allow any guests special privileges beyond accessible and inclusive and wean away from the catalyst type considerations as re-entry, extra FP's and shortened wait times across the board as they are the fuel of the lawsuit and totally unnecessary in Disney being compliant. If Disney is going to be characturized as favoring one disability over another it would best to streamline compliance and omit all the other catalyst considerations. No guests awarded unless a particular attraction was constructed not to be accessible. Sometimes humans just push so hard that it backfires."

....I definitely agree with your statement that too much pushing can lead to a negative outcome. I do civil engineering and construction for 'a living' ...and at the advent of the ADA Laws ...a few clients I worked with were some of the major oil companies / gas station owners. As you may recall, gas stations always had public / customer usable restrooms. When ADA kicked in ....ALL those gas stations were required to upgrade the restrooms to be ADA compliant. When you have 20,000 gas stations ....that's a sizable undertaking with an equally sizable price tag. So ...what did the oil companies do? They got rid of the restrooms...period. They had one ...internal restroom for employee use only ...and the public got none ...because there is no requirement to HAVE to give restroom access to anyone but an employee.

....Disney has no obligation to go above and beyond ....and if they are backed into a corner ...they may change their attitude about any special accommodation.

 

[jaklgreen]

Lawyers love stuff like this....they get 25% of the take.

So if there are 1000 plaintiffs and the award is 1 Million.

The lawyer gets $ 250,000.00
Each plaintiff then gets $ 750.00

View attachment 36040

25% HA! they get 33% where I am from.

 

[GoofGoof]

....I definitely agree with your statement that too much pushing can lead to a negative outcome. I do civil engineering and construction for 'a living' ...and at the advent of the ADA Laws ...a few clients I worked with were some of the major oil companies / gas station owners. As you may recall, gas stations always had public / customer usable restrooms. When ADA kicked in ....ALL those gas stations were required to upgrade the restrooms to be ADA compliant. When you have 20,000 gas stations ....that's a sizable undertaking with an equally sizable price tag. So ...what did the oil companies do? They got rid of the restrooms...period. They had one ...internal restroom for employee use only ...and the public got none ...because there is no requirement to HAVE to give restroom access to anyone but an employee.

....Disney has no obligation to go above and beyond ....and if they are backed into a corner ...they may change their attitude about any special accommodation.

This is the exact reason the lawsuit is such a bad idea. You end up hurting the very people you claim to be defending. Any business going forward now has to consider one of these potential lawsuits. It will result in people doing exactly what is required by law and not a bit more instead of doing what they feel is right or what they feel would be best for their guests. Just sad.

 

[mr spalding]

This is the exact reason the lawsuit is such a bad idea. You end up hurting the very people you claim to be defending. Any business going forward now has to consider one of these potential lawsuits. It will result in people doing exactly what is required by law and not a bit more instead of doing what they feel is right or what they feel would be best for their guests. Just sad.

It is sad. Disney went above and beyond the call of duty catering to the disabled (especially those with invisible disabilities) and this is what they get in return (other than abuse of the system). "No good deed goes unpunished".

 

[GoofGoof]

It is sad. Disney went above and beyond the call of duty catering to the disabled (especially those with invisible disabilities) and this is what they get in return (other than abuse of the system). "No good deed goes unpunished".

I think Disney will find a way to rise above this and still offer a great experience to people with special needs. I really hope that the lawsuit and complaints from a very small minority of people doesn't change their mind one way or another.

 

[arko]

It wasn't the abusers though, it was the mass amount of people with disabilities who were taking advantage.

The simple fact is most people with a significant enough disability are not riding the big e ticket rides like Space Mountain etc that everyone is this thread has been claiming have been having issues to due to GAC abuse. TSMM and Soarin have had no changes in wait time since the DAS was implemented, these rides just have horrible rider throughput and nothing short of a redesign is going to fix that.

And to the few that think kids with Autism spectrum disorder are just whiny kids, well you have no frikkin clue, because we would kill for kids that were just whiny,because whiny can be fixed. And yes change in routine can be very stressful for kids with autism, which is why the GAC was so helpful, because short of the ride being down there were no surprises when you got there to ride and it made every park visit a repeatable experience. Every kid is different and has different tolerance levels, and different things that cause stress and the chance of a meltdown, some autistic children can handle lines with something to pre occupy them, others can't.

The only thing I will say is, as much as I understand the repetitive behavior patterns of autistic kids, using a GAC to simply ride a ride over and over again has to have some limits.

Many autistic children will learn to deal with the DAS and once it becomes the norm it will be a little easier for those families, as they will learn average wait times and how to cope with them, and how to schedule their waits around something to keep them from stressing out etc. Autistic kids can learn just like everyone else, its just that the method of learning and the time it takes is usually diiferent

As far as Autism Hippie concerned, she is not the instigator to the lawsuit, she just had herself added to the class action. And yes as some have pointed out their chances of actually proving that Disney was breaking any ADA requirements is slim, because the DAS still meets the level of reasonable accommodation, whereas the GAC was clearly a benefit that went beyond meeting basic needs and basic access. Their goal is an obvious attempt to shame Disney into some kind of reversal.

 

[Bairstow]

From what I've heard/read GAC "abuse" was a much bigger issue at Disneyland than at Florida.

Edit: specifically the problem of local card-owners lending their cards to friends/family.

 

[unkadug]

...
As far as Autism Hippie concerned, she is not the instigator to the lawsuit, she just had herself added to the class action. And yes as some have pointed out their chances of actually proving that Disney was breaking any ADA requirements is slim, because the DAS still meets the level of reasonable accommodation, whereas the GAC was clearly a benefit that went beyond meeting basic needs and basic access. Their goal is an obvious attempt to shame Disney into some kind of reversal.

The blame for the lawsuit falls squarely on the shoulders of the lawyers.

They don't give a rat's about the kids, all they want is money.

 

[arko]

From what I've heard/read GAC "abuse" was a much bigger issue at Disneyland than at Florida.

Edit: specifically the problem of local card-owners lending their cards to friends/family.

That's part of the problem nobody but Disney really knows, and quite honestly its hard to tell how much they were tracking it. A lot of the posts in here on both sides are based on anecdotal evidence, or someone claiming to have numbers from a CM etc. But either way there was an issue at both resorts, and from all reports at Disneyland the problem was associated with AP's getting a GAC even though they didn't need one because it was so easy

 

[arko]

The blame for the lawsuit falls squarely on the shoulders of the lawyers.

They don't give a rat's about the kids, all they want is money.

agreed, and its not always about the money but the publicity, even if they lose they have made a name for themselves

 

[GoofGoof]

That's part of the problem nobody but Disney really knows, and quite honestly its hard to tell how much they were tracking it. A lot of the posts in here on both sides are based on anecdotal evidence, or someone claiming to have numbers from a CM etc. But either way there was an issue at both resorts, and from all reports at Disneyland the problem was associated with AP's getting a GAC even though they didn't need one because it was so easy

I don't know how you could track abuse when it's not always possible to tell if someone really needs the cards. In Disney's official release in the FAQ section they state as one of the reasons for making this change to help control the abuse that was unfortunately widespread and growing at an alarming rate. So if you believe Disney it was a growing problem. Maybe they could quantify some of the CM abuse, but I have to think guests would be harder to judge unless they did some anonymous surveys and people admitted to abusing the system.

 

[EOD K9]

I have a question that maybe someone can answer as the focus seems to be on autism. Back in 2002 I was in a nasty motorcycle accident at work. For a few weeks, I could not do stairs at all. Walking and standing were not issues and you couldn't tell, but stairs were a different story. I've since healed and there are no issues, but here is my question. If that happened now, how would I use DAS as I know TSMM has stairs? At the time, I looked like there were no outward signs of a disability, but I was disabled during those 4 weeks. What would the procedure have been? Thanks in advance.

 

[danv3]

A lawsuit has been filed. Time to pass the story onto people who can bring attention to it.

Are we sure a lawsuit has already been filed? There's no mention anywhere on Google News, and there are plenty of docket tracking services that would have picked something like this up almost immediately since all federal and many state court dockets are online.

 

[pais]

Waiting for the new ambulance chaser phone number on TV...
"1-800-SUE-WALT"

"Have your mouse ears irritated your head?"
"Are you the least bit upset about DAS?"
"Are you upset with the color of a Princess's shoes?"
"Did Mickey FAIL to show up at your Hotel and serve your child breakfast in bed?"

Call 1-800-SUE-WALT, so we can get rich off every petty grievance you can envision!
We also sue doctors, neighbors, relatives, all major religious institutions, cats, dogs, the guy who stopped to help you on the freeway, NASCAR (just because they exist), god (all of them), innocent people with ugly hairdo's, fat people, skinny people, kids who climb on rocks... tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox...

Hilarious!!

 

[PhotoDave219]

Are we sure a lawsuit has already been filed? There's no mention anywhere on Google News, and there are plenty of docket tracking services that would have picked something like this up almost immediately since all federal and many state court dockets are online.

I'm not sure

 

[Bairstow]

Is there any of particular reason why parents of autistic children have been the most vocal opponents of the new system?

 

[GoofGoof]

Is there any of particular reason why parents of autistic children have been the most vocal opponents of the new system?

I'm not really sure they have been. One lady with a Facebook page and a few posters here, but we have had a number of posters here who are parents of autistic children who are not vocal opponents or at least understand the reasons for the change. In defense of the hippie lady she does say that her site is just for entertainment and is not intended to be a resource. She isn't claiming to be the spokesperson for the autistic parent community and IMHO we shouldn't treat her like she is.