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.

Yep, we've got folders of it. That's fine. Still need the pass for standing but don't qualify for a blue badge though.

I know but your correcting someone who was talking about carers passes not the rap plus three. 🙈 if you read back there is a conversation about the number of carers required to attend with some people so that their day out is facilitated. The conversation involved having adequate cover for lunches.

You maybe correcting somebody and talking about rap but that wasn't the reference.

You can get at least upto +2 on merlin carer passes not +1 as you've put.

Sorry, just seen this, i'm guilty of the same.

I saw this on Facebook and genuinely thought it was an Onion style article as it came from a page I never heard of. I thought it was a joke! How depressing

I will put it on my list of stuff to do when I have time. I still need to deal with DLA renewal, which I keep half doing and then life gets too busy.

We do a lot of my husband dropping us off and then parking etc, but that's obviously not always possible. At the stage when you meticulously plan the nearest parking, drop off points, take a back up sling/pushchair places, then maybe I should apply. It just feels like more life admin than I can bear when I think there's a good chance we'll be turned down.

But then I hear of people having blue badges awarded for things that really surprise me. So maybe don't ask, don't get!

Yes, i think it is a case of this. If/when you can definitely apply, you've nothing to lose. I can't remember if you said your daughters age but we were referred to wheelchair services when ds started school as if he was to go on a school trip they would require something to support him as they wouldn't carry him like i did, similar to you. They gave him an sen buggy and as he's got older a wheelchair. He can walk some but gets tired and it can be painful.

I wish i'd made more use of it and not carried him as much as i've now developed sciatica and it's probably because of this.

Edit: yes i've heard of people getting bb's for things that have shocked me too. All the systems need a good overhaul.

My DD can wait her turn, can technically queue, understands the concept of queueing. Problem is the bright, articulate child that no one would normally tell is ND, also gets a bit bitey in situations she finds stressful. Mainly densely packed, loud areas and places where people are breaking the rules. So essentially queues. Last time we tried the normal queue she bit DS about 30 minutes in after getting increasingly stressed, but also refused to leave the queue and had a meltdown because she wants the sensory input from the rides. Therefore, the shorter the queue the better. Mind you, Alton Towers is hell on earth during school holidays, and far too stressful even without queueing, so we don't go anyway.

To be honest

Everyone hates queues. Everyone.

Some people being given the right to skip them makes it vastly worse for everyone else and the group being given that right has been grown exponentially for a while now. If everyone's getting to skip queues.
....no one is, see?

Just as a thought, what might actually make it easier for families with ND kids who struggle with crowds, it's that if your nimbus card has the symbol for it, school has to authorise x number of days off during school time, so busy attractions can be accessed off peak.

My ds qualifies for a RAP.

He is physically disabled and now a wheelchair user as it’s degenerative.

He doesn’t need no queue - what he needs is level no step access. He did need the virtual queue at first as he couldn’t stand for long periods but he’d have used a wheelchair back then of the system didn’t exist iyswim?

If they made all their queues level access and wheelchair accessible it would leave the RAP queue quieter for those who struggle with queuing.

he uses the step free access (we go to Thorpe park) and they then write what time he can access the next queue based on how long the queue time is.

But even that’s not a perfect system. He’s waited 30 minutes for the lift before and so total of 45 mins to get on a ride (fair enough) but then been given 1 hour before the next ride as that’s how long the queue is.

The whole system needs an overhaul but that shouldn’t be by simply saying “one group doesn’t qualify”.

This simply is not true.

My DD got an Access Card with just a photo of a prescription and a discharge letter from the hospital. We hadn’t seen a consultant at this point, were waiting on an official diagnosis, and hadn’t applied to DLA.

The Disneyland Paris sites are full of posts about people getting Access Cards for suspected ADHD/autism. With people saying they’ve had success applying using waiting list letters, (paid for) GP letters, or letters from school SEND staff.

When was this? They were very strict and clear on the information we needed to share. That was 2024.

March 2024 for my personal expeirenxe

But I’ve seen posts on the Disneyland pages about pre-diagnosis Access Cards as recently as last week. As long as you can prove you’re ‘on the pathway’ it seems that’s enough.

I think you've got the nail on the head there tbh

Also look at the parallels between how the government have responded to disabled adults and then take into account how they are responding to SEND kids...🤔

In terms of disabled adults the narrative is -we want all of you in work, less of you on benefits and we plan on doing sod all to actually make companies make work accessible you just need to deal with it, otherwise we must move the goalposts and declare you no longer "disabled".

Now look at SEND. The exact same narrative in child form. What is their biggest focus? Is it the welfare and wellbeing of the kids? No...it's ATTENDANCE. attendance above all else. No looking into WHY kids are struggling or trying to help, but once again moving the goalposts as what counts as "substantial" disability that "deserves" help.

This may tie in with the government aims to get every young person into work, education or training, specifically they have plans to increase the number of defense technical colleges and obviously want youth involved in that (the report I read -and am now trying to find- said they are aiming for 2/3rds to go into technical colleges), in tandem with schemes to expand cadet groups and provide paid training to them.

I mean the cynic in me feels if there was any kid of war, wouldn't it be great for the gov if they just happened to have decided a large cohort of young people were no longer disabled and nudged them into a career in defence (better than the alternative on minimum wage in KFC or reduced UC) ...same with disabled adults...I mean if they're not now technically disabled guess they are capable of other things... (Plus if you really think about the absolute worst case scenario....if there was ever a war there would probably also be a huge amount of casualties
..who may end up disabled...and yeah money is tight 😬)

Baffling. This was not our experience at all. We had to provide the formal diagnosis, a letter from a consultant, copy of his blue badge etc. This would be April 2024 time. This was to ensure we could arrange a trip to Legoland Windsor.

My daughter used to work as an Access host in the theatre. She has also worked at AT.

She herself is autistic.

Merlin’s attitude does not surprise me at all. It’s indicative of his people were treated

Possibly depends what symbols you ask for? I assume some are easier to get than others.

When we updated our card to include +1 they did ask for more evidence before approving it. But we were initially awarded queue, WC, and ‘other’ without an official diagnosis, DLA or consultant letter.

Agreed. My daughter has her GP letter and hospital letter for her hip and knee issues and she has her rap pass.

To get queue, we needed to provide all the paperwork. It feels like they've been very ad hoc about this then.

I am so frustrated they have changed things, without checking in with customers first/ advertising it.

Not being able to queue is not the same as struggling with crowds.

Same as someone may be able to physically walk a distance, but not stand for a long time.

For a company that makes an awful lot of money capturing the disability verification market (so many places that did their own systems have now outsourced to Nimbus) this shows a massive lack of understanding of how disability works.

If they wanted to change, they should have contacted existing cards holders. They should have asked for more evidence. They have just guessed it themselves as they even explain (when you hunt for the info) they destroy all the evidence you send within 3 months.

We'd have been happy to provide additional evidence, and feedback any concerns at the time.

Trouble with crowds is not the same as trouble with queues. And cynically, I think they very much know this.

I contacted a Tulip Festival about a free carers tickets for someone who wants to go and was quite brazenly told "there are no special tickets" so this client will have to pay double when they need access assistance.
I definitely think a more discriminatory climate is being encouraged by the "we can't afford" this bores
Jokes on them; as if we don't promote dignity, we will pay in other budgets as social issues rise and rise

I agree with you . Last time we went to Disneyland and 2 adults with autism were here telling us all about their story about traveling around the world visiting all Disney parks . Clearly able enough to hold jobs , travel the world etc but still given access cards based on diagnosis alone .
On the other hand I think those with high care needs should always have them . 2 of my kids get high rate care as an example . I do t think they should be punished by this Merlin rule

If there are too many people now presenting with these issues the pass would be pointless because there would just be another long crowded line of people with a pass. The pass doesn’t make the ride any faster or the crowd vanish.

We applied for my child's Access card last year for a trip to Disneyland Paris. We sent in her diagnosis/assessment report and highlighted where it said that she struggled in crowds.

I'd understood when we applied that diagnosis alone was not sufficient - we needed to provide evidence of what access requirements it caused. Which makes sense given autism affects every person directly

https://knowledge.accesscard.online/faqs/what-types-of-evidence-or-supporting-information-can-be-taken-into-account

Maybe they genuinely can't afford it though? Merlin lost nearly £500 million in 2024. Is it really in anyone's interest if they go out of business? I don't understand why you would assume that anyone that says they can't afford to essentially offer free admission is a 'bore'.
Also I doubt the tulip festival also manages the budgets that would be impacted by an increase in social issues. Do you know private entities exist and everything isn't run by the state?

My child's rap has not been awarded difficulty standing, so we are going to keep our passes and give the queuing a go... If it doesn't work we'll just use their DLA to buy the fast track for them plus a carer, on the days when the park queues are busy and they can't cope... which is sort of what the DLA is for! So anyone with needs that are that significant and for whom theme parks are a hyper focus, can just use the DLA to make the adjustment? However it is annoying.
Also to add - the rap wasn't just for being away from crowds. My child loves rollercoasters and can't cope with the sensory stuff in the Saw queue line. When they had a valid rap they could skip it by going in the ride exit, but I'm not sure they will be allowed now.

I think a lot of this also comes down to money. Merlin have been losing money year on year ATM. They want people to buy fast track.

Edited to add - my child is ADHD/ASD/dyspraxia/sensory processing disorder... They cannot stand in a busy overwhelming queue line. In a queue line they will climb the railings, stim, become heightened, get angry and go in to fight/flight - where they sit on the floor with their ear defenders on wanting to shut out the world. Or they'll run out without warning because they can't cope anymore. RAP worked beautifully for us, because we could virtually queue and keep moving/follow our child's needs.
It's sad, because my child loves rollercoasters...they are their hyper focus, but they just can't cope in normal queue lines.