"Your son has autism." Those are some of the hardest words a parent can hear. Our first emotion was to mourn for the son we dreamed of having. All of the hopes and dreams you had for him are now in question. What we found out was amazing, we have an amazing child who happens to have different abilities.Autism Speaks says autism affects the way a child perceives the world and makes communication and social interaction difficult. The child may also have repetitive behaviors or intense interests. Symptoms, and their severity, are different for each of the affected areas - Communication, Social Interaction, and Repetitive Behaviors. A child may not have the same symptoms and may seem very different from another child with the same diagnosis. It is sometimes said, that if you know one person with autism; you know one person with autism.
Matthew is our oldest son, so we have been taking him to Walt Disney since he was 18 months old. He was not diagnosed until he was four years old. We always knew there was something developmentally different with Matthew but could not put our finger on it. When you hear of autistic kids you think of the kids who can't stand loud noises, crowds or strange situations. All of these are not conducive to allowing them to enjoy Walt Disney World. Thankfully for us these symptoms are prevalent for some kids, but not as much for others. Matt falls into the latter category and as previously mentioned 'If you know one person with autism; you know one person with autism.'.
We realize for us we are lucky that Matthew is not as severely affected as others. Matt's world is built on routines. Since his parent's are Disney fanatics his routine has been to visit Walt Disney World dozens of times every year. A year or so after Matthew was officially diagnosed with autism we learned of a wonderful Disney policy on autism. For their autistic guests and families they issue a 'Guest assistance Pass' that allows the autistic guest and up to six other party members an alternate entrance to rides and attractions. For rides with Fast Pass you can enter that entrance without waiting. For rides without a Fass Pass you usually will enter the ride from the exit side with little or no wait.
To take advantage of this policy just bring a letter of diagnosis from your doctor to City Hall at Magic Kingdom or Guest Services at the other parks. They will ask how many is in your party and how long your stay is. If you are a passholder they will give you a date range of 90 days. We list the max number of people in case we come with friends.
This really opens the world of Disney to families that need it most. We are so thankful for this Disney policy.
