CA amusement park cancels ‘cuts’ for guests with disabilities
June 25th, 2008
From the Orange County [California] Register:
Knott’s Berry Farm, one of southern California’s most popular tourist attractions, has adopted a new policy that requires people with disabilities to wait in line as long as everyone else.
Officials at the park say their intention is to thwart the people who were faking disabilities to get to the front of the line.
People with disabilities now must wait on the sidelines for the rest of their party to go through the line, or get a pass from a ride operator that will allow them to return at approximately the time it would take them to get through the line.
Some guests are upset about the new policy, which has been in place for about a month.
(Orange County Register photo)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 4:32 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, accessibility, public attitudes, wheelchair.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Email This Post
Our RSS Feed
June 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Being treated just like everyone else. Not a bad thing for those who can wait in line!
June 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
As the father of an 8-year old, non-verbal daughter with Down Syndrome, who has just recently visited Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, I’d like to comment on this.
At both parks, we asked for and were given a pass that essentially allowed us to use our daughter’s stroller as a wheelchair — as she is often non-compliant in situations like waiting patiently in a line, to the point of needing physical restraint/removal.
Disneyland’s approach is *accommodation*, and they do it with excellence. At Disneyland, the older park, there are rides where one is instructed to go in via the exit — where there is usually a shorter line of others with disabilities — and you are ‘worked into’ the ride, not just given a break in the line. At the newer rides, and at Disneyland California Adventure, you wait in line with everyone else.
This is perfectly acceptable to us, and, to a person, ride operators were friendly and genuinely accommodating. The difference for us is the difference between a manageable situation vs. total frustration and and exhausting and often embarrassing one.
This article seems a bit arbitrary; I hope that Knott’s approach is actually performed in a bit better way than it’s portrayed.
All this is to say that I think the majority of us aren’t looking to jump these lines, but to be ‘accommodated’ in a manner that lends itself to the same ‘amusement’, which is why we’re there, too.