Visual Impairment About This Page:

[B.M.]

One of my sisters is looking to join us on our upcoming Disney trip. Her daughter, my niece is visually impaired. Her impairment is physically obvious; you can tell by looking at her. Because it is physically noticeable and she is nine years old, she is very self conscious about it.

From what I remember reading in the past, visual impairments are not accommodated with the new Disability cards and you must advocate at any and all attraactions where you would request accomodation.

I am concerned on my sisters and nieces behalf. My niece will not enjoy having her visual impairment brought up every time we go to a show where we would like her to be accommodated on front rows. With that said, my sister knows this would upset her and she likely will not do it.... meaning she would just end up in the back of the shows without being able to see....

Part of me hopes, the CM's will just offer the accommodation without requesting it; as her impairment is obvious to anyone. But, they may not notice it in the mix of all the people entering...

Any suggestions or ideas how this could be handled without having to ask at every show (Disney has a lot of shows)?

[SueM loves WDW]

Originally Posted by B.M.

One of my sisters is looking to join us on our upcoming Disney trip. Her daughter, my niece is visually impaired. Her impairment is physically obvious; you can tell by looking at her. Because it is physically noticeable and she is nine years old, she is very self conscious about it.

From what I remember reading in the past, visual impairments are not accommodated with the new Disability cards and you must advocate at any and all attraactions where you would request accomodation.

I am concerned on my sisters and nieces behalf. My niece will not enjoy having her visual impairment brought up every time we go to a show where we would like her to be accommodated on front rows. With that said, my sister knows this would upset her and she likely will not do it.... meaning she would just end up in the back of the shows without being able to see....

Part of me hopes, the CM's will just offer the accommodation without requesting it; as her impairment is obvious to anyone. But, they may not notice it in the mix of all the people entering...

Any suggestions or ideas how this could be handled without having to ask at every show (Disney has a lot of shows)?

DAS is really just about accommodating waiting outside of the traditional line.

The old Guest Assistance Card (GAC) had many different stamps (and sometimes people had 2 stamps that were actually contradictory). One of the possible stamps was for seating in the front row.
Honestly though, most people I know of with need to sit in front did not bother to get a GAC after a few times. Pretty much everyone I know of found it easier to just head to the front row of shows without asking. Since you seat yourself, you can choose where to sit.
For shows, most guests want to be in the middle of the theater, at least a few rows back from the very front, so the very front is usually not in much demand at most shows.

Advocating doesn't need to be difficult. It usually amounts to asking a CM which door into the theater is closest to the front or for help in getting front row. It doesn't need a long explanation, especially if the daughter's disability is visible.
My daughter uses a wheelchair because she can't walk. For those shows that have some wheelchair seating in the front, we just ask if it would be possible to sit in the front. We've never explained why and have never been turned down unless that theater's spots were already filled or it had no spots for wheelchairs in the front.

For rides, if it would help her to diet in the front row, just ask. People ask to sit in the front all the time for many reasons - kids are short and can't see over, don't want anyone in front of them. You don't need to give a reason. Just be prepared, you probably will be asked to stand aside to wait for the next ride car/boat if they have already filled the front row of the one you would have been placed in.

Rides are places where people using GACs for visual disabilities reportedly did run into issues. I know people who showed their GAC at rides to get in the front row and ended up in a discussion with the CM including things like ' no row on the boat is any closer than the others....we don't use GACs for vision at this attraction.' Because of that, they found it was easier to not use the GAC at all and just say, "we would like the front row, please" to the CM assigning rows.

Also, I would not count on CMs noticing her visual impairment. Especially for shows,there are hundreds of people coming in at the same time, which makes it difficult for CMs to notice anything about a particular guest - they all kind of blend in.

[SueM loves WDW]

also, WDW is a very good, safe place to start working on self-advocacy.

This article is about educational settings, but makes some really good points. If a parent or child is not comfortable about asking for what they need, they are not likely to get what they need.
http://www.pacer.org/parent/php/PHP-c95.pdf

Here is a good one specifically about kids with visual impairments (mostly school related, but still helpful).
http://www.familyconnect.org/info/br...-advocacy/1235

And, one from the National Federation for the Blind:
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publicati...2/fr320210.htm

Anyway, food for thought.

[B.M.]

Thanks for the information.

I can't think of any rides where we would need to request front row for her...

Just the shows...

Like you said, maybe it won't be as difficult as I was imagining... they may be able to just place themselves where the go for the front row...

Thanks for the links as well. My niece is legally blind, but she can still technically see. My sister hasn't full accepted this and doesn't advocate for her in many aspect simply because she tries to ignore the situation and let her be "normal".... which I appreciate her wanting to just do everything "normally", I also think it's good to advocate when needed... I'll share the links with my sister as well...

[Missy71]

My daughter also has a visual impairment-low vision (20/100 vision). While your niece's vision is different from my daughters, we found that the only times we needed to use a GAC card (we went in 2011-she was 8) was for the Indian Jones, Lights, Camera, Action and Fantasmic shows as those venues are HUGE, and far enough from the stage as it is, for her to see properly. We needed front or second row for her to fully appreciate these attractions. Most of the other places we ventured (Muppets, TTBAB, Soarin') the screens were big enough that we didn't need to sit in the front rows. Other attractions (Carousel, Country Bear) were less crowded so finding appropriate seating for her wasn't much of an issue.
I also had to be her advocate at times, as much as she detested that. I just explained to her that she had every right to see the attractions as other people and this was a tool to help her get the full experience. She still wasn't happy with me, but she at least enjoyed the shows. We going back in 19 days to catch some things we missed (Beauty & the Beast, Philharmonic, Lion King) so we'll see how it goes. At 11, she still doesn't like to have attention brought to her disability so I'm sure I'll get some grumblings from her. But it's par for the course.
I hope you and your family have a nice vacation and will be pleasantly surprised at what you can do without having to explain what/why you need what you need.

[Sandra Bostwick]

There are some great resources and tips here. I got to tour with some imagineers to test out the Duratec system for hearing or visual impairments. At the end of my e-book, you can read about the device.

Navigating Disney on ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners

And this link has some multi-media info. Accessing the Magic on ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners

I hope you'll check back in and let us hear how things went!