DAS changes coming WDW May 20/ DL June 18, 2024

[Evita_W]

IMO, that wouldn’t work because again, the same disability can have very different needs.

Which is why I said the focus groups are also important, but those with disabilities understand the community far better than those without and understand more than most how needs vary. This is not a one or the other thing, but this is an initial concept should be by those with disabilities and then fleshed out to work for as many as possible.

 

[Evita_W]

My experience being in and leading focus groups obviously differs from what you are expecting.
My experience with focus groups is involvement at all levels

• beginning the discussion with what the focus group members think about current state, issues, need for change and brainstorming changes from their viewpoint
• representatives of the focus groups participate in writing policies/procedures, reviewing and revising
• focus group members trying out the revisions and suggesting revisions based on their experience
• Repeat as needed.

Cheshire Figment was a Moderator on this board and was a longtime WDW CM with disabilities. He was involved in some focus groups for the change from GAC to DAS

My experience with focus groups has always been, this is what we are planning to do, what minor tweaks can we make to it? Just know nothing major will change from this concept.

 

[lanejudy]

My experience with focus groups has always been, this is what we are planning to do, what minor tweaks can we make to it? Just know nothing major will change from this concept.

"Focus groups" can participate in a lot of different ways. Much depends on the intent of utilizing the focus group. And there may be different focus groups involved in different phases of a project. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney utilized several different focus groups, ranging from initial brainstorming ideas for change, straight through to the actual testing phase.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Disney isn’t going to waste legal fees or a lawyer’s salary responding to complaints threatening a lawsuit. They’ll respond in court. I also don’t expect them to “cave” and settle out of court on this - they’ll want the official ruling.

Not all lawyers are “litigators” — those specialize presenting a case in court during a trial. Most lawyers don’t actually spend much time in a courtroom.

I am a litigator (though I don’t work for Disney!) and understand what you’re saying (and I agree to an extent) but there can be advantages to responding (i.e. pointing out why bringing a case under the facts described in threat letter would subject the attorney to sanctions and/or discipline)—in any event, don’t want to get off topic and actually didn’t mention it originally because I didn’t want to clutter up the thread— but I did want to mention it because I’ve seen a lot of people on these threads mention suing Disney or confidently predicting that Disney is going to get successfully challenged in court— and my feeling is “be careful what you wish for” because I don’t think most judges (in either Orange County) are going to expect Disney to provide accommodations anywhere near as generous as DAS has been, and the actual ruling could end up much worse for the majority of current users.