Universal Studios new disability pass

[lazyboy97o]

It 100% adds additional barriers for those with disabilities. It took 4 days of back and forth with our doctor to get all of the documentation and information. Thankfully we weren't charged for any of it, it was all email. But I acknowledge that's a privilege and not the case for everyone. It took more time than should be necessary, IMO.

And Universal could still deny granting an accessibility pass.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Thanks

I actually feel bad for DD's doctor, because we've had like 4-5 different issues to talk about this week. Medications, multiple referral requests...actual medical issues that required her attention. It felt superficial and ridiculous to have to spend her time on this too.

 

[Angel Ariel]

And Universal could still deny granting an accessibility pass.

exactly. Lord help them if they do in our case, lol. But yeah. To go through all of it and still have the potential to be denied is ridiculous.

 

[sedati]

All I ask is that if one does get the pass you don’t brag about it as was the case on pretty much every bus/boat ride we had during our recent trip.

 

[Angel Ariel]

All I ask is that if one does get the pass you don’t brag about it as was the case on pretty much every bus/boat ride we had during our recent trip.

If I could relieve my daughter of the reasons why she needs the pass, I would in a heartbeat. It's not something we brag about. Express relief and gratitude for? Yes. Brag? No.

 

[flynnibus]

I just filled out the ICCBES card for our upcoming trip today. When you're done, you receive a digital card - a PDF file - in your email, accompanied with this language:

Thx for sharing.

The part that doesn’t add up for me in the guy’s story is what he’s presenting at the rides.

My interpretation from the web is you use your iccbes provided ‘card’ to get the park’s IAC card at guest relations. Then you should just be presenting your IAC. Why is this guy presenting printouts etc… and why would the park question the validity of their very own IAC or struggle to verify it? The story just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense

 

[lazyboy97o]

Thx for sharing.

The part that doesn’t add up for me in the guy’s story is what he’s presenting at the rides.

My interpretation from the web is you use your iccbes provided ‘card’ to get the park’s IAC card at guest relations. Then you should just be presenting your IAC. Why is this guy presenting printouts etc… and why would the park question the validity of their very own IAC or struggle to verify it? The story just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense

I have been with people who’ve had Disney cast members try to deny their DAS return time because they didn’t think they needed the accommodation. People get on weird power trips.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Thx for sharing.

The part that doesn’t add up for me in the guy’s story is what he’s presenting at the rides.

My interpretation from the web is you use your iccbes provided ‘card’ to get the park’s IAC card at guest relations. Then you should just be presenting your IAC. Why is this guy presenting printouts etc… and why would the park question the validity of their very own IAC or struggle to verify it? The story just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense

This article has a bit more info, but I do agree there is confusion in what's written:

According to the veteran, in May 2022, he was told by a park representative that he needed to go online and submit an application for an Individual Accessibility Card. He completed the steps, printed the card and brought a paper copy to Six Flags Magic Mountain, in Valencia, California, in June 2022, during a birthday celebration with his wife.

He then handed his documentation to an attendant at the park’s alternative entrance.

“However, upon doing so, the employee took plaintiff’s paper card and ripped it up into four pieces, then handed it back to plaintiff and told him that he did ‘not look disabled enough’ to have the listed accommodations, that he looked ‘able-bodied,’” the veteran wrote.

Is the "alternative entrance" an alternate attraction entrance, or is the bolded referring to guest services and it was a guest services employee that ripped up the card when he was trying to finish the process? At guest services, you WOULD be providing a print out, as that's a valid option for presenting the IBCCES card. If it was an attraction, was he presenting the IBCCES card, or what 6 Flags gives you when you go to guest services?

Regardless, the response of the team member to rip whatever was presented up and say he didn't look disabled enough to have the accommodations is way out of line. If this happened at guest services when using the IBCCES to get the 6 Flags documentation, then the employee was way out of line and the employee should have called in a manager rather than discredit the man and rip anything up. If this happened at an attraction, and the man was presenting the IBCCES card the response from the Six Flags team member should have been to direct him to guest services to finish the process.

When these parks are making disabled people go through this verification process beforehand, they should not be able to then deny access to the accommodations that have been verified as a need by that verification process.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Some juicy story telling. I know MM has a reputation for bad staff... but this is almost unbelievable I think the missing element from the plantiff's story is he might be presenting his "card" in a format the park isn't used to accepting. Note in other forms they talk about the digital card... yet the story in each of these tales is about a printed copy. Does the park require a version of the "card" different than he is using? Or is their representation so poor they can't tell fakes or not themselves? Sounds like he has to present both the attractions pass and the IAC? seems odd...

----

Subsequently, on or around June 11, 2022, Plaintiff visited Magic Mountain with
his wife for a planned day trip to celebrate Plaintiff’s birthday. In advance of the trip, Plaintiff
printed out his digital IAC, and brought the paper copy to the Park with him on June 11, 2022.
Upon arrival at Magic Mountain, Plaintiff entered the Park and presented his IAC at Guest
Services in accordance with the Park’s disability access procedures and obtained an Attraction
Access Pass. Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff presented both his IAC and Attraction Access Pass to a
ride attendant at the attraction’s alternative entrance.


85. However, upon doing so, the employee took Plaintiff’s paper card and ripped it up
into four pieces, then handed it back to Plaintiff and told him that he did “not look disabled
enough” to have the listed accommodations, that he looked “able-bodied.” Plaintiff felt
immediately distraught and embarrassed by the employee’s insinuation that Plaintiff was lying
about, and his dismissiveness of, Plaintiff’s need for accommodation, the destruction of his IAC,
and the conspicuousness of the employee’s display. Plaintiff explained to the employee that “not
all disabilities are visible,” and then went to Guest Services to talk to a manager about the Park
employee’s cruel and humiliating treatment. However, Guest Services did not offer any redress
but instead directed Plaintiff to make a complaint on the Six Flags website, stating that if he did so
a manager would get back to him. After that, Plaintiff left the Park within 10 minutes, with his
ripped-up paper IAC in hand and without any resolution for his denial of Park access and ruined
birthday celebration. In the parking lot, before leaving the premises, Plaintiff did exactly as Guest
Services advised: he submitted a complaint through Defendants’ website. However, no employee
of Six Flags ever reached out to him in response.

86. Plaintiff returned to Magic Mountain with his wife on July 17, 2022. On this
occasion, too, Plaintiff faced inappropriate treatment from Park employees regarding his need for
accommodation. Specifically, after presenting his IAC at Guest Services and obtaining an
Attraction Access Pass, Plaintiff entered the alternate or standby entrance reserved for disability
access at Magic Mountain’s “Justice League: Battle for Metropolis”57 attraction. Plaintiff then
presented his IAC and Pass to the ride attendant, and in response the Park employee took the paper
card from Plaintiff’s hands, told Plaintiff that she needed to verify it, showed the IAC to one of her
co-workers, and then directed Plaintiff to leave and join the “regular” line, stating that she did not
know where Plaintiff got the IAC, but that his accommodation was not valid for that particular
ride.

87. Plaintiff then requested multiple times that the employee return his IAC, but she
refused to return Plaintiff’s paper IAC to him the first two or three times Plaintiff asked for it back,
telling Plaintiff that she needed to show it to her manager. When Plaintiff then became visibly
upset and again insisted that she return his IAC, the employee ultimately gave it back to Plaintiff
and directed him to go to the front office. She did not indicate for what purpose, and neither
Plaintiff nor his wife understood why she was telling them to do that. Instead, they went to
Customer Relations to explain the situation regarding the IAC, but the Customer Relations
manager told Plaintiff that he did not look like he had a disability, and that Plaintiff was lucky that
the manager did not take his season pass from him.


88. Plaintiff’s next visit to Magic Mountain with his wife was on or around September
10, 2022. This visit was plagued by yet another incident concerning Plaintiff’s IAC. At around
1:05 p.m. that day, Plaintiff presented his IAC and Attraction Access Pass to an attendant at one of
the rides. The attendant took Plaintiff’s card and Pass and examined the wait time interval
provided on the latter, but then told Plaintiff that there must be something wrong with his IAC
and/or Pass because, according to the attendant, it looked like Plaintiff did not qualify for the
Attraction Access Pass program accommodation. The attendant then denied Plaintiff’s request to
use the attraction’s alternate entrance reserved for disability access, telling Plaintiff that he would
have to join the “regular” queue and wait. At that point, Plaintiff walked away from the attraction
altogether, finding that the ride was not worth either the sciatic pain he would experience by
waiting on the line or the trouble of convincing the attraction attendant or any other Six Flags
employee that he is, in fact, disabled and in need of reasonable accommodation, no matter how
“able-bodied” he may appear to the employees at Six Flags in their fleeting interactions.
Ultimately, Plaintiff did not get to experience that ride. And, once again, this negative interaction
with a Park employee left Plaintiff feeling upset, embarrassed, frustrated, angry, and excluded.

I retract the last part of my
Last post, as this part of the suit makes it clear what happened.

It's my understanding that attraction access passes from six flags, universal too, don't have photos attached. There IS a photo on the IBCCES card. So it makes sense that one would provide both to a cast member at an entrance - to verify that the person handing you the accessibility pass is the person who qualified for it. This is why at Disney the das holder has to be present and have their photo taken - the photo comes up when they tap in to the attraction.
And, as I verified earlier, given that the digital ibcces card (where the photo is) is a pdf, it makes sense someone would print it out (and upon checking further last night the ibcces site explicitly says that the pdf can be used via printout, doesn't have to be on the phone).

 

[mkt]

And Universal could still deny granting an accessibility pass.

Yup. Fortunately that hasn't happened to us yet, but I am concerned about showing up and getting a guest services employee who's in a bad mood or having a bad day.

Fortunately, to make things easier, I always hand over my old one when getting a new one, which saves a LOT of the questions that are asked.