Autism and Merlin RAP

[Perzival]

I think it's fair to say that the amount of people diagnosed with autism has increased by a huge amount compared to the amount of people who were diagnosed with the separate conditions prior to the change in the diagnostic manuals and people with a dx can vary between being a doctor and having a family, mortgage, social life etc to requiring 2:1 24 hour support with very limited communication.

This week Merlin that own Alton Towers, Thorpe park, Chessington and Legoland have decided to not give their ride access pass to people who struggle in crowds. This has caused uproar within the Merlin/ theme park groups as the majority of people who have this struggle have autism.

For those who aren't aware, in order to get a Ride Access Pass (RAP) you have to give evidence of your disabilities to a company called Nimbus who then decide what type of issues you have and give you a card with various icons on that you can them submit to venues for reasonable adjustments.

Throw in the commentary around the SEND white paper and the government review into why so many people are being diagnosed and i'm wondering if this is a more general move and one which is becoming more acceptable.

As the diagnosis has gone from previously representing mainly boy/ men with quite complex needs to representing a vast array of differring presentations and with an ever increasing amount of people being diagnosed, aibu to think that this is just the start and more venues/ places will limit or remove reasonable adjustments for this group of people?

AIBU= No, there isn't a push back against the autism diagnosis and adjustments made for the dx

AINBU= yes, more venues will start to remove or reduce adjustments for those with Autism

To avoid drip feeding I have a ds with profound autism and would imagine he will likely always get various reasonable adjustments (still gets RAP) etc.

It depends on the nature of your difficulty with standing in a queue?

If you haven't already done so, you will need to apply for a nimbus access card. You can do the free one which will just cover merlin parks or pay £15 for one that lasts three years and you can use at other venues.

Once you have that you will need either the difficulty standing, level access or urgent toilet needs symbols to get RAP.

Merlin are now saying it's a trial over Feb half term. They could be trying to backtrack or they could be waiting to see if everything quiets down.

Merlin used to do this but sub contracted out the assessment as to who needs what to a third party. Their staff were regularly abused and there were many people trying it on. We used to witness all sorts of bad behaviour when picking up our RAP card at guest services.

The other issue was dla/pip letters don't detail the level of need or how to meet them. At one stage they accepted dr's letters but there were people on facebook boasting about and detailing how to fake them. People were also paying £15/£20 etc for a private letter which is miles cheaper than fast track.

I think the best proof is a blue badge or social care assessment, report or care plan. I find it difficult to believe that if somebody couldn't queue in a theme park that they wouldn't have needs in other area's of their lives. Blue badges can now be awarded for non physical needs.

For Merlin if you have a platinum pass you can reserve six park passes at any one time. The other passes it's three. That's for each park, admission.

You then have to make separate reservations for RAP where you can have three dates reserved at any one time for each park.

Many of the dates such weekends and school holidays get reserved very quickly, so you can't just decide to go ad hoc if you need RAP.

I think the issue is how many people now either have ADHD/autism/anxiety diagnoses or believe they have traits. Professionals are often being contacted to write letters so kids can skip the queue at theme parks. Often the difficulties are not related to a disability or symptoms are minor but people get a pass anyway and so the queues for people with disabilities are getting longer and longer and people who actually need them are being disadvantaged. Unfortunately those with ADHD/ASD/anxiety who do actually need support are being disadvantaged due to people who don't really need the support.

Actually my daughter wouldn't get a blue badge, but her case was clear cut enough that the theme park nurses told us to get the pass for her when tending to her injuries that she'd gained from falling in the queue.

She can walk further than the 50m of whatever it is for a blue badge for physical disability. She can't stand for prolonged periods and often uses a pushchair to help with mobility when tired. The more tired she gets the more she falls.

Unfortunately, for physical disabilities, blue badges are incredibly difficult to get. In most supermarkets, if you park in the nearest to the door blue badge space you'd have walked too far by the time you got in the door.

I think it would make more sense for them to just say if you get the mobility element of DLA you will qualify. No idea about PIP but I'd assume it should qualify as it's so much harder to get than DLA.

Was that Paulton's? I always thought it was great that they had a real nurse there and think it's miles better than a young kid in guest services having to make these decisions.

I stand by that I think a blue badge or social care report etc is the best way (in lieu of a medical prof making the decision at the park). There has to be a cut off somewhere and where ever that is somebody will lose out.

I feel for your brother. And this is a direct consequence of criteria changing and the blurring of distinctions between ‘Asperger’s’ and other forms of autism.

I get the logic. But however hard I try, I struggle to see my family friend in his fifties who lives in a care home and only repeats cartoon quotes on repeat and can’t function independently, as having similar struggles to my cousin’s son who got offers from three medical schools last year. I know the latter young man has his own problems but in no way should he be considered in the same diagnostic category as my family friend.

I'm under the impression that pip is easier to get but that could be because i look at with severe autism in mind. Tbh ds has had high rates of both care and mobility from three with no fighting for it- i sometimes wish there was a bit of a fight as it would mean he may obviously qualify for it.

I would agree if it was the higher rate of mobility but not the lower rate ora social care document such as an assessment or care plan.

About time. The issue is that private companies are handing out diagnosis without scrutiny, and private companies are then handing out passes, without scrutiny. Too many people are trying to game the system. Attending at quieter times if the issue is crowds, sounds perfectly reasonable.

It's shit, and I think people with "invisible" disabilities will end up being the canaries in the coal mine for a big, much more generalised "fuck the disabled" push. They're trying to make it so that inconvenient, not-immediately-apparent disabilities are "made-up" or "exaggerated" - ack to work! Get to the back of the queue! But don't worry, it won't affect people with real disabilities that are apparent to the untrained eye. For now.

It hasn’t. We have recently came back from DLP and they still have the same system of Access Card for priority pass.

No, you’re conflating RAP with the carer’s tickets. Most places, Merlin parks included, offer one free carer’s ticket per disabled person.

RAP tickets are in addition to purchased entry tickets or carer’s tickets, so they allow 3 people in addition to the main RAP ticket holder to join the RAP queue. Which allowed us (me, DH and our two DDs, aged 7 and 10) to visit Legoland, Chessington etc as a family trip, without having to queue separately with DD10 and one of us in the RAP queue, whilst DD7 and the other parent go in the standard queue and we’d be like passing ships the entire day…

This is exactly what i'm worried about. I think it's the start of things to come and my ds deffinitely doesn't have hidden disabilities.

Yep. Best park ever.

If you restricted it like that, I'd have to work on my muscles I guess, as that would be the only way the park would be accessible to her, if I carried her in queues. A parent shouldn't have to carry a school age child for it to be accessible.

For purely physical disabilities the bar is set at 50m for walking. It's too strict imo. There's a chasm between being able to walk and stand in a regular queue and not being able to manage 50m, which means large numbers of visitors with limited mobility couldn't attend. Thank goodness for parent and child spaces at present at least.

In PP the blue badge parking is more than 50m from the entrance. If you can walk it, you don't qualify. I think some of the frustration some of us feel is seeing how strict the criteria are for physical disabilities whilst it appears (to the outside at least) that the requirements are less strict for people with ND.

Before they brought nimbus in we submitted letters of diagnosis from her consultants and DLA stuff.

You can get more than +1, ds has +2 and get's two comp arer passes for merlin. I haven't heard of anyone getting +3 for carer admission.

But not all non-physical issues with queues are about crowds. My DD has Down’s syndrome and simply doesn’t understand lengthy queues and why she can’t go where she wants, when she wants. Sensory rooms and “quiet periods” won’t make any difference to her issues with queues.

The issue is, when we got the access card they used a single symbol for cannot queue. This is now been reclassified as crowds. And they have a different one for physically standing. But this is based on whether you can physically stand.

They are taking away support from many children with ADHD.

It’s not carer’s admission I’m talking about, it’s the number of companions that the RAP includes. Which is separate to carer’s tickets. As explained in the post you’ve just quoted 🤦‍♀️

This is the same with my son with ADHD. I can keep him in line for a short while. But not more than 10 minutes max. Less if he is somewhere exciting.

His ride access card was valid until 2027. But apparently now will not be valid. We do not live near a park, Legoland was an occasional treat. I have hEDS and am still entitled to use a ride access card. But quite frankly, I would rather not give this company any business after this.

I agree, ds has some physical disabilities too and we've taken him to Alton Towers since he was a baby as his older brother loved it. We've had merlin passes for over a decade so have seen the massive changes. I understand why you think it's unfair. More so at Merlin as they don't let wheelchair users goto the exit like Paulton's do so if there is no RAP availability they can't even attempt the normal qeues (i know Legoland is different).

As an aside and I know it's off subject but you can apply for a blue badge without the automatic qualifiers and appeal if the LA turn the application down.

Apologies, I read too quickly. Yes, some places allow +2 carers in some circumstances, but +1 is most standard. I just wanted to clarify that to those thinking that we’re all getting loads of people in for free!

You have to submit consultant letters and DLA/ blue badge paperwork to Nimbus to get an access card. You cannot get an access card without this.

Many rides don't fill in extra seats though -, if it's a 4 person boat, and 2 get on, they usually let the other seats go spare. Bigger rides may have a single rider queue but they aren't the norm. So you may as well have 4 at times. Certainly at Paulton's, it's only 2 people where it's very much a 2 person ride. It doesn't affect queue times as much as you think.