Disney offers new way for wheelchair users to access rides
One of the many challenges in theme park ride operation is getting guests who use wheelchairs onto and off of ride vehicles.
The transfer process can be slow, as every individual has different needs and abilities. As a result, parks have developed a variety of ways to accommodate their guests with disabilities. One method that is become more common is the use of a transfer track, where a vehicle that is to take on, or discharge, a guest with a disability can do so off the main track. That way, the guest can take all the time needed without interrupting the flow of other guests through the ride.
In an ideal situation, a ride vehicle is designed so that it can accommodate a guest's own wheelchair, without the need for the guest to transfer into a ride seat. But what happens when a ride stops mid-show and that guest needs to be evacuated?
And what happens when a ride does not have a flat track all the way around its circuit? On many rides, vehicles are e-stopped on lifts, where the vehicle is held in a sloped position. How do you get a wheelchair off that ride?
Disney is proposing a new solution to that problem in a patent application filed today: Rider Inclusive Transport Aide. Until now, parks have held off on designing ride vehicles to accommodate wheelchairs without transfer on track or flume rides with lifts, because of the access problem on non-flat surfaces. Disney's solution would equip ride vehicles sloping access platform to offset the slope of the ride.
Image from Disney's patent application
For more on this process, please read Disney's patent application.
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This seems like an overly complicated solution to a problem. Typically chair chairs are loaded into accessible ride vehicles with a ramp (either a mechanical folding ramp that's part of the vehicle or load platform or a manual ramp that's positioned by a CM). This mechanism requires the entire vehicle to tilt to allow a chair-bound rider to load, which seems like a lot of moving parts for what should be a simple process.
While this makes it easier and less strenuous on the rider and CMs, there are a lot more failure points with a mechanism like this. Frankly, the real solution to wheelchair boarding is to always design vehicles that load with a flat floor that is level with the boarding platform. Any vehicle where guests have to step down (or up) into the ride should be a thing of the past.