Is Disney Land Blind Friendly?

   

 

A few months ago I had the good fortune to spend a day at Disney Land and for the most part I had a great time.  All because I went there with a sighted friend who was so great in helping me to find my way around.  Disney Land was packed with both adults and kids and for the most part my friend and I had to push our way through throngs of persons to get to where we wanted to go.  Just like anyone else that day.

 

I am not going to single out Disney Land in any way but I will say that based on some of the other amusement parks that I have visited, Disney Land is probably no better than others when it comes to being blind friendly.  As a general rule of thumb, most personnel at amusement parks will do their best to help out if you as a blind person have a problem but when it comes to making rides and pathways and sidewalks accessible, then here is where there are challenges and amusement parks in general fall a bit short.

 

What could amusement parks do to be a bit more blind friendly?  Provide alternate equivalents of any printed documents; in Braille, large print, and on CD or diskette.  Make pathways and sidewalks more accessible to blind persons.  Provide more ramps.  Provide audio descriptive videos shown at amusement parks; the equivalent of the regular videos shown.   There is more to be considered but for now I think that this would be an excellent start.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and help to educate amusement and entertainment parks about how they can become more accessible to blind persons.  If you would like to learn more about descriptive videos, then please visit www.wgbh.org.