The first is the news that two American visually impaired annual pass holders, Cari Shields and Amber Boggs, are filling a class action against The Walt Disney Company for an alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They claimn a number of policies discriminate against blind and visually impaired people, 9including not allowing costumed staff not being allowed to interact with visually impaired guests who visit the park with their guide dogs.
"Mrs. Boggs and Ms. Shields allege other violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are not seeking monetary damages, but only demand that Disney provide more reasonable accommodations for the visually impaired, such as portable Braille maps of the parks, areas to cage or leave service animals during rides, reduced or free admission for service aides, keyed rather than digital lockers, Braille menus in the park restaurants, and adequate lodging for service animal while visually impaired guests visit the park."Quote from the PRWeb Online, Visabilty from Vocus web site. Read more about the story by clicking here.
The second story concerns how Walt Disney World and Disneyland are actively making moves to help the visually impaired (and people with other disabilites) to enjoy their attractions on a more level playing field as the fully sighted.
A newly designed hand-held device gives audio description on attractions, including rides and outdoor areas. The wireless device can detect the guests location and transmit appropriate information for the area.
• Detailed audio description of key visual elements, including action and scenery, for more than 50 attractions.Quote from Orlando Attractions web site. Click here for the full story.
• Amplified audio for most theater-type attractions for guests with mild to moderate hearing loss.
• Handheld captioning that enables guests to read captions while enjoying specific rides.
• Activation of closed captioning in pre-show areas where television
The service is free for disabled guests and Disney and development partners WGNB have patented the device and hope to make the technology available outside of Disney resorts in a variety of other applications such as retail, sports events and museums. It is already being used in a number of other attraction and will receive the National Society of Professional Engineers 2010 “New Product Award” next month.
Disney does offer other services for disabled guests including brail guide books and maps and accessiblity for wheelchairs and specially designed wheelchairs for sand and aquatic attractions.
its amazing how some people do things because they feel its for the better good, yet I feel they are misguided.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who has been visually impaired all my life I and every other visually impaired person i know only wish to live our lives with the smallest amount of drama.
We try to not have people fuss over us and try to be as "normal" as possible.
For them to say that Disneys policies are not beneficial to poeple with disabilities is ridiculous.
I have been in the situation where a costumed staff member has involved me in their skit and it was the most embarrassing 5 minutes of my life.
I can only imagine if I had a guide dog with me that would be terrible.
Cari Shields and Amber Boggs need to to mind their own business and leave things alone.