Re: Disabled man awarded £5,300 for getting stuck in Disney
This has wound me up so much I feel a need to post again.
When a ride gets stuck, a message should be spoken on the tanoy explaining the situation. This should be repeated every few minutes with updated information, especially if the first one was automated. After being stuck for more than 5-10 minutes at maximum, attraction music really should be stopped, house lights should really come on and a member of staff should come round to each ride vehicle where possible to speak to guests and answer any questions. Yeah, they are just going to ask "when will it be working again" and yeah, the staff won't know, but sitting there wondering is half of what annoys people. They just want a human to speak to and reassure them until evacuation can begin. These are all faults on Disney's part. Perhaps it was inexperienced staff on the ride that day, and whilst you might argue "it's common sense", I imagine being out of the way in the control box especially when dealing with perhaps your first ever major breakdown and evacuation, it would be easy to forget or overlook it. But why, in the hours it was taking to evacuate, had none of the staff who'd been in the ride area came back to control and said "we need the music turned off!" and really, had no guest moaned about it during the evacuation... At all?! Why had no senior staff been around during those hours to turn it off, either? And if it's against Disney policy to turn it off, then we have to ask why? Is this a break in the magic, and is that more important than H&S?
Well, letting those who can't walk on rides is a H&S problem in the first place.
There's a reason those who cannot walk are not aloud to ride anything at other parks and why new attractions around the world choose against making them "accessible" to disabled guests. In the event of evacuation, it's next to impossible to get severely disabled people off rides - both mental and physical. The carers accompanying this fully-grown-man are not going to be able to carry him.
I think that should actually be part of the disabled rule. You have to have 2 carers, and they have to sign a declaration that they are able and willing to carry the disabled person. It would need to be explained that, in the event of an evacuation it might be impossible safety get them off the ride unless they can do so and that in the event of an emergency they would need to do it quickly. This would mean that children still get to ride and enjoy things.
Disney are fairly alone in their "exceptional" disabled access, but the reality is that putting a wheelchair space on a ride is not making it accessible if it's impossible to evacuate people from it. Had there been a fire, this man would likely be dead. Other parks cannot afford the risk and so do not provide such access. With Disney, it barely scratches them. And the same applies to their height restrictions.
This man has a legitimate complaint with Disney - they should have turned off the music, and if he was unable to be easily evacuated from the ride in such an event, he should have been made aware (and in my opinion, unable to ride). But a lawsuit? This is a complaint to take up directly with Disney. Looking at the story again, it turns out he only "endured" the song for "over half an hour" and part of his complaint was that he needed desperately a wee. $8k for needing a wee and listening to It's a Small World for half an hour? I bet the staff wish they got $64k a day each for working the ride.
TLDR: This man is an example why disabled guests who are unable to walk are no longer not aloud on so many rides around the world. Disney should have shut off the music and make disabled guests aware that they may be unable to easily evacuate most of their rides.
