bumpysheep said:
When we have gone to Disney we had no problem getting our first GAC. Part of this may be that while I'm not noticably disabled, I use a service dog, augmentive speech device and use my own personal
scooter 80% of the time I spend in the parks.
I think you are an example of someone who is prepared to take care of their needs.
The rest of this post is sort of my "rant". I don't claim to be an expert on the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) or GACs, just an observant person who has been around a while......
One of the misconceptions some people have is that things like scooters, service dogs and augmentative speech devices, or a specific diagnosis
qualify someone for a GAC and that the ADA guarantees this.
(There are not a lot of posts like that on this board, but you can find other places on the internet where that is the norm).
It is easier to explain/verify that you have invisible disabilities that require accommidation when you have some visible 'helping tools', but the tools or the diagnosis that goes along with them are not why someone gets a GAC. Many people who have those 'helps' don't need any accomidation, other than being able to use their helping tools.
Things like having accessible lines, wheelchairs/
ecvs for rent in the parks, being able to bring a service animal and take care of it in the parks, curb cuts, interpreters, captioning, accessible transportation, Fastpass, shaded queues, queues that are inside air conditioned buildings are things WDW has provided to accomidate needs without a GAC.
Some of them (Fastpass, covered queues, air conditioning) are not there primarily for people with disabilities, but do help accomidate some people's special needs.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for GACs because all the needs would be already accomidated. In the case of WDW, some of the things people needed GACs or special treatment to get 15 years ago (like shaded lines, Mainstream queues and Fastpass that shortens the wait in line) are now just routine features of the park, so they are making progress.
bumpysheep said:
We simply told them what my medical issues where and what things would be most helpful to us and my service dog.
I think that's the most important part.
Those are the things the CM need to know. Most of them actually
do want be helpful, but they need our help to help us. It is the responsibility of the guest to explain their needs and WDW's responsibility is to suggest ways to meet those needs.
One of the misconceptions people have about the ADA is that if they have a disability, all their needs related to it are
required to be met. That's not the case. For example, just because someone needs to sit frequently doesn't mean that WDW has to provide a place to sit in each queue.
All the ADA requires is "reasonable accomidation" which (
according to the ADA FAQs webpage) allows a
"person with a disability to achieve the same level of performance and to enjoy benefits equal to those of an average, similarly situated person without a disability. However, the accommodation does not have to ensure equal results or provide exactly the same benefits."
(A lot of the ADA is actually about employment rights, so that's the language used. The part of the ADA link that talks about places like WDW is the
Public Accomidations part and that talks mostly about physical accessibility).
Also the word 'reasonable' is important. For example, it is a reasonable accomidation for WDW to provide rental wheelchairs for people with endurance concerns. If people could, but choose not to use the provided accomidation, WDW is not required to provide other accomidation.
If the provided accomidation doesn't 'fit' the needs, it's the responsibility of the guest to explain why. WDW's responsibility would be to see if there are some other ways to 'reasonably' meet the needs. But, WDW is not required to give guests with disabilities better treatment than other guests, just equal (or as close to equal as possible).