On the 3rd of December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Disneyland Paris will be updating their Accessibility Program to empower guests with disabilities and special needs to experience the parks according to their own evaluation. Disneyland Paris will no longer determine access to attractions based on disability categories and guests will evaluate their own autonomy to decide which attractions they could experience in the hope that almost all Disneyland Paris Attractions will become accessible to everyone.
“Our new accessibility program is a major step forward in our commitment to accessibility at Disneyland Paris, enabling every guest to experience the magic of Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, said Daniel Delcourt, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Disneyland Paris. “Our guests and Cast Members have always been at the heart of our approach to accessibility. Disneyland Paris is committed to listening and learning from our guests, Cast Members and accessibility experts to develop new standards of inclusion in the French theme park industry.”
Disneyland Paris’ new accessibility program will:
- Focus on guest autonomy
- Increase the number of accessible attractions by revising priority and easy access conditions and evacuation procedures
- Remove the requirement for disabled guests to be accompanied on attractions
- Provide a 25% discount for disabled guests presenting official disability documentation and for one potential accompanying careperson
Update to the Current Card System
Disneyland Paris will retire the current green and orange cards to launch two new cards and a wristband with more specific attributes. One of the biggest changes is that you’ll no longer be required to share the details of the disability with Cast Members at City Hall. Disneyland Paris believes that guests themselves are in the best position to determine what they are capable of, and therefore will be introducing an online self-questionnaire to evaluate, identify each guest’s autonomy level and improve confidentiality.
These questions may include…
- Are you in a wheelchair?
- Do you have a companion?
- Are you able to come in / out of an Attraction?
- Do you feel able to be evacuated from an Attraction?
A color code will be assigned to the guest on completion of the questionnaire which will allow the Cast Members to identify each Guest’s autonomy levels and provide each guest with a card displaying the guest’s name, colour code, and QR code. Each card will be valid for the duration of the visit and can be linked to an Annual Pass.
- Green, total autonomy
- Purple, autonomous Guest with reduced mobility
- Orange ,Guest without a wheelchair but with difficulties to evacuate an Attraction
- Sky Blue, non autonomous Guest with mobility difficulties
- Grey, Guest is not autonomous and cannot transfer
The new “Priority Access Card” is very similar to the current green card as it will give immediate access to a wide range of attractions at Disneyland Paris. However, this card will now only be available to holders of the French “Mobilité Inclusion card” or international equivalents.
The new “Access Facilitation Card” is the replacement for the current orange card. This provides guests with return timed appointments to ride an attraction. However, this will now only be available for guests with a medical certificate that shows a long-term disability. You can find an official list of these, in French here and this will be published on the Disneyland Paris website in November.
Finally, a brand new Priority Access Wristband will be available for expecting mothers which will provide quick and easy access to a selection of attractions.
Acoustic and Visual Trigger update
To help guests prepare for their visit, Disneyland Paris will also be publishing a guide that’ll show all the acoustic and visual triggers in their Attractions.
In addition to this Guests with visual impairments can also take advantage of Audio Description via the Audio Spot app [iOS – GooglePlay]) which will be available in French and English.
Price update for Companions
With this new update, disabled Guests are no longer required to be accompanied to enter the Parks, however, this is still highly recommended. As this requirement has been removed, companions will no longer be provided with a free Park ticket. Instead, Disneyland Paris will offer a 25% discounted ticket.
Temporary Injury or Disability
Disneyland Paris Accessibility Program will focus on guests who hold official certificates, they are effectively excluding all temporary injuries such as a broken leg, as well as cases not listed as a disability. We will wait to see how this update will affect guests in this situation after the new program goes live in December.
Working for Disney with a disability
Disneyland Paris is also focused on providing equal opportunities for employees, continuing to recruit Cast Members with disabilities for all types of roles according to their skills and unique needs. Cast Members with disabilities now represent 5.9% of the total Cast Members at Disneyland Paris.
