Look what people are saying about disabled and Segway use at WDW

[DarthSegVator]

See the following comments at the end of the article - 185 posts and counting:

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/TOL3J3J5D8G5V0M55

You will not believe most of the comments come from anyone who has the intelligence to use a computer. Segway hate is alive and well. Disdain for the disabled continues to lurk out there too.

Several of the "just sit in a chair" comments claim to be chair-bound themselves. If this truly the case, someone please explain this to me. Is it jealously that they may not be able to afford a Segway, envy that they are unable to use one or some other reason? I don't get it.

As angry as you may get reviewing the comments, keep this in mind. This is a valuable window into what some people think about this issue. They can say what's on their mind without having to defend their position or anyone knowing who they are. A lot can be learned by understanding the objections, however far-fetched or incorrect.

This is a great opportunity to pro-actively counteract this kind of idiocy. A list of objections and responses is in the works for future use.

If you know of other objections that aren't covered in the article comments section, please post them here and they will get added to the list.

[Tarkus]

See the following comments at the end of the article - 185 posts and counting:

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/TOL3J3J5D8G5V0M55

You will not believe most of the comments come from anyone who has the intelligence to use a computer. Segway hate is alive and well. Disdain for the disabled continues to lurk out there too.

Several of the "just sit in a chair" comments claim to be chair-bound themselves. If this truly the case, someone please explain this to me. Is it jealously that they may not be able to afford a Segway, envy that they are unable to use one or some other reason? I don't get it.

As angry as you may get reviewing the comments, keep this in mind. This is a valuable window into what some people think about this issue. They can say what's on their mind without having to defend their position or anyone knowing who they are. A lot can be learned by understanding the objections, however far-fetched or incorrect.

This is a great opportunity to pro-actively counteract this kind of idiocy. A list of objections and responses is in the works for future use.

If you know of other objections that aren't covered in the article comments section, please post them here and they will get added to the list.

I never got it until very recently. Bottom line is there is a "I'm more disabled than you" attitude out there. I have an African American friend that told me to get used to it. He tells me he has spent his life being "to black" or "not black enough".....

I hear it all the time. What these people don't realize is that it could be their rights next. This is not just about Segway it's about the rights afforded by the ADA.

They miss that point.

Many of those that make those comments have been in chairs so long that they simply can't see any other way. Others are just afraid to try anything new, partly because people keep pushing those with mobility problems in a chair.

I saw it many times at "No Barriers". People would come over to see if they could ride the Segway. After they told me how they can't do anything without the chair, many stood up, took a few steps the best they could and signed up for a try.

Stood UP !!! Now thats not the story for everyone but it is for many. When she was done she told me that was the most time on her feet in 15 years and it felt great. Again, was the chair her choice or that of "common medicine" ?

Finally many are happy just where they are and thats fine. Just don't make such outlandish remarks on a subject, ADA, or machine, Segway, that you don't have any concept of.

Be Big,
Alan

[wwhopper]

The evil Lord Disney

Who has alot of supporters and friends. Anyone who says anything anti-Disney will be reguarded as an enemy.

Sad that something so useful to so many people, and something that takes away a stigma and eliminates barriers, as well as is an equalizer is being seen as such a negative.

I am in the Mid-West this week, and I have been hearing about this from people who are reading the news reports and what they read is that the Segway population is the bad guy in this.

Talk about SPIN!

[cmonkey]

It's so sad, I even tried to respond to one... but I don't know if it went through.

Very sad people, I'm ashamed to call them fellow humans.

Snarky little Troglodytes, maybe.

[Eric Payne]

My posting (#188):

Just another two cents wrote:
<quoted text>
Yeah, they're suffering, but for 8 hours I think they can survive in a chair. You're disabled and wheelchairs and ECVs are reasonable accomodations, segways are not and until ADA says so and makes sure insurance policies follow suit, no name throwing!
The ADA does not have any "approved" devices - not even wheelchairs or scooters. Mobility devices, as per the ADA, are left entirely up to states to define.

I have lived in heart failure for 8 years. I cannot walk much further than 100 feet and not be on the verge of passing out. I do not require an electric wheelchair or scooter, and a manual wheelchair would be contraindicated by my condition.

I use a Segway, which is defined (in Arizona law, where I live) as an Electronic Personal Assisted Mobility Device and, as such, is covered by the ADA; I am permitted to be on my Segway, as if it were a wheelchair.

If Florida law recognizes the Segway as an EPAMD, and since the Americans with Disability Act leaves the definition of handicapped mobility devices to individual states, then there's no question Disney will have to comply with state law.

California has just had legislation signed into law recognizing Segways as EPAMDs. Disneyland will, also, have to comply with the law.

I'm really surprised at the vitriol reflected by those posters here, but only to a certain point. I think the majority of the posters are doing something they didn't feel comfortable doing... venting their feelings about the handicapped participating in every day life. They couldn't express those feelings about the disabled, themselves, without derision, but make the issue, seemingly, about a Segway, and they're given a "back door" to spew their immature poison.

I wonder how they feel about handicapped parking spots?

[KSagal]

I never got it until very recently. Bottom line is there is a "I'm more disabled than you" attitude out there. I have an African American friend that told me to get used to it. He tells me he has spent his life being "to black" or "not black enough".....

I hear it all the time. What these people don't realize is that it could be their rights next. This is not just about Segway it's about the rights afforded by the ADA.

They miss that point.

...

Be Big,
Alan

To misquote a famous quote... 'I said nothing when they banned all the people on segways. I said nothing when they banned all the people on mobility scooters. I said nothing when they banned the people with canes. I said nothing when they banned the people who use the handrails... When they banned me, there was no one there to say anything...'

My posting (#188):

...I use a Segway, which is defined (in Arizona law, where I live) as an Electronic Personal Assisted Mobility Device and, as such, is covered by the ADA; I am permitted to be on my Segway, as if it were a wheelchair.
...

You may want to consider this, ' People are permitted to be in their wheelchairs, as if they were a segway, if they require a sitting position."

I offer this change to break people out to the erronious conclusion that somehow wheelchairs are accepted as mobility devices, and segways are not. In truth, neither is more legally correct, just one is more accepted by convention.

If a person were to visit your house in a car, no one would think twice. If they came on a horse, it would be an event. 100 years ago, the opposite was true.

I wonder how they feel about handicapped parking spots?

I bet if you poll these cave dwellers, they complain about them as well.

[Tarkus]

To misquote a famous quote... 'I said nothing when they banned all the people on segways. I said nothing when they banned all the people on mobility scooters. I said nothing when they banned the people with canes. I said nothing when they banned the people who use the handrails... When they banned me, there was no one there to say anything...'



I bet if you poll these cave dwellers, they complain about them as well.

Of course your right Karl.

I said it before this is not about the Segway with these drones. If the headline read "DISNEY TO ADD 200 ECV's" the reaction would be the same.

They wish we would vanish. But we won't

The funny part is that many will say "the disabled only care about themselves", then they say "where are my rights". Ironic.

With all the dangers these people see how do they "survive" a trip to the supermarket. Soccer mom dragging two carts. Now that needs to be banned !

Be Big,
Alan

[Mr_Laurenzano]

There is nothing better than this. While not in classic form, because my B/P is so high and my frick'in eye balls feel like they are going to pop out! !oo!~~ I will reserve my posting to a brow twiching smile.

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/TOL3J3J5D8G5V0M55/p2

This above post is the largest, by ratio, group of dumb shi-yi-yi-..., I've ever seen.
Any body got accident reports on segways with injury, ya know just to see.

Im just sittin' here watching the wheels go round and round...I really love to watch them roll... Da,Da,Da, Dada, Da, Da.

Im going to my happy place.
Crash:)

[Tarkus]

There is nothing better than this. While not in classic form, because my B/P is so high and my frick'in eye balls feel like they are going to pop out! !oo!~~ I will reserve my posting to a brow twiching smile.

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/TOL3J3J5D8G5V0M55/p2

This above post is the largest, by ratio, group of dumb shi-yi-yi-..., I've ever seen.
Any body got accident reports on segways with injury, ya know just to see.

Im just sittin' here watching the wheels go round and round...I really love to watch them roll... Da,Da,Da, Dada, Da, Da.

Im going to my happy place.
Crash:)

Crash,

Disney love'n richards !
Self absorbed anal cavities
Uneducated/uninformed
Afraid of being afraid.
My B/P up, I don't post to those that don't hear.
The love they share for "rapers of land" and minimum wage jobs tells all
I wish them all a flat tire on the way home.

and I defy the person in a chair who says "I would prefer this to standing" to tell the truth. I was in a chair for some time and all I know if anybody says that they are either lying or needs therapy.

KABOOM,
Alan

[sjfloyd]

Hi Everyone! I'm new on here :) but I've been reading around since the WDW srory came out. It was very interesting. I can't decide where I stand on the subject, So I decided to write a an article about it all in my journalism class. My town I go to school in has like zero segway users. and the one we do have only uses it for fun. I would love to talk to someone who is disabled and uses the segway I have a lot of questions for my article that no one else could really help me with. There are a lot of things that have me confused. Would anyone want to talk to me for my paper? it would really help me out and get this side of the story out there, because so far all I am finding it articles and info from those who think they should be banned anyway my e-mail is sjfloyd@indiana.edu, and I would love to talk to anyone willing :) thanks