All Aboard An ongoing challenge for park owners is making sure all of their customers are satisfied. And lately that means ensuring an equally fun time for disabled guests. Small and big parks alike are facing the challenge, and here’s how... By Keith Miller You stand in nervous anticipation in the Ready Room, awaiting your final orders. You’ve just gone through Team Dispatch, where you were assigned to a crew with three fellow astronauts. You’re now told that on this mission, you’ll be the flight engineer, and your mission duties are explained to you. As you move into Pre-Flight and watch a video of your final orders, you tell yourself that you’ve been a passenger on expeditions like this a thousand times before, so you’re well-prepared. But this is different; as flight engineer, the ship’s systems are your responsibility, including the activation of hyper sleep for the crew. In short, their lives are in your hands. As you board the X-2 space capsule, you’re a bit overwhelmed by the myriad controls and plasma monitors—all state of the art. You strap yourself in and await liftoff. Suddenly, the capsule begins to rumble, and you feel a strange sensation in your stomach. The next few minutes are a blur as you and your fellow crew members accelerate at a dizzying pace. Later in your journey, when you awaken from hyper sleep, you’re approaching Mars, and there’s no time to relax as you hurtle along the Martian landscape, narrowly avoiding mountains and briskly swooping through valleys. Finally, before you know it, it’s over. You’ve accomplished your mission and are safely back on Earth. What you’ve just experienced is not a futuristic voyage into the final frontier, but a technologically stunning new ride called Mission: Space at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center. In addition to remarkable innovations in ride technology, however, this attraction employs impressive advancements of another kind: accommodations for the disabled. Previously, an intense ride like this would probably have been inaccessible to disabled guests. But now, riders with physical limitations or hearing difficulties can delight in such attractions along with other guests. Whether driven by a desire to provide equal access to all or by the passage of disability laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), many U.S. amusement attractions are becoming more accessible. Truly, some of the access technologies recently introduced in the industry have allowed the disabled to enjoy more attractions than ever before. But as more regulations are introduced subsequent to the ADA, many in the industry are concerned that the resulting costs may make it difficult for some facilities to survive. In September of 2002, the U.S. Access Board Recreation Access Advisory Committee, consisting of 27 disability organizations, government entities, and recreation industry interests (including IAAPA), issued guidelines for access at recreation facilities. These standards have been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) but have yet to be adopted into law. Though the guidelines apply equally to large and small parks, their respective resources and hence their approaches to addressing the requirements often differ greatly. Industry giants such as Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando make use of their tremendous assets and technological prowess in efforts to assist the disabled, whereas smaller parks and FECs are often more limited in the number of rides or activities they can make accessible. The Cutting Edge Ronnie Brown, attraction guest services manager for Mission: Space, says many elements of this ride were designed to accommodate the disabled. The queuing area handrails are widely spaced to accommodate wheelchairs, and guests are guided to specific rows that line up with the guest-with-disabilities “space capsules” (each of the attraction’s four bays has four capsules, and each bay has one capsule for disabled guests). The Disney staff will not assist guests into the capsules, but a companion is welcome to do so. Brown explains that guests’ companions are much more knowledgeable and better trained in assisting them than is the attraction’s staff. Incidentally, disabled guests are allowed to ride multiple times without having to disembark. Though other riders might sometimes chafe at this because they believe it makes them wait longer to ride, Brown notes that it actually cuts down on the delay because if the disabled rider had to get off, re-enter the queue, and be transferred onto the ride again, it would actually take longer. In addition to attraction scripts, hearing-impaired guests can use assisted listening devices (ALD). Worn as a headset, the ALD picks up and amplifies signals from sensors mounted throughout the attraction that transmit the same audio other guests are hearing. Also, Guest Services has hearing aid volume amplifiers, and the instruction screens at Mission: Space are closed-captioned. In 2002, Disney engineers introduced a personal digital assistant (PDA) for hearing-impaired guests. Termed “handheld captioning,” the PDA picks up on wireless signal broadcasts at attractions and shows throughout the parks, then displays synchronized captioning on a backlit screen. “We go to all this effort because we’re a story-based attraction, and if you can’t get the story, then you’ve missed out on what we’re about,” says Jay Cardinali, manager of services for guests with disabilities at Walt Disney World. However, Cardinali insists that Disney will not avoid introducing a new attraction just because it’s not accessible to the disabled. Still, he points out that some older attractions are being retrofitted with other technologies, such as rotating platforms that allow disabled guests to remain in their wheelchairs and be lowered onto modified ride vehicles. Walt Disney World’s main competitor, neighboring Universal Orlando, is able to easily accommodate disabled visitors at sister parks, such as Universal’s Islands of Adventure, which opened in 1999. “We wanted to make sure access was equal for every guest, and we spent a whole lot of money doing it,” says Jeffrey Polk, Universal’s director of park operations. “Having new parks made it relatively easier.” Indeed Polk acknowledges that the company had a good idea of what the access board guidelines were going to be and incorporated them into the new park. “We were actually involved in developing the access guidelines, and for us, they haven’t meant a lot of changes because we were already doing those things. But we tried to craft them in such a way that they would be workable for all parks and FECs,” Polk says. “Otherwise, they’d just throw their hands up.” In addition to designing queue areas and ride vehicles to accommodate wheelchairs, Universal introduced large print attraction scripts for the hearing impaired and Braille scripts for the visually impaired, made sign language interpreters available to guests with 72 hours’ notice, and installed technology that allows guests to activate captioning on queuing area monitor screens using a handheld clicker. Accommodating the disabled, however, isn’t without its challenges. Cardinali concedes that there is some level of abuse. “One of the biggest industry problems is healthy guests posing as disabled in order to avoid the lines and get special treatment at attractions,” he says. “We do our due diligence, but we can’t legally ask if you’re really disabled or not, or whether you really need a wheelchair or not. We have little control over such scamming.” Smaller Parks, Fewer Resources Unfortunately, Polk says, providing equal access is often neither easy nor inexpensive. But unlike the big park chains, smaller venues such as FECs, miniature golf courses, and other independently owned venues have a very hard time finding the capital to overhaul their facilities. Steve Hix, executive director of the Miniature Golf Association in San Antonio, Texas, has been struggling with the accessibility guidelines for years. He says that when the guidelines were released, they required 100 percent of the holes to be accessible to wheelchairs, but a much lower percentage for all other attractions. “We told them they were being unreasonable in singling out miniature golf, and they could give us no good reason for doing it,” Hix exclaims, “and it finally wound up being 50 percent.” Hix explains that the guideline restrictions compromise the design and entertainment value for the non-disabled—the vast majority of the customers. He adds, “There’s absolutely no indication that increasing accessibility will increase revenues nearly enough to cover the costs. Most of our members say that less than one percent of their customers are physically disabled. If the cost of all this drives courses out of business, or causes courses not to be built, whom does it help?” Greg Florer, president of Blackbeard’s Family Entertainment Center in Fresno, Calif., agrees with Hix’s sentiment, adding that if the cost of constructing new attractions for disabled clients was worth it, most facilities would have already done it. Florer laments that when added to inspections by attorneys, insurance companies, and state agencies, the costs grow even larger. There are some facilities, however, that are exempt from certain ADA guidelines. Only a few of the attractions at waterparks must comply, and waterslides are exempt. “There’s really not a whole lot that applies to waterparks because you don’t have the typical rides as in an amusement park,” says Buddy Wilkes, GM of Shipwreck Island waterpark in Panama City Beach, Fla., “and the safety issue of drowning has to be the overriding concern.” Wilkes observes that most of their disabled customers are children in wheelchairs, and because many of their pools have a gradually sloping drop-off, parents will often roll a child in a wheelchair right into the water. As for waterparks, many of the access guidelines also don’t apply to fairs and carnivals because ramps and transfer devices add too much weight to rides that move from venue to venue, according to Jerry Aldrich, president of Amusement Industry Consulting. One aspect of accommodating the disabled that has caused confusion in the past involves the admission of service animals. Mark Brisson, marketing manager of Fun Spot Action Park in Orlando, Fla., and his wife operate a business that provides service dogs, so he sees both sides. “Initially, some parks don’t understand that these are not pets, so there needs to be some enlightenment in that area,” Brisson contends. “We’re all required to admit service animals, and parks are not allowed to ask what role the service animal plays, regardless of the situation.” Guidelines Status The accessibility guidelines have yet to be adopted by the DOJ, and some in the industry speculate that the additional costs they’d place on an industry already burdened with a slowdown might be the cause of their delayed implementation. But David Capozzi, director of technical and information services for the access board, gives another reason. “We’ve made several additions to the guidelines, and that process is continuing, so the DOJ seems to be saying they’ll look at adoption when we’re done with this process.” Capozzi formed the advisory committee that helped develop the guidelines. In contrast to the views expressed by park principals, Capozzi believes the revenue parks will receive from serving the disabled will cover the costs. “I think the cost of providing access, especially in new construction, is minimal,” he contends. “If they advertise it, more will come, and word of mouth will serve them well.” Though a specter of potential litigation resulting from the guidelines looms over the industry, Capozzi says it hasn’t manifested itself greatly yet. “I’m trying to think of what’s happened over the past few years. There’s an aggressive attorney in Florida who’s filed lawsuits involving miniature golf,” he recollected. “There’ve also been complaints to the DOJ.” But Hix sees a more ominous future. “I see a lot of lawsuits coming out of this, a lot of good people becoming bitter,” he says. “Even though the guidelines aren’t law yet, lawsuits can still be brought by attorneys for discrimination.” Technology will play a major role in accessibility for the disabled in the future, especially for the larger parks. “We’ll be involved in whatever comes down the pike that’s technology related,” says Cardinali. “Our next focus is blind or low-vision guests.” Universal’s Polk imparts, “We’ll also look at technology developments closely, and we’re soon going to a conference to find out from travel agents what their customers are requesting.” Parks and FECs say they want to accommodate disabled guests because it’s in keeping with being good citizens in their communities. But many are concerned that if government regulations are extensive and unreasonable, and bring heavy costs that aren’t recovered, they won’t benefit anyone in the end. “If we had to make every ride accessible—if the regulations ever reached that point—I’m very confident the revenue from these guests wouldn’t even come close to covering the costs,” asserts Wilkes. “If we were ever forced to make that kind of commitment, we couldn’t do it, and we’d be better off to close down and let our property be used for something else.” For a copy of the guidelines, go to www.access-board.gov/recreation/guides/ use.htm.