How To Ask For Accomodation For Autistic Son?

Our son is a 7-year-old who was recently diagnosed as a high-functioning member of the autism spectrum. Until recently, he would have been diagnosed with Aspergers.

I have read up on DAS and it seems perfect for him. His two issues are that prolonged exposure to high amounts of sensory input can trigger negative reactions and waiting without stimulus can be very troubling for him. A contradiction, I know. (Welcome to autism!)

Does anyone have experience with DAS? What should I say when we visit Guest Services? Any tips? Thanks!

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It’s very easy. You take him in to guest services with you, explain that he has autism and has trouble waiting in lines. They will ask you for some info about your group, put it in the computer and scan your bands. They will walk you through how it works and you are good to go. We only used it maybe 4 times the 6 days we were in the park last week for our trip (thanks to fpps, early park hours, and touring plans) but it was definitely helpful for him when we did.

Have a great time! And go see talking Mickey in Town Square. He was so great with my little guy with ASD.

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We’ve been a couple of times for our two kids with ASD, wrote up a trip report from last fall with a lot of discussion (especially in the comments) about how it went. In a word: great.
We didn’t end up using DAS, just careful planning with longs breaks, and it was easy - we didn’t end up needing all of our FPP in the end. (Here’s our trip report: Trip Report: Long Split Stay, Young Family, Lessons Learned )

Thank you, both!

Here are two useful TP blog posts for you:

Using the DAS for our group was a breeze when we went during spring break I have two children with special needs one 15 year old with high functioning ASD, ADD, and GAD and well as a 7 year old with GAD. Very thankful for the DAS and the people in guest services were very helpful. They did have to take a photo of my daughter which was tricky since she is not a fan of getting her photo taken by strangers but it all worked out. It is nice that you don’t feel you are having to “cut” in lines you simply stop at the ride and ask a cast member for a DAS return time they generally give you a time that is the same as the current wait time and you can sit somewhere quiet or do whatever you need then go back to the ride and they put you through the fast pass line. You may only have 1 DAS return time and any given time. I hope this helps!