I’m asking you to sign this petition because there are so many inconsistencies with accessibility within theme parks. Accessibility should be well thought through for visitors and NOT a tick box exercise.

Many families enjoy days out to themes parks, including families with children or adults with disabilities / additional needs. Some of these disabilities include invisible disabilities such as Autism.

From my own experience of supporting a number of children and adults at theme parks, the accessibility from one visit to the next and from one theme park to another is always vastly inconsistent.

It was previously a case of purchasing an adult or child ticket and a carer ticket, then being issued with a hand stamp or wrist band when producing evidence of disability / Special Education Need. The person and carer would then enter a ride via the exit to reduce the anxiety that can be caused by the long queue for some people.

The last few times I have been to theme parks, it has added stress to the person being supported because the office issuing ride access passes is quite far into the parks, whereas they used to be next to the entrance.

Last year, one theme park gave us a ‘fast track’ to get on ride without the queueing. However, a large number of families had also purchased the fast track, so there was still a queue. We could also only use this once per hour. By which time the child I was supporting became too anxious with not knowing what is happening next as he wanted to go on more rides.

More recently, we had pre-ordered an adult and carer ticket and took evidence of disability. However, this was not enough to be able to ‘queue jump’ and was advised that we still needed a rise access pass, but we can’t get one on the day. This was not made clear on the website at time of purchasing our tickets. This meant the adult being supported went on 2 rides then asked to go home because “the rides are really fun but the queues are long and difficult”.

The Government Disability Action Plan states:

·    Over 1 in 5 people in the UK are disabled – How many people do you see at theme parks? That a large number of visitors with disabilities being ignored.

·   They “want to tackle the barriers that prevent disabled people from fully benefiting from and engaging in our society”;

·   They “want to make this country the most accessible place in the world for disabled people to live, work and thrive”.

Quotes from families:

“We are being punished for having children with disabilities and difficulties”

“The Ride Access Pass is just a ‘tick box’ for them to say they are accessible”

“My brother is verbal and does so well in different situations that I forget sometimes how much he really does struggle with everyday tasks such as queuing. This means that he can’t access something he enjoys because he is expected to queue for such a long time”.

“We had to wait for over an hour at a theme park to sort out my sister’s access. Then we had to go to another part of the park so the app worked”

“The new system is awful!”

In addition, many families and carers say that there are not nearly enough accessible rides for people with physical disabilities. Often being told they can go on the ride, then as they are about to, get told they can’t go on because they can’t of the level of assistance needed.

Please sign this petition to show your support and the importance of appropriate levels of accessibility.

 

Thank you.