Disney has extended the validity window of its Disability Access Service registration window for both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. The latest DAS changes are now in effect on both coasts as of May 18, 2025. This covers details of the extension, plus other recent changes and what else might be on the horizon.
As quick background, Disney overhauled DAS at Walt Disney World almost exactly one year ago–on May 20, 2024–and later in June at Disneyland. According to the company, the changes were due in large part to abuse, misuse, and proliferation of the program’s use–with issuances of DAS tripling from 2019 to last year. For more about the specifics of the overhauled DAS, see Disability Access Service (DAS) Changes at Walt Disney World FAQ.
We’ve been following this saga closely, receiving reports from readers and other guests applying for accommodations at Walt Disney World. It’s a highly sensitive subject that is very personal since it is, quite literally, make or break for some guests trying to experience Walt Disney World. There have been widespread reports of guests who previously had DAS being denied and advised to use alternative accommodations, some of which are new–or are revised and highlighted more prominently.
The latest change is an extension of the validity period for Disability Access Service upon a guest being accepted into the program. Here’s the new policy language for both coasts:
“DAS is valid for the length of the ticket or up to 1 year, whichever is shorter. Once the service has elapsed, Guests need to re-register for the program.”
Previously, DAS was valid for up to 240 days before requiring re-registration.
Now, guests who receive approval for Disability Access Service will receive the benefit for a full 365 days from the date of registration, reducing the regularity of re-enrollment for eligible guests who visit the parks regularly, such as Annual Passholders.
This should make DAS more convenient for locals and other regulars, while also adding a layer of predictability. That last part is probably key, as we’ve heard from a handful of Walt Disney World and Disneyland regulars who were previously accepted into DAS and subsequently declined. With the the new-look DAS now being nearly a year old on both coasts (and over 240 days on both, the relevant window that would’ve triggered re-applications before today), more and more Disney regulars are going to find themselves reapplying to DAS.
The precise verbiage differs from page to page, but that’s the general gist of it. To the best of our knowledge, no language has changed aside from Disney swapping out instances of “240 days” with “1 year.” You probably get the idea without us going page by page to comb through the exact changes. It’s a fairly straightforward extension of the validity period.
This is now the third minor-but-meaningful change to Disability Access Service in 2025.
Prior to this, both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort extended the DAS registration window to 60 days prior to their park visit. Previously, the process could begin no sooner than 30 days prior to your visit. That occurred back in early February.
That extension was aimed at making it easier for guests to plan around DAS and potentially cancel or modify their vacations if they do not receive DAS as an accommodation. Going from 30 to 60 days resulted in a negligible increase in DAS applications, but it doesn’t materially change the equation on approvals. It was all about reducing friction for guests who apply and are denied DAS, as it put the earlier-applicants outside of the penalty-free cancellation period.
With the extension of DAS applications to 60 days, guests are able to make an informed decision about their status and cancel if they’re denied and feel visiting Walt Disney World will not be feasible or desirable without the DAS accommodation. Guests who booked vacation packages who apply for DAS sufficiently early will be able to receive full refunds as a matter of policy.
Only a week or so before that, Disney revised its policy language to remove “only” from the Disability Access Service eligibility criteria to potentially broaden the qualifying guests. As we pointed out at the time, that likely involved involvement from an army of attorneys, and even then, its motivations and outcomes are open to interpretation and debate.
My best guess is that Disney wants to soften the perceived limitations in the policy among prospective applicants. To make it appear less harsh or stringent, to encourage guests other than those with developmental disabilities to apply for DAS. It could be a way of unofficially expanding the scope of eligibility without making any substantive changes to the policy or overhauling the program yet again.
While we’ll never know for sure what prompted the “only” change or what result it’ll have on the ratio of approvals to denials, our view is that it’s fairly consequential in the quantity of DAS issued despite being only a single word. The motivation very well might’ve been the Disability Access Service Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Disney Parks. The complaint relies heavily on the presence of “only” in Disney’s previous DAS policy, and a demand letter from last December that preceded the lawsuit.
In terms of commentary, the Disability Access Service validity window being extended from 240 day to a full year is good news. Frankly, this is such an obvious thing that I cannot really fathom why it was 240 days in the first place. Annual Passes are valid for a full year, and this offers better clarity and predictability for the period of that AP.
Having a 240 day validity period feels arbitrary in the first place–it’s not like we’re going from 90 days to a full year. If it’s already two-thirds of a year, why not just go all the way to 365 days? Maybe there was a reason, but I’m struggling to come up with what it could’ve been. And I usually try to see both sides of these policies (before vs. after).
The upside to this is, again, predictability for Passholders. While you would assume that someone approved for DAS ~240 days ago will be approved for it again given the inherent nature of the disabilities covered by DAS, that doesn’t always happen per reader reports. Accordingly, this is a necessary move for the sake of continuity. (I would also hope that there’s a lower level of scrutiny on DAS ‘renewals’ than original applications, but what do I know.)
It appears that Disney is starting to listen and soften its approach to Disability Access Service in a measured manner. Maybe? Hopefully?
If there were a big dial on DAS policy intensity, Disney cranked it from the minimum to the maximum last year. The likely goal of ping-ponging from one extreme to the other was eradicating abuse, making it clear that the company was serious about DAS and would only grant it in the most extreme scenarios–and scammers need not even bother.
Now that word has gotten out that DAS is a serious policy and not just a rubber-stamp formality, it appears that Disney is taking that big DAS dial and reducing the intensity of the process. Our best guess is that more changes in the pipeline as the new-look DAS crosses its 1-year anniversary, with the company searching to find more of a middle ground. At least, that’s our hope.
Disney needs to find this middle ground. Disney has an exemplary reputation for guest service and accommodations. Or the company did, prior to last year around this time when the new-look DAS rolled out. Part of these changes are absolutely understandable.
There was rampant abuse that was fostered by hugely popular TikToks and influential social media groups. This was exacerbated by a sense of entitlement, lack of shame, and Disney creating an incentive for DAS scammers by monetizing line-skipping via Lightning Lanes. There’s no unringing that bell and going back to 1990s or 2000s versions of accommodations. The world is a different place. Disney cannot relax its rules too much, or else risk a return to the system being scammed.
On the one hand, there have been heartbreaking stories of DAS denials, many of which have gone viral for good reason. These have made it really seem like a more flexible and humane approach offering greater discretion to Cast Members is necessary. All of this strongly suggested that Disney went too far with the DAS overhaul, and needed some degree of relaxing its policies.
It’s a really difficult for Disney to balance this, but it needs to happen. The pendulum swung from one extreme to another, and there has been a lot of collateral damage among disabled guests who needed DAS and have been denied under the overly-stringent system. Cranking the DAS dial to its maximum setting hasn’t just eradicated the scammers, it has hurt guests who are actually disabled.
Another difficulty is making changes to DAS for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland when they’re serving two different demographics. One thing we’ve observed in the last year or so is that Lightning Lane utilization has absolutely plummeted at Walt Disney World. The same is not true at Disneyland.
To be perfectly honest, I cannot fully explain this. If you asked me to make an educated guess as to where paid Lightning Lane purchases were higher, I’d say Walt Disney World with zero hesitation. First-timers and infrequent visitors–the bigger demographics for Walt Disney World–have a greater incentive to buy Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass. It’s possible that I’m wrong about this, but I doubt that. My best guess is that what’s moving the needle is unpaid Lightning Lane usage at Disneyland that doesn’t exist at Walt Disney World.
Ultimately, we do not anticipate any major changes to DAS at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. There is not going to be another overhaul to Disability Access Service, absent that class action lawsuit or other litigation prevailing.
That happening is highly doubtful–Disney has been sued over every single iteration of these accommodations, and I’ve yet to find any record of them losing on any count. The company has already endured a lengthy PR hit over these changes, there’s about zero chance they’ll voluntarily endure that again with another overhaul.
Instead, whatever happens will be a slow trickle of rule relaxations. This can happen–excess bandwidth does exist in the Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World, so it’ll be interesting to see what other policy changes are made to DAS for Florida. Is there a way to relax approvals on one coast but not the other? Did that actually already happen at Disneyland, thereby explaining the current discrepancy in Lightning Lane usage?!
The change we’d like to see is a “recalibration” of the interview process. We’ve heard from countless readers who have been denied, and there’s a word that has been used repeatedly to describe the process: interrogation. While we can appreciate how stressful this process is for Cast Members and the verbal abuse they take for disgruntled guests, there’s a better way of handling the process that feels less adversarial.
This wouldn’t be an actual public-facing policy change, as it would be almost impossible for the company to convey. Disney probably isn’t going to write in its FAQ that “the interview is now an interview, instead of a scene from Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.” The Disney Legal team might be reluctant to approve that verbiage. Heck, they might be reticent to greenlight any major changes while the class action lawsuit is pending, meaning any relaxation might be informal.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the latest change to DAS policies at Walt Disney World and Disneyland? Think this is about better predictability and continuity for Annual Passholders and other Florida and California regulars? Is Disney adjusting the big DAS dial, reducing the intensity setting? Hopeful that further changes will be made that result in increased approvals for those who truly need DAS while keeping abuse low? Agree or disagree with our assessment of the changes or policy as a whole? Please try to stay on topic–we’ve noticed some of these DAS comments sections get heated and personal. Discuss the policy itself, not others’ use (or lack thereof) of it.