Whether you or a family member has vision issues of any kind - be it blind, low vision, amblyopia or otherwise visually impaired travel can present a host of concerns. Walt Disney World, a popular travel destination for families and visitors of all walks of life has made visiting and enjoying their parks and resorts easier for guests with disabilities including vision issues.

I am a big Disney fan and the fact that Disney accomodates special needs guests makes Walt Disney world the vacation destination of choice for my family which consists of 2 children with special needs (1 child has autism and the other vision issues - namely amblyopia & extreme farsightedness).

The Guest Assistance Card
Disney issues Guest Assistance Cards (GACs) to visitors needing extra assistance in their parks. Your GAC will be issued to you based upon your needs in the park and it is good for the duration of your stay. The first time you visit a Disney park, visit the Guest Relations office and speak to a cast member about your needs. For example, a guest who has a visual issues may find winding, narrow, and/or dark attraction queues to be problematic and be best served by using alternate attraction entrances intended for wheelchair/scooters. These alternate entryways bypass long queues and are easier to navigate for a blind or low vision guest. For those with low vision, an accomodation can be noted on the GAC to allow guests to sit at the front of attractions, shows and rides as well as view parades in a corded off & designated viewing area intended for guests with disabilities.

To use the GAC you show the card to the Disney Cast Member who is stationed at the entry way of each attraction.

It is best to keep the GAC out and visible - secured to your clothing or worn on a lanyard around your neck. This way Disney cast members can easily identify that you are a special guest needing a bit of extra assistance and they will go out of their way to help you any way that they can.

Your GAC will be good for the entire duration of your Disney stay and even though it is issued at the first park you visit it is good at any of the Disney parks. The GAC will note how many members are in your travel party and the entire travel party will be extended the accomodations noted per the GAC.

We could not have made it through 8 days at Disney parks without use of a GAC. My low vision/amblyopic daughter was able to sit up front for shows and parades and navigate attraction queues safely and quickly. Her biggest issues during the week had to do with the darkness of all of the rides in contrast to the bright sunlight. I wished that we had transition sunglasses instead of a separate pair of prescription sunglasses as it was clumsy to keep switching back and forth between separate pairs of glasses. Also because my daughter does not have good binocular vision many special effects at the 3D shows were lost on her but she was still able to enjoy the shows in every other way. Her favorite parts of the trip included visiting the Disney characters, the slow boat-type rides such as Small World in the Magic Kingdom and the Mexico boat ride in Epcot, and musical shows like Finding Nemo (Animal Kingdom) and Beauty and the Beast (Hollywood Studios). The faster rides, rides with "drops" (Maelstrom and Splash Mountain), flying rides (Dumbo, Peter Pan and Magic Carpets), and bumpy rides (Jungle Safari) were a bit too intense for my daughter who also was very afraid she would lose her eyeglasses. I would suggest and recommend the use on an eyeglass retainer to keep those expensive corrective lenses in place.

Guests with Disabilities Park Guides
At every park gate there are park maps and weekly guides with show times intended for guests to pick up. At Guest relations you can get a special version of this same park map that is labeled as a Guide for Persons with Disabilities. When we were issued our GAC the Disney cast member gave us a full set of these guides (one for each park) so that we could plan ahead.

Braille & Audio Services
My family has not made use of the following services for Visually impaired guests at Disney Parks also available through a cast member at Guest Relations.
- Braille Guides ($25 refundable deposit)
- Stationary Braille Maps (also in Downtown Disney)
- Audio Tours ($25 refundable deposit)
- Attraction Description Handheld Device ($100 refundable deposit)