By Daniel Etcheberry: I’m very curious about what the future of theme parks will be for the disabled. Are the new rides going to be more accessible or less? Looking at the new rides and the ones that are being built or shown in concept art will give a clue about the future.
The "traditional" Mystic Manor ride vehicle. Photo courtesy Disney
Let’s start with the most recent additions. Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor has a special vehicle that has space for a wheelchair to fit inside. On the other hand, the Antarctica ride at SeaWorld Orlando uses the same kind of trackless ride vehicle technology, but they don’t have a wheelchair-accessible vehicle. You must transfer into the vehicle's seat.
Now let’s see the rides that are under construction.
The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom is a coaster, so there needs to be a transfer; I have seen a picture of the train, and it has a very narrow space to get into the seats. If Disney doesn’t add a special row where the side can be removed for transferring, that ride will be off limits to people like me who needs to transfer with no obstacles between the wheelchair and the vehicle’s seat. I haven’t seen any picture of the Gringotts’ coaster vehicle at Universal Studios Florida, but looking at the concept art, the side opening looks wider.
Avatar’s concept art shows some promise for wheelchair users; if the boat ride doesn’t have any drops, it will be wheelchair accessible. If the other ride is like Soarin', it will be an easy transfer.
I haven’t seen much from the Ratatouille ride at Walt Disney Studios Paris, but it looks like it will have the same kind of access like Mystic Manor.
The theme park future for the disabled in America looks so-so; Americans prefer thrill rides (the two coasters mentioned above is an example), and for a disabled, thrill equates to transferring. But this can be balanced with creative ways to make that transfer easier. We will see.
This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201312/3796/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201312/3796/ for the original version, along with all its comments.