New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[Chip Chipperson]

Let me try to give a clearer example.

Old system:

Your child has autism - you get DAS

So autism = DAS

No grey areas.

New system:

Parent of Billy a white 7 year old calls in, and due to his needs arising from autism is approved for DAS.

Parent of Sarah a Black 7 year old calls in, however she is denied DAS for her autistic child.

Sarahs Mom knows Billy’s mom and is aware her son was approved. She also knows her daughters symptoms are more severe than Billy’s so her daughter should have been accommodated.

Now the reasons for Sarah’s denial of DAS might not have anything to due at all with racism. Maybe the Mom didn’t do a good job explaining the symptoms or maybe the cast member taking the call had been screamed at by the last 3 people, and had a bad moment.

But I tell you how this is going to look to Sarah’s Mom. It looks like white kid gets DAS, black kid gets denied.

That will make for an interesting social media post that I’m sure won’t frame Disney in a positive light.

That's why the CMs have assistance available from Inspire - so they eliminate as much inconsistency as possible. There is no reason to accommodate every autistic person with DAS when not every autistic person actually needs DAS to experience the parks and attractions. It is highly unlikely that someone with a less sever level of autism will need DAS ("want" and "is accustomed to" are a different story), so the scenario you are proposing is incredibly unlikely. Even if such a scenario were to actually play out, there are ways for Disney to rectify it (retrain the CM who gave Billy DAS and/or the CM who denied Sarah if Disney determines that CM error caused the disparity, speak with Sarah’s Mom to get more information that may have been missed during her initial call to determine if DAS actually is necessary).

Taking it further, Disney could find itself in the same situation with the Standby/LL merge points. All it takes is for the CM to switch from one line to the other with a minority group the first group stopped before the CM allowed people from the other line to proceed. That is something more likely to happen given the diversity of WDW visitors and the seemingly (but nor actually) randomness with deciding when to stop the LL or when to stop the Standby line. Yet WDW doesn't have a reputation as a place that discriminates against minorities even with all the years of FP, FP+, & G+/ILL creating millions of potential "Why did you stop us but not them???" scenarios.

 

[Trauma]

That's why the CMs have assistance available from Inspire - so they eliminate as much inconsistency as possible. There is no reason to accommodate every autistic person with DAS when not every autistic person actually needs DAS to experience the parks and attractions. It is highly unlikely that someone with a less sever level of autism will need DAS ("want" and "is accustomed to" are a different story), so the scenario you are proposing is incredibly unlikely. Even if such a scenario were to actually play out, there are ways for Disney to rectify it (retrain the CM who gave Billy DAS and/or the CM who denied Sarah if Disney determines that CM error caused the disparity, speak with Sarah’s Mom to get more information that may have been missed during her initial call to determine if DAS actually is necessary).

Taking it further, Disney could find itself in the same situation with the Standby/LL merge points. All it takes is for the CM to switch from one line to the other with a minority group the first group stopped before the CM allowed people from the other line to proceed. That is something more likely to happen given the diversity of WDW visitors and the seemingly (but nor actually) randomness with deciding when to stop the LL or when to stop the Standby line. Yet WDW doesn't have a reputation as a place that discriminates against minorities even with all the years of FP, FP+, & G+/ILL creating millions of potential "Why did you stop us but not them???" scenarios.

My overarching theme in the hypothetical situation I created was that of a lack of a concrete system.

Every time you leave something up to a cast member to make a decision based on anything but clearly defined rules, you have the opportunity for mistakes. This doesn’t mean the Cast member is malicious, it just means they are human.

You also have the scenario where people in need of accommodations are being treated differently based on the cast member they interact with.

On Monday the received accommodations at SDMT but when they return Wednesday a different cast member determines they don’t need they same accommodation.

That can be a confusing and frustrating situation for any Disabled person trying to navigate an already difficult environment.

 

[DrummerAlly]

What about universal’s assistance service? Does your daughter qualify for that one?

We've never tried. We are lucky enough to be able to book their deluxe level resorts which automatically come with express passes. Universal's system uses a IBCCES card at some point in the process though, which we'd have no issue getting for my daughter.

I feel lucky to not have a severely disabled child. Really and truly. I want people who truly have severely disabled children to continue to be able to get the DAS. Does it suck a little for families like mine if we are denied? (I haven't even tried yet). Yeah, it does, but we will survive.

She can handle lines of 30 to maybe 40 minutes, especially if you can see the destination clearly (for example - Winnie the pooh, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise). If she doesn't know how far the line stretches (example, Space Mountain, Soarin) and where she will be going or if the line doesn't move well, she will begin to panic and will be annoying, at best, to the people around us. This type of situation is going to be common among many kids with level 1 autism.

Reading more about RTQ, if they create a system where we can give the front line CM a piece of paper or something at the front of very long or problematic lines, RTQ will be a perfectly appropriate accommodation for my family. What I don't want to have to do is to explain everything out loud to a CM every time she needs an accommodation.

An ideal system for us (and I'm guessing many): program RTQ privileges into her magic band for any ride with a wait over, say, 40 minutes so that we don't need to go round and round with a CM each time. I feel like this would be fair to everyone.

My nightmare would be being told to use RTQ and then having inconsistencies between how the CM handles it at the time. For example, if we asked to use RTQ for Soarin with a 50 minute wait and were approved, but were denied at Space Mountain with a 60 minute wait. That level of unknown and inconsistency would be a nightmare for my daughter. I'd rather have nothing.

 

[Hockey89]

She can handle lines of 30 to maybe 40 minutes, especially if you can see the destination clearly (for example - Winnie the pooh, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise). If she doesn't know how far the line stretches (example, Space Mountain, Soarin) and where she will be going or if the line doesn't move well, she will begin to panic and will be annoying, at best, to the people around us. This type of situation is going to be common among many kids with level 1 autism.

You just summed up every single 5-year-old ever waiting in line for every Disney ride in history.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I find some of the inconsistency’s that can arrive from this system to be alarming.

There is to much left to the discretion of Disney employees.

As has been discussed a bit, where I really see this being an issue is RTQ. At least with DAS the interviewer can ask for additional details, and the situation being discussed is a hypothetical in the future. The picture painted there will be more complex and they could give a lot of reasons as to why one person wasn't approved but another was.

RTQ is going to be a very short, straightforward description that is happening in the here and now. If the CMs can only give out X number of RTQs an hour, and they have 3 times that many people approach them with the exact same statement - I mean realistically how can they limit that down? What criteria are they going to use, what rationale are they going to give if questioned? That aspect just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Joel]

Old system:

Your child has autism - you get DAS

So autism = DAS

That wasn't the old system. Even under the old rules, there were people who got denied for saying "my child has autism" without adequately explaining why they were unable to wait in line. DAS was never intended to be diagnosis-based. To the extent that it often became that in practice was a failure on Disney's part that it has now become necessary to correct.

Hopefully there will be less gray area with the new system as it becomes clear that everyone who is able to wait in a line most of the time (as the overwhelming majority of people are) will be expected to do so.

 

[DrummerAlly]

You just summed up every single 5-year-old ever waiting in line for every Disney ride in history.

Sure, except there is a difference between an 11 year old with autism and a 5 year old. I have both. I wouldn't try to get accommodations for my 5 year old. Why? Because he will outgrow being 5. My daughter will not outgrow autism.

We teach her strategies, we make accommodations for her in our lives, we do our best. Many years of therapy and practice have gotten us to this place where she can wait in a 30-40 minute line. Level 1 autism requires accommodations to participate in normal, daily activities.

Like I said, we if we get denied and get nothing (which is what I'm betting on), we'll be fine, but bummed. We'll have a nice trip, but it will be a different trip.

 

[DisneyHead123]

You just summed up every single 5-year-old ever waiting in line for every Disney ride in history.

When the parent of an autistic child says their child 'panics' in line, they mean something different than the parent of a neurotypical child does.

Just wanted to say this because I think every parent of an ND child gets the "Oh, whatever, every child does that sometimes!" line when describing their daily struggles. Yes, many NT children are picky eaters, have trouble sleeping, have meltdowns, get rigid, have trouble navigating friendships, etc., etc. What's different for neurodiverse children is the degree of difficulty in some of those areas.

 

[Hockey89]

That wasn't the old system. Even under the old rules, there were people who got denied for saying "my child has autism" without adequately explaining why they were unable to wait in line. DAS was never intended to be diagnosis-based. To the extent that it often became that in practice was a failure on Disney's part that it has now become necessary to correct.

Hopefully there will be less gray area with the new system as it becomes clear that everyone who is able to wait in a line most of the time (as the overwhelming majority of people are) will be expected to do so.

Had a friend with a son with a smaller fingers that was perfectly fine to wait, he had DAS. If you tried to get DAS, you got it.... He played hockey ect.... The system was destroyed by all about me people and special treatment.... There is a reason it almost tripled in use the last 3 or 4 years....

 

[Hockey89]

Sure, except there is a difference between an 11 year old with autism and a 5 year old. I have both. I wouldn't try to get accommodations for my 5 year old. Why? Because he will outgrow being 5. My daughter will not outgrow autism.

This is why the DAS system needs to almost go away outside of rare cases......

The reasons you gave for your 11-year-old and why she needs it fits every single smaller kid.... Are you concerned about annoying people in line or not.. Laughable.... 40 mins is fine after that it's annoying... No kidding.... Its painfil... Said every single parent at Disney with kids....

 

[DrummerAlly]

This is why the DAS system needs to almost go away outside of rare cases......

The reasons you gave for your 11-year-old and why she needs it fits every single smaller kid.... Are you concerned about annoying people in line or not.. Laughable.... 40 mins is fine after that it's annoying... No kidding.... Its painfil... Said every single parent at Disney with kids....

I hear what you're saying, though I think your tone is a little demeaning.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

This is why the DAS system needs to almost go away outside of rare cases......

I was just saying this to someone. DAS should probably have been retired in favor of the other 2 accommodations and then Disney Guest Relations could offer some (unpublished) disability pass in the exceedingly rare circumstances where someone cannot otherwise experience the parks without. And IMO this pass should be like the old one back in the 90s where you more or less had unfettered access to skipping the standby queue.

 

[Touchdown]

2:00 Wed 5/29. These are lines I’m used to seeing:

 

[Chi84]

2:00 Wed 5/29. These are lines I’m used to seeing:

View attachment 788186View attachment 788185

What are we supposed to be looking for with this information?

 

[Purduevian]

What are we supposed to be looking for with this information?

I learned that they keep their phone very charged throughout the day!

On a serious note, nothing can be determined by wait times or G+ availability for at least a month (when legacy DAS runs out).

 

[Trauma]

What are we supposed to be looking for with this information?

Well when these wait times where posted over the holiday weekend people where saying it was evidence that the new DAS system was working.

Using that logic it is now safe to assume the new system isn’t helping at all.

Of course anyone with some sense would know that none of this matters, but hey why not stir the pot by posting completely useless data points

 

[flynnibus]

That's why the CMs have assistance available from Inspire - so they eliminate as much inconsistency as possible

Except the CMs are being put in the position to make accomodation determinations at each ride... not just these CMs with special training and additional support available.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Except the CMs are being put in the position to make accomodation determinations at each ride... not just these CMs with special training and additional support available.

I have a feeling due to these conversations being held more or less publicly that you won't have to do much convincing.

 

[Touchdown]

What are we supposed to be looking for with this information?

See if they change as legacy DAS passes expire.

 

[aprilibeth]

You just summed up every single 5-year-old ever waiting in line for every Disney ride in history.

As someone with one child with level 1 and two other kids with no neurological issues I can assure you it is not the same.