Monday, July 5, 1998
Inclusion is the real magic of Disney
Disabled guests welcomed warmly
BY DEBORAH KENDRICK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ORLANDO, Fla.- There's nothing like a vacation to recharge your physical and psychological batteries. If you or someone in your family has a disability, the planning can be a bit more challenging.
Will physical facilities be welcoming to wheelchairs? Will information be available to visitors unable to read print? Will the main attractions of a particular destination be ones that can be appreciated by family members with limited sight or hearing?
Disney World, that remarkable smorgasbord of entertainment, fantasy and education covering a geographical space equivalent to the city of San Francisco, may well be the most accessible vacation destination anywhere for people with disabilities.
If you've never been to Disney World and think it's the Orlando version of Paramount's Kings Island, think again. While there are a respectable representation of amusement park rides, Disney World's greatest strength is by no means having the meanest, wildest rides around.
Its four parks - Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom - each are brimming with a blend of attractions that literally offer something for everyone.
Magic Kingdom, with Cinderella's Castle, a daily parade and nightly fireworks, is the park where everyone ages 3-103 can suspend disbelief and exist in a world of fantasy for the day. At Epcot, you can get a significant lesson in hydroponic gardening, look at the future of telecommunications, or visit authentic restaurants, shows, and shops from countries around the world. You can be in a television show at MGM. At Animal Kingdom, you can go on safari, see stage shows or dine with Winnie-the-Pooh.
Hospitality is key
In addition to the magnificent diversity in entertainment, the quality that sets Disney World apart is its hospitality. Walt Disney wanted entertainment to be accessible to every member of the family, In its '90s incarnation, Disney World has done an outstanding job of including those members with disabilities.
Rides, theater attractions, restaurants and shops are almost all wheelchair accessible throughout the four parks. Many attractions have a ''disability entrance'' to provide any extra assistance necessary to guests.
This might mean an escort to roomier theater spaces for wheelchairs, a temporary halting of a moving platform to enable a person with a disability to approach and board the ride, or simply a shorter wait for folks with limited stamina.
Guidebooks
At the guest relations facility just inside the gate at each park, visitors can pick up a guidebook for guests with disabilities that indicates which attractions offer such special entrances. Each of the three older parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and MGM) also offer a book produced in Braille and - or an audiocassette that provides brief annotations on each attraction and a general description of the park's physical layout.
What makes Disney World a model of accessibility, though, is not wheelchair-accessible entrances, closed-caption videos or Braille guidebooks. What makes the parks so accessible is a general awareness and attitude by all its ubiquitous ''hosts'' and ''hostesses'' that all guests are respected equally, welcomed with equal warmth.
There to help
If you need information or direction, you rarely have time to worry about it before you've found someone with an answer. Workers - or ''cast'' as they are called - never seem astonished or perplexed when a child in a wheelchair, a teen-ager on crutches or an adult with a guide dog show up for a turn on a turbulent thrill ride or greenhouse tour.
Assistance is offered graciously, and the sense of inclusion is consistent.
The key to enjoying Disney World is to enter into the fantasy world of Mickey Mouse, magic carpets, bugs that talk and trips to the stars. If you or someone in your group is a Disney guest with a disability, you can add to that list an opportunity to enter into a land where the fantasy-made-reality is that you are treated just like everyone else.
Deborah Kendrick, a Cincinnati free-lance writer, is a nationally recognized advocate for people with disabilities. Write: Deborah Kendrick, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; e-mail: 71340.473@compuserve.com.
KENDRICK ARCHIVE
