wheel chair/ECV question

[hobie16]

We all know that is not the answer you give when you have Little children. There safety comes first.

So let's get this straight. You will allow physical threats against your children to continue in the hope that they are never carried out? Sorry dude, anyone threatens my kids and they will be dealt with immediately and very harshly. In the case of your niece she needs to not only strike them from her client list but ban them from the building so no other doc has to be on the receiving end of the same threats. Forever.

i don't know about you, but we "all" don't know that.

If someone threatens my kids (or anybodys kids for that matter) with being run over,

they are going to be talking with a police officer in short order for threating bodily harm.

Their safety does come first, and you can bet your last dollar a threat like that will be dealt with quickly.

+1

[Goofyernmost]

I did visit WDW in a wheelchair and it was amazing how many perks we got. FOTL access and all the other perks that come with the GAC card. It is one of the best kept secrets.
Again this whole ADA thing was meant to be for EQUAL access but it became preferred access and that is why Disney gets so many complains about it. Like it or not but why should a family with small children wait for hours in a hot line while those whit a GAC go on the same attraction twice or three times whiteout any one asking for proof.
And living with hardship? I'll trait any hardship for the final diagnose cancer.
I'll bet that from all those whit a GAC 80% is milking the system.

Yes, but we are not talking about GAC's, we are talking about bus (transportation) laws. To my knowledge the only thing that is required as far as entertainment venues are concerned is access to it. (or simply said, an easy way to get in) Transportation is regulated differently.

Wonder how I got these figures? A very close relative of mine is a physician and she sees parents on a daily base asking ,demanding and screaming at her to get their children diagnosed as "on the spectrum". Perfect normal and healthy children that never learned to listen and obey their parents because the parents are just to lazy to educate them.
Fat children that weight over 200 pounds because the parents only feed them junk food but they like to play the disabilleties card.
Would you like to guess how many of them tell me niece :"I know where you live and how would you like to get your children run over by a car"?
I don't envie all those poor CM that have to deal with all them fakers and believe me as soon as I see one "disabled "person taking more than five persons with him I will call transportation.

Without you knowing it, we are on the same wavelength. I know that there are many, many people faking severe problems, but there are also many that are not faking. Lumping anyone with a wheelchair or ECV as faking is no more accurate then saying that they are all in need. The system needs a way to identify and find physicians with enough integrity to take a stand against the fakers. Good luck with that, btw.

[DisneyMom]

Totally agree with hobie and grumpy-people who make threats against medical staff who are just doing their job should be Sanctioned and Prosecuted.This Rarely Happens. Companies do not want to seem unfriendly/unsympathetic.I'm sure the CMs here all have had an ugly experience in which they were told to let it go-I would wager most MDs and Nurses do as well.

There certainly is an over-diagnosis of Autism/Asperger's Syndrome as years later,some will "lose" the diagnosis.But do you want to gamble that your kid
will "just snap out of it?"Parents are being told that they just need to discipline their kid-Will they learn to speak if we just spank them enough?Parents are rightly freaked out and totally desperate to get whatever services can help-guess what-nobody can get those services until they have a diagnosis even WITH a Dx schools and other agencies are financially motivated to deny services unless they are forced to do so.This turns the parents into the Enemy and the parents learn that you have to be forceful and aggressive to get what the kid needs.I do believe that some of these people are poor parents,and their kids NOT Autistic,but even more are just crazed and desperate because their kids ARE. Guess you have to be in their shoes.

[joanna71985]

I did visit WDW in a wheelchair and it was amazing how many perks we got. FOTL access and all the other perks that come with the GAC card. It is one of the best kept secrets.
Again this whole ADA thing was meant to be for EQUAL access but it became preferred access and that is why Disney gets so many complains about it. Like it or not but why should a family with small children wait for hours in a hot line while those whit a GAC go on the same attraction twice or three times whiteout any one asking for proof.
And living with hardship? I'll trait any hardship for the final diagnose cancer.
I'll bet that from all those whit a GAC 80% is milking the system.

Actually, for the majority of attractions, the lines are mainstreamed (meaning wheelchairs can fit through them). Only a few attractions don't have mainstreamed lines (most of which are at MK or Epcot).

[sstamour]

I decided to de-lurk to share my experience. I went to the Magic Kingdom for a couple of days back in October and used a wheelchair. I didn't get front of the line access, although there were lines where I used the alternate entrance. However, even if the wheelchair did provide me with the ability to skip the line, I'd much rather be in a position to walk.

I'm fairly young, and I look "healthy" enough. I can get up to walk when needed. People don't see that I have a congenital condition that causes all my joints to dislocate if you so much as look at them wrong, or the recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer. In fact, a lot of people don't even see me - I'm below eye level, so I might as well not exist. They talk to the rest of my party instead of me, they let their small children use my chair (and myself) as a jungle gym. The ones that do see me, half of them decide to dart directly in front of me, so much so that I am terrified of running over a small child (I put light up wheels on the chair to try and attract attention!) The worst ones are the ones who, while I am stationed in a spot for the parade, decide to come up and stand between my push handles, or even try to move me. I went in the off-season, so maybe I would feel differently in the middle of the summer, but I'd happily stand in every single line in the park to avoid being in the chair.

That all being said, WDW is one of the best places I've experienced in the chair, so much so that when I got my diagnosis, I decided that what I wanted to do was to go back. So now I'm reading to make sure I avoid being one of the SGs.

[Lyonsperf]

I would like to chime in about the GAC card. We have a 6 year old son that is Autistic. He was diagnosed when he was four years old. Before that he had trouble communicating and would scream and carry on if he had to wait on a line. Our first time to Disney when he was three was the worst experience for all of us. He would scream at the top of his lungs, kick and throw himself to the floor. Most people looked at him as a spoiled child and us as bad parents.
After having him tested and determining he was on the austism spectrum we began to get him therapy and he now attends an ABA program in town and is making progress.
My point is, on the outside he appears to be your typical six year old boy. But he has moments where he cannot process certain stimulus and therefore needs to avoid areas that trigger bad behaviour. We only recently learned of the GAC card after his doctor and therapist had suggested Disney as an excellent stimulation for his rehab.
we get looks from "normal" families when we use the card to circumvent long lines. Most of the time it is just entrance through the fastpass lane. But I would stand in the longest line at the park if my son could be cured and not have autism.

So, although I agree something must be done about the excessive ECV's, I will say don't judge a book by its cover.

[I am Sam]

Actually, for the majority of attractions, the lines are mainstreamed (meaning wheelchairs can fit through them). Only a few attractions don't have mainstreamed lines (most of which are at MK or Epcot).

Yep a good 75% of the rides' lines are mainstreamed. Sometimes I have had CMs put us in the FP line or in through the exit of the ride even if it's mainstreamed.

I do believe that too many kids are being diagnosed autistic it is this generations it disorder. My generation it was ADHD. While I believe both exsist I think that one in every 160 kids has autism is to high a figure. My elementary school had 15% of the kids of Ritalin. Some of the parents I know wanted their kids to be labeled aspergers because little Johnny doesn't have enough friends, doesn't want to talk to adults, and looks at his shoes when he talks. But I don't envy the parents with real autistic children.

[joanna71985]

But I don't envy the parents with real autistic children.

Same here. I have friends with autistic children. And I've seen how difficult it can be at times

[Lyonsperf]

My son couldn't stand or walk the first three years of his life. He could only communicate in grunts and babble. We had easter seals come to the house once a week to work with him. I had to quit my fulltime job to be available for his schedule. It took a full year for the doctors and specialists to diagnose him accurately. He has grown leaps and bounds in the last three years but still has a long way to go.

[I am Sam]

My son couldn't stand or walk the first three years of his life. He could only communicate in grunts and babble. We had easter seals come to the house once a week to work with him. I had to quit my fulltime job to be available for his schedule. It took a full year for the doctors and specialists to diagnose him accurately. He has grown leaps and bounds in the last three years but still has a long way to go.

That is wonderful that Easter Seals has helped and i hope your son improves each passing day. I had a friend in high school whose youngest brother had severe autism. She worked 60 hours a week to put him threw the local autism school which charged $60,000 a year tution. He was actually potty trained and able to communicate with over 100 signs in sign language after 3 years.