Tomorrow is Autism Awareness Day. I am by no means an autism expert…at all. But as a former teacher, I worked with a number of students with autism spectrum disorders. Dealing with autism at such a busy, noisy place as Disneyland must be totally overwhelming for both the parent and child. If you have a child with autism and you have been thinking about taking him or her to Disneyland, I want you to know that there the Disneyland Resort provides a number of services that make it easier to enjoy the park. In fact, in my opinion, the services that the Disneyland Resort provides all special needs guests are perhaps the most under-rated magic in the parks.
- Refuge in the first aid offices, which provide guests with quiet treatment rooms and restroom facilities, medication and medical equipment storage, and more
- Special assistance with the attraction waits
- Food allergies accommodations on demand at virtually all restaurants–quick serve and sit down
- And much more.
While I don’t want this to be a shameless plug for my book, I want parents to know that I do have all of this information in great detail in the special needs chapter of my book, as well as information on quiet places to take your child away from the noise, how to deal with bathroom anxiety, as well as information on attractions with extreme temperature change, loud noises, and the like. I worked with two mothers with special needs children–one a former tour guide like me and one a long-time from who takes her son with special needs to Disneyland almost every week. We put a lot of work into the special needs information and think that it will be very helpful.
We just took our family, including our special son in a wheelchair, to Disneyland and the accommodations were phenomenal. I blogged about it and took extra pictures to share with others about how it works. Thank you for your post.
~Bree