New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[Angel Ariel]

The card verifies that the person claiming the disability has had a doctor verify it.

Doctors do not have to provide verification for IBCCES. Verification can be from an IEP document alone, no doctor required. Having educational need for accommodations does not equate to medical need - they are entirely different standards

 

[flynnibus]

This is right on the first page:

Please Note:​

• The purpose of the IAC is to pre-register you as an individual who may need accommodations or assistance.
• This is NOT a ticket and does NOT grant you access to any attraction. You will still need to purchase a ticket for admission
• The IAC does NOT guarantee you any benefits or accommodations. All accommodations afforded to individuals with a need are at the sole discretion of the attraction
• Please present your IAC upon arrival at the park for details about what accommodations may be available
• All posted rules and regulations for the attraction you are visiting still apply

And -

The IAC is for anyone who is requesting accommodations – including but not limited to individuals who are autistic, use a wheelchair, are blind/low vision, deaf/hard of hearing, have mobility support needs, are accompanied by a service animal, have sensory sensitivities, cognitive disabilities, or have other needs and concerns.

The IAC helps identify accommodations needed and expedite the process at parks and attractions. Please read the below information very carefully and note that the IAC does NOT guarantee entry to an attraction and any special accommodations or benefits provided are at the sole discretion of that attraction.

The card verifies that the person claiming the disability has had a doctor verify it. This is vastly better than having a person go to the park and make a claim without any proof. The person requesting the accommodation can present the card, prove that their disability has been verified, and then explain what accommodations they need and why. All I am suggesting is that Disney not change their policy as it existed prior to a few weeks ago.

You're confusing the concept they are using. IBCCES doesn't issue IAC cards - IAC is what the park issues to someone to present within the parks. All that language is mainly just CYA to say just because you have a IAC it doesn't give you gaurunteed access to an attraction. Attractions are different... IAC isn't a replacement for paid access, etc.

The topic you are trying to talk about... the 'verification of a disability' is actually what happens at guest relations when they issue your IAC.. and they consult the review provided by IBCCES through what IT issues. This is how they try to separate IBCCES doesn't define the accommodations the park provides.. it's simply a 3rd party having the assessment discussions over what disability a person has.

 

[photomatt]

This sounds just as bad as the new system we have now, one more “maybe you can get this accommodation” isn’t going to make the parks any more appealing to DAS guests than what we have now.

It is rumored that there are over one million people who have Magic Keys. Everyone who purchases one clearly understands that "maybe you can get a reservation" for a given day is part of the deal. No one can misunderstand this concept anymore. It's as clear as day when you purchase a Magic Key. I'm sure it's the same when you purchase a WDW AP.

Do you have DAS? Do you visit the parks with people who have it? If not, how can you make the claim that limiting access is less appealing? Do you understand that my idea would REDUCE wait times for the people who need it most AND the people who pay for Genie+ AND people who wait in the standby lines?

 

[Angel Ariel]

You're right. Why aren't the people here buying this? How many of the people who are against this have DAS or has a family member who has it? How many of the people responding to my ideas are claiming that my idea is self-serving, but in reality are simply against Disney providing accommodations with people with disabilities?

I don't think anyone will answer truthfully even though their posts reveal it for them.

My child has significant disabilities. What you're proposing in terms of limiting the number of disabled people able to make reservations for a park each day, giving preference to those who stay onsite, is not something I'd ever support.

 

[photomatt]

Doctors do not have to provide verification for IBCCES. Verification can be from an IEP document alone, no doctor required. Having educational need for accommodations does not equate to medical need - they are entirely different standards

You're right. I forgot about the people listed who are not doctors. The point is that IBBCES still requires third party verification of some sort. It's better than someone going to Disney and requesting DAS with no proof at all. It would eliminate some abuse. No, it would not eliminate all abuse, but it would eliminate some.

 

[flynnibus]

Please provide a link to the court case where Six Flags is being sued.

Feel free to catch up in the appropriate thread where this was covered months ago - linked to the lawsuit for you too - https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/universal-studios-new-disability-pass.981634/post-10806822

 

[photomatt]

My child has significant disabilities. What you're proposing in terms of limiting the number of disabled people able to make reservations for a park each day, giving preference to those who stay onsite, is not something I'd ever support.

Disney already does this. They guarantee admission to anyone who is staying at one of their hotels. I'm sorry if you don't already know this, but it's a fact. You are guaranteed a park reservation if you stay onsite, at least at DL. If it's different for WDW, please let me know.

Making reservations in advance to guarantee a better experience for everyone is not unreasonable.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Disney already does this. They guarantee admission to anyone who is staying at one of their hotels. I'm sorry if you don't already know this, but it's a fact. You are guaranteed a park reservation if you stay onsite, at least at DL. If it's different for WDW, please let me know.

Making reservations in advance to guarantee a better experience for everyone is not unreasonable.

Park reservations for WDW ended entirely a while ago.

And I just did a DLR trip a few months ago and no day was "sold out" for either park.

Because of DD's disabilities, we don't travel to Disney during the few times a year where the parks reach capacity, so being guaranteed entry due to being a hotel guest is not valuable to us.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

It is rumored that there are over one million people who have Magic Keys. Everyone who purchases one clearly understands that "maybe you can get a reservation" for a given day is part of the deal. No one can misunderstand this concept anymore. It's as clear as day when you purchase a Magic Key. I'm sure it's the same when you purchase a WDW AP.

Do you have DAS? Do you visit the parks with people who have it? If not, how can you make the claim that limiting access is less appealing? Do you understand that my idea would REDUCE wait times for the people who need it most AND the people who pay for Genie+ AND people who wait in the standby lines?

My Gf has had it for half a decade due to a heart issue that causes her to faint from overheating, and we have both had APs for a decade or more, and we will not be renewing this year because the parks aren’t worth the price to us without DAS.

It’s already hard enough to get a normal reservation when we want to go, getting one of the “limited” DAS reservations would likely be 10x harder, what you propose wouldn’t make the parks any more appealing to us than the horrible system in place today. It would be great for those who snagged the elusive spots before they were gone but it would also make a Disney vacation 1000 times more frustrating for everyone that didn’t get one in my opinion.

 

[Angel Ariel]

OK, but we know the framework is in place to implement a DAS reservation system.

I honestly don't understand why you would oppose an idea that would guarantee a better experience for your child and all you needed to do was plan in advance.

See @Vegas Disney Fan 's response for why I don't believe it's the guarantee you think it is.

Plus, the price of Disney hotels - especially at DLR, is out of control. If it ever reached a point where we had to stay onsite in order for DD to receive accommodations she needs, we would just stop going.

 

[photomatt]

My Gf has had it for half a decade due to a heart issue that causes her to faint from overheating, and we have both had APs for a decade or more, and we will not be renewing this year because the parks aren’t worth the price to us without DAS.

It’s already hard enough to get a normal reservation when we want to go, getting one of the “limited” DAS reservations would likely be 10x harder, what you propose wouldn’t make the parks any more appealing to us than the horrible system in place today. It would be great for those who snagged the elusive spots before they were gone but it would also make a Disney vacation 1000 times more frustrating for everyone that didn’t get one in my opinion.

I have not suggested any numbers, so you have no idea what kinds of limits would be imposed or how hard it would be to obtain a DAS reservation.

The fact that it's hard to get a normal reservation should have no bearing on my idea. It shouldn't.

When you did get a DAS reservation your experience would be better because your wait times would be shorter. How is this not a good idea? You're complaining at the potential extra effort and planning, but you're not seeing the reward.

 

[photomatt]

Headline in every paper in the country Disney limits admission to disabled people. I wonder how much Disney would have to pay their pr team to clean up that mess

First, that headline would be wrong. Disney is not prohibiting disabled people from coming.



Second, Disney is already going to have to clean up this PR mess. We are just at the beginning. It's not too late to fix it.

 

[photomatt]

Feel free to catch up in the appropriate thread where this was covered months ago - linked to the lawsuit for you too - https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/universal-studios-new-disability-pass.981634/post-10806822

Thank you. I downloaded the document you attached and I will check PACER tomorrow for updates.

ETA: The second amended complaint was filed on May 2nd. That's the most relevant document right now. I will download it tomorrow.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I have not suggested any numbers, so you have no idea what kinds of limits would be imposed or how hard it would be to obtain a DAS reservation.

The fact that it's hard to get a normal reservation should have no bearing on my idea. It shouldn't.

When you did get a DAS reservation your experience would be better because your wait times would be shorter. How is this not a good idea? You're complaining at the potential extra effort and planning, but you're not seeing the reward.

Park reservations probably rank in the top 5 most unpopular things Disney has ever done, adding another layer to that is not going to go over well.

It would be great for the few who snagged a reservation but horrible for those who didn’t, and I’m guessing the likelihood of snagging one of those reservations, or a weeks worth in the case of WDW, would be very low.

It sounds similar to getting a RunDisney entry the last several years, be online months ahead of time at 7am and smash the refresh button until you get put into an hour long queue, then you impatiently wait to see if you get a reservation or get the sold out page after waiting an hour. The difference in this case is you’d have to do that over and over again for however many days you are at WDW, that sounds horrible to me and would likely sour me on Disney even more than the dozen or so other horrible changes they‘ve already made the last couple years.

it would be great for some but likely drive even more people away from the brand.

 

[hopemax]

My Gf has had it for half a decade due to a heart issue that causes her to faint from overheating, and we have both had APs for a decade or more, and we will not be renewing this year because the parks aren’t worth the price to us without DAS.

I keep wanting to mention this to you... A friend is dealing with the not being approved for DAS, after having purchased an AP for WDW, was told that they can prorate refunds for APs. It's based on the number of days you have used the pass. So it might be worth a call to Disneyland to find out if you are eligible.

 

[photomatt]

Park reservations probably rank in the top 5 most unpopular things Disney has ever done, adding another layer to that is not going to go over well.

I agree. I think it sucks that Disney does not have a level of pass, other than Premiere, that does not require reservations. They are leaving money on the table.

The facts that I hate reservations, and that I agree that they are unpopular, are not reasons that a DAS reservation system would not work.

It would be great for the few who snagged a reservation but horrible for those who didn’t, and I’m guessing the likelihood of snagging one of those reservations, or a weeks worth in the case of WDW, would be very low.

I have no idea what numbers Disney would use. Disney could determine that on average, x number of people with DAS are in the parks on any given day. They could say that the number of DAS reservations would be 90 percent of x, thereby reducing the number of people using DAS on any given day by 10 percent.

Are you really saying that a 10 percent reduction in the number of people using DAS is a severe hardship?

Again, I have no idea what numbers Disney would use, but it's not fair to say that they would limit the number of DAS users to 10 percent of the average number that existed before the change. I think it's fair to assume that they could be reasonable when determining the number of DAS reservations available on a given day.

They could even say that the new system would be set at 99 percent of x. Anything would be an improvement. Anything.

It sounds similar to getting a RunDisney entry the last several years, be online months ahead of time at 7am and smash the refresh button until you get put into an hour long queue, then you impatiently wait to see if you get a reservation or get the sold out page after waiting an hour. The difference in this case is you’d have to do that over and over again for however many days you are at WDW, that sounds horrible to me and would likely sour me on Disney even more than the dozen or so other horrible changes they‘ve already made the last couple years.

it would be great for some but likely drive even more people away from the brand.

Do you honestly think that there are that many people with DAS that it would lead to the problems you are describing? I don't think so. If that many people with DAS were in the parks now, the standby lines would never move.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I keep wanting to mention this to you... A friend is dealing with the not being approved for DAS, after having purchased an AP for WDW, was told that they can prorate refunds for APs. It's based on the number of days you have used the pass. So it might be worth a call to Disneyland to find out if you are eligible.

We have a RunDisney event at DL in September so we still have use of it this year, we are unlikely to do anymore RunDisney events after this year as a result of the DAS changes also though, the Disney parks will probably lose $15k a year from us, chump change to a multi billion dollar company, but a substantial amount to us that we’ll now be spending elsewhere.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Do you honestly think that there are that many people with DAS that it would lead to the problems you are describing? I don't think so. If that many people with DAS were in the parks now, the standby lines would never move.

I do, the numbers reported here are that 8% of guests use DAS, and potentially as many as 35% of all guests indirectly use it as part of a DAS party, this has been given as the primary reason the Genie lines are so long and the standby lines move so slow. Assuming those numbers are accurate my guess is they’d need to reduce that by 50% or more to make a substantial enough difference to make it functional. We’ll never see the real numbers so it’s all guesswork.

 

[WDWTrojan]

I do, the numbers reported here are that 8% of guests use DAS, and potentially as many as 35% of all guests indirectly use it as part of a DAS party, this has been given as the primary reason the Genie lines are so long and the standby lines move so slow. Assuming those numbers are accurate my guess is they’d need to reduce that by 50% or more to make a substantial enough difference to make it functional. We’ll never see the real numbers so it’s all guesswork.

The LLs at the headliners are 60%+ DAS.

This poster is really underestimating the amount of people with DAS, along with the sheer number of people who claim to need it but could easily be accommodated in other ways. Not to mention the outright liars and abusers.

 

[C33Mom]

Im caught. Im a divorced dad celebrating fathers day with my daughter in disney for a vacation & decided to make up this story and come to wdwmagic to spread lies. Smh. GR in HS is quite small. I was there for about 10 minutes there were 5 people that were in there during my time and 4 were in their expressing their concern over the new “rules”…. Like mature adults NOT entitled a h*les trying to get some clarity on how they need to proceed during their next trip to HS during their own vacation…

Wanted to apologize for assuming you were a woman and fwiw, say that I believe you weren’t coming here trying to spread lies or panic…but there are a lot of people in the disability (and DAS influencer) community trying to do just that, which is horrible if it discourages people from trying a new system that will actually work for their family. I assumed you were deliberately fear-mongering when you referred to a staggering number of people queued up to complain about alternative accommodations— which implied (to me) that there were dozens of exhausted ex-DAS users lining up to explain why the AQR based system didn’t work for them. I do think some may have been seeking DAS, but it was unfair of me to suggest that the handful of confused folks were trying to bully their way into unnecessary accommodations or acting in any way inappropriate.

I’ve seen a lot of people frustrated that there isn’t consistency between rides or a chart outlining the accommodation available at each ride (or allegedly inconsistency at specific rides) and suggesting cast members aren’t well trained, but we also don’t know if other factors such as queue length or recent breakdowns or a group’s DAS use history might account for the difference. The first obvious example that comes to mind is that if someone says [condition] makes it impossible to wait in long lines, but the line is currently at or very near the merge point, they might tell you to get in the line and get out if there’s a problem, but if the line is already at the 60m mark, they might say “OK, do you want to try it together and use AQR if necessary or do you want a one person rider switch?”