To whom it may concern,

As a horror fan, Florida resident and long-time HHN attendee, I'd like to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for providing all of us maniacs and scream queens with a safe space here in the fog. For making our wildest dreams come true, by channeling our worst nightmares.

Ever since I could remember, I was always drawn to the allure and darkness of HHN. I can remember seeing Jack the Clown and Bloody Mary on billboards as a child, and being equal parts terrified yet intrigued. A few years later, I would attend my first Horror Nights and be instantly hooked.

I would go on to attend sporadically throughout the years when I could, but I remained enthused and bewitched from afar. Every year, I would wait and watch as the stream of announcements slowly started to come in. Horror icons that terrified me as a child, ripped from the silver screen and thrust into reality, mere feet from me.

Every time I attended the event, I would scream and laugh to the point that the line between the two blurred into a sweetly-scented mist. I had found somewhere I could be my freaky, dramatic, twisted self. And at HHN, I was celebrated for it. But right as I felt I had started finding myself in the fog, the horror started getting all too real.

In the fall of 2019, I was diagnosed with scapuloperoneal muscular dystrophy, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that is essentially exclusive to my mother's side of my family.

Over the course of the last 4 or so years, I have witnessed firsthand the progression of this disease's effects on my body. Scapuloperoneal mainly affects the use of one's hips and shoulder muscles. These days, I mainly rely on the use of a motorized scooter to get around.

But amidst all this change, one thing has stayed the same: my love for horror.

Horror allows me to sort through all the big, difficult, deadly-serious emotions that we all experience, and process them in 90 minutes. In the world of horror, slashers were my friends, final girls were my therapists and death was never the end.

Horror inspires me to keep going when things get tough. To keep fighting and not to let myself become a victim.

So, instead of denying myself the thrill and horror of attending HHN because of my physical limitations, I'm putting the ball in Universal's court.

While HHN may technically be ADA-compliant, anybody who has done it with a physical limitation knows that it is far from perfect. Fumbling around with a manual wheelchair in the dark, hitting walls and snagging corners every time you leave/enter a room is not ideal and it is not accessible.

We, the fans, know how much dedication, detail and love goes into these houses at Horror Nights. But to say in the year 2023 that the only way a person with a disability is allowed to experience them is by transfering into a foreign wheelchair is outrageous. There is no reason why these houses can't accommodate ECVs, such as motorized scooters or electric wheelchairs.

Last year, at HHN 31, my night was cut short because, after transferring in and out of the provided wheelchairs to and from my scooter, I was too exhausted to keep going.

I, like many other HHN fans, don't live locally and only get to experience the event once most years. So when I do get to attend, I try to make the most out of my trip. We stay at Universal hotels and buy Express Passes to ensure that we are able to hit every house.

But, with Universal's current policy in place, it's just not realistic for many non-ambulatory to experience all that Halloween Horror Nights has to offer in just one night. And to expect us to spend twice as much as our able-bodied cohorts for the same experience is egregious.

That is why I am forming this petition to ask Universal Orlando Resort to start factoring in people with disabilities when preparing for the Halloween season.

I know for a fact that my family can't justify spending as much as we did last year to come out still feeling shafted for a second year in a row. So, until Universal Orlando commits to doing better for all of it's guests, last year's Halloween Horror Nights may be my last.