Downward angle icon Downward angle icon. View of Main Street at Disney World in Orlando. Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Disney has revamped its disability access services program for guests at its theme parks. The updated policy was instituted after some guests tried to abuse the services. But a coalition of people with disabilities says the new policy does more harm than good.
Savannah spent nine weeks and thousands of dollars planning a family trip to Walt Disney World.
“This is the trip of a lifetime for me and my husband,” Savannah, 36, told Business Insider.
That wasn’t an easy task for the Indiana couple, who planned to take the trip with Savannah’s 72-year-old mother. They had to help Savannah, a lifelong Disney fan, navigate the sprawling theme park as a disabled person.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve had physical problems that have prevented me from doing a lot of things,” she said.
Minnie Mouse at Walt Disney World. Anadol/Getty Images
Doctors discovered that Savannah, who asked not to use her last name for health privacy reasons, had an ankle fracture – an extra bone at the back of her ankle – around 2013. Savannah accidentally broke the ankle while running one day and went without treatment for eight months.
The incident continues to cause her pain and affects her athletic ability. She has had 16 surgeries since she was 17, 12 of them on her ankle. Most recently, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis 15 months ago and underwent subtalar fusion surgery in August.
Savannah had accepted that a Disney World vacation wasn’t feasible until her physical therapist told her about Disney’s Disability Access Services, which allows guests who can’t stand in line due to a disability to reserve a ride in advance and wait somewhere else until their turn comes.
While Savannah wasn’t completely mobile, getting around Disney World required frequent breaks, so this seemed like a good solution, and she and her husband took the plunge and booked a getaway for May 20.
“I saw another ray of hope,” Savannah says, “and everything was finally coming together and I was sitting on a cloud. Then Disney dropped the shocking news.”
Disney’s New Disability Policy
Shocking news: Disney announced earlier this month that it would be updating its Disability Accessibility Services policy.
According to Fox Business, Disney’s previous policy said that people “who have a disability that makes it difficult for them to tolerate long periods of time waiting in a traditional line environment” could participate in the program.
Currently, the scope of the service has been narrowed, and it only caters to “guests who are unable to wait in regular lines for long periods of time due to developmental disabilities such as autism.”
Disney’s policy change was also an attempt to prevent able-bodied guests from abusing the service. A Disney spokesperson told BI last year that they were seeing an increase in people abusing the service to skip lines and avoid crowds. According to The Washington Post, disability services are now the most requested service at parks in California and Florida.
“Disney is committed to providing incredible experiences for all of our guests, including those with disabilities, which is why we’re committed to offering a wide range of innovative support services to help guests with disabilities have a great time during their visit to our theme parks,” a Disneyland spokesperson said in a statement.
Crowds at Walt Disney World in June 2023. The Washington Post/Getty Images
The Disneyland and Disney World websites have information for people with various categories of disabilities, including mobility.
One alternative in Savannah is the Rider Switch service, where one adult waits with non-riders while the rest of the group enjoys the attraction. When the guest returns from the attraction, they can swap places with the waiting adult, who can then ride the attraction without having to wait in line again.
But Savannah said Rider Switch’s service isn’t right for her because she plans to explore the park with her husband, and her mother would have to wait in line. “Why should my mom have to wait 75 minutes in line for me while I sit away from the group?” she said.
Disabled fans accuse Disney of discrimination
Now Savannah and more than 140 others are arguing that the revised policy is discriminatory.
In a formal letter to Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger, the coalition pointed to cancer patients, people with narcolepsy, veterans with PTSD, people with Parkinson’s disease and other groups as people who are currently excluded from disability access services.
“Punishing disabled people for able-bodied people abusing the system is not the answer,” the letter read. “These changes do not adequately address abuse of the system. Abusers will still lie.”
Walt Disney World in April 2023. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Savannah told BI that the changes unintentionally perpetuate a harmful narrative about who is “disabled enough to qualify.” “You’re not the right kind of disabled, you don’t matter. That’s how Disney portrays you,” she said.
She and her husband had already saved up $4,000 to cover the costs of the vacation, plus about $400 in gift cards, but a policy change set to take effect on the first day of the Disney holiday changes everything.
“I invested all this money in it, knowing that if I can’t physically go, I won’t get a refund,” Savannah said. “What would that be like for me? I’d heard so many good things about it, but it just didn’t feel like Disney.”
Savannah added that if she and her husband had known about the policy change in advance, they would not have spent time or money at Disney.
“I would never have gone to Disney. I would never have chosen to spend my money there. I would have spent my money at Universal. [Studios]”There, they still treat me like a human being,” Savannah says.