Expert challenges the Special Assistance Pass for some

Disneyland has had a long and proud tradition assisting it’s disabled Guests to get the most out of it’s attractions whether it is through wheel chair hire, wide access queue lines or with its Special Access Passes*. But research from the UK suggests these accommodations may be doing more harm than good for one group of Guests.

Allowing children with attention-deficit disorders to "line jump" at theme parks could be doing them more harm than good, one expert suggests. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are given passes in most theme parks including Disney’s resorts if they can prove they have the condition. And frighteningly one in 20 schoolchildren is thought to suffer from a form of ADHD.

In the past, certainly when I first started at City Hall in the late 1990’s the passes were reserved for the permanently physically disabled, those for example who were wheelchair bound, the Blind or the acutely deaf. As time went by and Disney’s understanding of disability issues broadened those Guests with certain other afflictions such as Autism were brought into the scheme.

Since my term at City Hall ended a new diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has come to be more recognized. Whilst for those with ADHD the line jumping pass may reduce the stress of waiting, which they find very difficult, Professor Katya Rubia, of London's Institute of Psychiatry, said it was important they learned to do so.

Professor Rubia who has researched ADHD said her work showed such children did have serious problems with understanding time and an inability to delay a reward when talking to the BBC recently.

"This is clearly a medical condition, but it isn't right to bring them up in a system where they never have to wait. You're not making it any better for them - this is something they can be helped to learn.

"I can see why parents might like it, but in the long term you are not doing the child any favors. This is a condition which we can improve, and learning to wait should be part of that process."

For a report on using the “Guest Assistance Pass” I’d recommend my friend Sunny Hall’s Why I Love Disney World Part 2 blog post.

*The name for the passes seems to vary from resort to resort.