phamton said:
Universal Studios Orlando and Islands of Adventure are completely ADA accessible and by law must obey the guidelines set by the ADA. They do allow certain privileges to make it more comfortable to wait such as airconditioned waiting rooms, etc. If a person's disabilities makes it impossible to wait in line such as autism, make a wish kids, etc. then front of the line is available for them. When you go to Universal Studios you need to let them know what kind of assistance is needed and that request is honored.
I understand and applaud Universal's attempts at inclusion. In fact, their Rider's Guide for guests with Disabilities is the most complete and helpful guide I have ever seen. But, our last trip to Universal was many years ago and left a sour taste in our mouths, but not because we were expecting any front of the line treament. Things may have changed, but maybe not....
We might go back to Universal at some point, but we found that because DD has a wheelchair, we were looked at by Universal as needing
only accessible lines, despite her other needs. We were not asking for front of the line access, only for a place to wait out of the sun, heat and closeness of the lines or a place where she and one member of our party could wait while the rest of us were in line.
I don't want to go into detail on this board about why close lines are a problem for her, but we explained her needs and were told repeatedly (on several trips) that "our lines are
wheelchair accessible and meet
all the ADA guidelines and that's
all we are required to provide". (That is as close to exact quote and emphasis as I can get - it seemed to be a script, since everyone we talked to used the same words and even emphasized the same words).
It didn't matter that I said my DD had other needs that were
not met just by accessible lines. Because we had a wheelchair, that was all they would provide.
It did not matter how we explained her needs, I felt I was being looked at as someone who would rent a wheelchair and then ask for front of the line access (just for the record, my DD has cerebral palsy and can't walk. She has an obviously expensive custom personal wheelchair - actually 2 wheelchairs; a manual and a power). The individual ride CMs were nice to us, but without the Guest Assistance Pass, they could not give us anything besides an accessible line. Because we had a wheelchair, the Guest Services people felt they had accomidated us enough by providing wheelchair accesible lines.
I do know people have posted that their children with autism and ADD (which ironically, is one of DD's diagnoses) have been accomidated well at Universal, so maybe some day we will try again.
But, because most of the rides are either thrill rides that she can't go on, or require a transfer from the wheelchair, we are very limited in what we can go on.