Disney World announces new measures to address abuse of Disability Access Service

20 days ago in "Magic Kingdom"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Posted: Tuesday April 9, 2024 12:00pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney is making changes to Walt Disney World's Disability Access Service (DAS) to address the misuse of this widely used benefit, which skips conventional queue environments at the parks. The new system aims to ensure that DAS is used fairly and only by those who truly need it, improving the park experience for all guests.

A major change is in the works for Walt Disney World's Disability Access Service (DAS)

DAS is intended for guests with difficulty tolerating extended waits in a conventional queue environment due to a disability. DAS offers return times for attractions, similar to standby waits, allowing guests and their party to enjoy other park experiences instead of waiting in line. Notably, Disney has dramatically narrowed the scope of eligibility and now says that DAS is for guests with a "developmental disability like autism or similar." The new DAS also extends the enrollment period from 60 days to 120 days, and reduces the DAS party size to four guests.

Disney is facing increasing abuse of the system, which, according to sources who spoke with WDWMAGIC, is the primary cause for extended wait times in the Genie+ Lightning Lanes and occupies a significant quantity of available Lightning Lane inventory.

Disney plans to introduce the new DAS system on May 20, 2024 at Walt Disney World, and June 18, 2024 at Disneyland Resort in California. Disney is teaming up with Inspire Health Alliance to help Cast Members determine eligibility.

How to Register for DAS at Walt Disney World

Registration is available via live video chat.
Speak with a Cast Member via live video chat to determine eligibility as soon as 30 days in advance of a park visit.
At this time, live chat is offered in English only.
Guests visiting now through May 19 may visit a theme park Guest Relation location to speak with a Cast Member. In-person registration will no longer be available at theme park Guest Relations locations starting May 20, 2024.
If DAS is provided after a conversation with a Cast Member to determine eligibility, the Guest with a disability (or a parent/guardian) will participate in the registration process. This requires having a photo taken of the DAS-registered Guest.
DAS registration maximum party size is the registered DAS Guest and up to 3 additional party members, for a total of 4 people.
DAS is valid for up to 120 days. Once the service has elapsed, Guests will need to re-register.
Guests visiting now through May 19, 2024, DAS is valid for up to 30 days.

Disney says that, "If it is determined that any of the statements a Guest made in the process of obtaining DAS are not true, the Guest will be permanently barred from entering Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort, and any previously purchased Annual Passes, Magic Key passes, tickets and other park products and services will be forfeited and not refunded."

DAS Information for Guests visiting from April 9 through May 19, 2024

Pre-arrival conversations to determine eligibility for DAS are available 2-30 days prior to your park visit.
In-person conversations to determine eligibility for DAS will continue to be at Guest Relations locations.
You can book up to 2 one-hour return windows for select experiences using our DAS Advance planning option.
DAS is valid for up to 30 days from the start of the registration. Once the service has elapsed, Guests will need to re-register.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

MickeyLuv'r4 minutes ago

This is true. I was merely questioning the notion that DAS users are power-using DAS to optimize park touring to optimal perfection. From what I know of park touring, the QS are places like Casey's Corner are empty from opening through 11:45am. They get crazy busy 11:55-1:15pm, then wind down quickly until dinner. The average park goer doesn't tour optimally, they tour based on emotion/wants, or what they read somewhere. If they toured optimally, they'd avoid the lunch rush. In March, I visited AK on a slow day. Just after rope drop, FoP had a 90 minute wait, but EVERYTHING else was walk-on and stayed near walk-on for about 2 hours. People still chose to follow the herd and head to FoP. Parkgoers were touring based on emotion, not the most effective way to tour. They would have done much better if they had chosen to ride FoP later in the day, when the wait was only 50-60minutes, but Dinosaur was 30minutes. I've seen the same pattern many times.

Vacationeer8 minutes ago

WDW hasn’t been very clear on the rollout. I think what’s happening is a transition where some overlap between old/new will occur between May 20 and June 20. This might be intentional so the changes don’t shock park operations. Possibly this is what’s happening: 2 groups are coming in with first park day May 28. The first group pre-registers before May 20 and for the most part not much changed. The second group registers after May 20, and that process includes more or most of the changes. People have confirmed video chatting this week for trips starting after May 20 and reporting not much seems changed. Maybe the first changes won’t really be seen until registrations taking place after May 20, and full changes won’t be seen until after the June cutoff date.

ConfettiCupcake11 minutes ago

At the end of the day there are some DAS groups who have the ability to leverage DAS and some groups for whom DAS is doing nothing more than providing needed access. The examples and anecdotes to me are irrelevant on both ends of the spectrum, because I think what’s more meaningful is the way we know Disney is implementing changes and I think a conclusion we can draw from that is that enough DAS groups were capable of leveraging it enough to stress the entire operation too much. They know so much more than we do, they will never release that kind of info, so all we have to go on beyond anecdotes is their actions. Those actions say to me it was able to be leveraged by enough of the legitimate (and illegitimate) qualifiers to need a change.

ditzee11 minutes ago

Anyone with a trip from June 20 onward will be affected because the new rules do not go into effect until May 20th. This is from a CM I chatted with on Saturday.

RamblinWreck12 minutes ago

Okay But the new rules don’t even exist yet. So no one is yet being subjected to them.

Ayla28 minutes ago

If you are visiting after May 19th, you are within the 30 day window of asking for DAS accommodations, so yes, some of those posting are visiting after the new rules go into effect.

MickeyLuv'r28 minutes ago

1. Yes. I didn't say they wouldn't do it, just that they probably wouldn't do it inside of 25minutes. 2. You are correct in one sense. But if they are using the time to do something like Moana or animal walk-through attractions, that wouldn't directly = longer waits for everyone else. The impact depends how aggressive they are. 3. This is part of the crux of the discussion, and really what I was trying to get at: Are DAS users 100% fit/able bodied power-users, or do they have some degree of disability? I think many folks are projecting what they would do - as able-bodied park goers- if they had what they imagine DAS to be, and how they would power-use it. 4. To some extent, yes, but I've been going to WDW for many years, including many with small groups, many with larger groups, some with first timers, etc. A busy times of year, and at slower times of year. IME, the bigger the group, the more park touring = herding cats. large group = nearly impossible to do power-park touring. First timers have no clue how to tour. They have no idea how to zig when the crowd zags. They have the crazy idea that WDW = sleeping late, eating lunch at noon, and moving at a slow pace all with no consequences, that WDW is a vacation. Also don't tend to be power-park goers unless they are strongly A-type personality. 5. Mainly, what I have found is that many (most?) people don't like to rush if they don't have to rush. Some folks will always be inclined to rush, but many would happily use DAS to travel WDW at a relaxed pace - assuming they are even capable of power-touring.

Happyday56 minutes ago

Actually from what I read on the page is that the new questions and guidelines are not going to be implemented at the pre approval portion till May 20 according to the CM on the video chat. So the video chat section will change on May 20

Happyday1 hour ago

Yes I as well checked out the FB page and yes that is what is being said but they are also mentioning that the CM are informing them that the actual roll out is on May 20 for WDW meaning they are not asking the new questions or giving other options till May 20th so basically everything is status quo until then. If you call before then there is no change then abracadabra May 20 hold onto your hats. If I were going June 19 or earlier make sure you make that call by May 19.

RamblinWreck1 hour ago

How would they know? It won’t start for almost another month.

adam.adbe1 hour ago

The smart play for Disney is to just roll the old policy for guests who booked before May 20th, while publicly suggesting that the new policy is active for everyone on that date, since the threat of bans for falsified claims may deter a lot of chancers (Disney presumably hope most if not all). Not exactly ideal though for those who've long since paid and are currently uncertain as to how their vacation is going to play out with respect to special needs in their party.

adam.adbe1 hour ago

It's not necessarily the DAS guest, but the five other family members. Grandma is probably not tearing up the park, but the grandkids definitely can be. So the strategy is simply: we ride headliner X with grandma at 11AM, but maybe four of the five other family members go off and do a bunch of things in the interim 45-80mins.

adam.adbe1 hour ago

Your math is based on the idea that people aren't already double-queuing. If Disney changed the DAS policy to not allow guests to be in two lines at once, those standby lines would naturally be somewhat shorter. IOW those waits aren't precluding people from riding while waiting a DAS return, just the number of times that the average DAS party can ride other attractions during the return window.