By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer

Finally tall enough to get on the big rides, Shelbi Setchell’s 12-year-old son was looking forward to spending much of his summer at Valleyfair.

Getting a season pass is out of the question now though, due to a change in how the Shakopee amusement park handles customers with disabilities.

Valleyfair no longer provides disabled patrons with faster access to rides. Instead, disabled customers must get a date-stamped boarding slip from a ride operator, which is based on the estimated wait in the regular line, requiring disabled customers to travel up exit ramps twice in order to board.

According to a park spokeswoman, Valleyfair’s parent company adopted the new policy last winter in order to improve operations and achieve a consistent procedure across all of Cedar Fair Entertainment’s parks.

“We want to help everyone enjoy their day in the park, no matter what disability they may have,” said Rachel Onken, Valleyfair’s promotions and communications manager.

But a couple paraprofessionals from Shakopee Junior High School, who learned of the change on a field trip during the last day of school, say the new policy is ruining the experience for disabled people.

Setchell and fellow school paraprofessional Angela Cain, who accompanied two handicapped students on their ninth-grade class trip, said the change adds to the difficulty of maneuvering around the park and actually makes the ride wait longer for disabled patrons than non-handicapped patrons who are in the regular line.

“I hope [public dissent] hits them hard because they need to change it back,” Cain said. “[People with disabilities] have a hard life as it is — able-bodied people should be able to see that. … Give them a break.”

Setchell said her group was told the accommodation was eliminated to make it fair for everyone at the park, so everyone would have a chance to get on the rides.

“Does everyone have to be embarrassed by having to sit in the exit while waiting to get a ride time and have to have people try to get around them, then be turned away from the ride to come back one to two hours later and have to go through that again to get on the ride?” she wrote in a message to an autism support group.

Cain and others say the change ensures that disabled people won’t be able to make it on as many rides as others do, and a trip to the park will now be too unbearable for some, particularly those with autism, like Setchell’s son.

“The new policy will completely prevent him from going to Valleyfair,” said Setchell, who had accompanied other students with cerebral palsy on the June 4 school trip. Her son also has cerebral palsy in addition to other conditions.

School paraprofessionals are also upset that a Valleyfair employee tried to deny one student a disability pass, which allows patrons to use special ride-access ramps — typically exits, which are handicapped accessible, unlike many front entrances.

The female student, who has cerebral palsy, can walk a short time with a walker or assistance, but needs a wheelchair for longer distances. However, because the girl has the ability to walk, the screener initially tried to block her from obtaining a pass.

Public feedback

Valleyfair’s Onken said the park has tried to talk with guests who might be affected by the new policy and it hopes to respond to everyone who contacts the park.

She said Valleyfair encourages people to submit comments to management.

But the Shakopee Junior High group says it was laughed at when raising concerns.

Setchell said she asked to speak to a manager after she, Cain and two students went to an office for disability passes and were told of the new policy. She said an employee argued with them for more than 10 minutes before he finally let them see a manager.

The manager then laughed, she said, when she told him she was going to contact corporate headquarters, as well as an Americans with Disabilities Act office. She said the manager told her there was nothing she could do, and that Valleyfair wasn’t doing anything wrong.

When informed by a reporter of the laughing complaint, Onken merely responded it was “good to know.”

Neither of the students is mentally handicapped, so “they know they are being discriminated against,” Cain said.

Nicholas Brown, one of the students in on the conversation, became upset and started to yell, but the manager wouldn’t even look at him, Setchell said.

The 15-year-old, who is confined to wheelchair and has speech difficulties, told his mom a man at the office had been insulting.

“Nick was very offended,” said Audrey Brown, speaking on a cell phone while traveling with him to a wheelchair soccer championship in Atlanta. “He came home, just spitting tacks. He said, ‘Mom I can’t believe this.’ ”

Onken said Valleyfair is in talks with sister parks and its parent company about bringing the disability policy under review to find out if the new policy is working or should be adjusted.

Cain said Valleyfair employees told her party that it was following ADA rules by granting equal access.

Setchell thinks the park is a fine one to talk about obeying ADA.

The park’s Web site says Valleyfair strives to minimize barriers for people with disabilities in all areas, that ramps have been added to make rides and buildings easier to access, and that there are wheelchair-accessible and unisex restrooms located throughout the park.

The rides’ “special entrance ramps” are really just the exit ramps, Setchell pointed out, and she noted that her party didn’t come across one handicap-accessible bathroom the entire time they were at the park.

The school paraprofessionals said it takes disabled people longer to travel between rides due to their impairments, and, with fewer rides they can physically go on, they can’t just hop ride to ride like other people.

The old policy helped make up for some of this lost time. But the new policy adds to the wasted time and creates more physical hassle, requiring bulky wheelchairs to be on the exit ramps longer as rounds of patrons stream pass.

“These kids go through enough stuff in their life when they go some place for enjoyment and pleasure,” Setchell said. “Why should they be harassed?”

It’s hard enough being stared at once, Cain said, but now disabled people are stared at twice.

After at least an hour visit to the park office, where they got the disability passes, Setchell said her group only made it on five rides. She knows of other people who enjoyed 20 rides throughout the day.

Students Cain spoke to said they took in around a dozen rides.

Had the policy been the same as previous years, Cain estimated that Brown and the other student could have fit in 10 rides during the trip.

She noted that disabled people still pay the same price as regular patrons, even though they can’t make it on as many rides or the same type of rides.

The policy change has made a trip to Valleyfair less enjoyable all around.

Pushing a wheelchair up a sloped ramp can be long and exhausting work. Now that work is multiplied.

By the time you get all the way up the exit ramp, other people in line may have already made it halfway up the main line, Cain said.

The paraprofessionals said they also had to wait a long time to get the date-stamped slips and that this time — and the trip up the ramp — isn’t considered by ride operators.

Setchell pointed out that the line wait time is left up to the estimation of the ride operator.

At one ride, the line wasn’t long enough to justify the hour and one-half time the ride operator tried to assign. After the group balked, she changed it to a half-hour, which ended up matching the real line time, Setchell said.

Under the old policy, it wasn’t as though people with a pass could just hop right on, Setchell noted; they often still had to wait for two to three loads of people to pass.

Another change is that only one companion can now accompany a disabled customer with a disability pass through the special access points, whereas before, up to three could.

Some physically handicapped people require two assistants to help them onto the ride, Cain said.

Under the new policy, if the rest of the disabled person’s party is in line, the disabled patron won’t board until the party has reached the top. Under the old policy, a small group could ride together through the special access point.

Backlash

At one Valleyfair ride, Setchell said her group waited an hour and half to board, but was told they could not get a ticket to go on another ride in the meantime.

Audrey Brown said it doesn’t appear Valleyfair is being accommodating. She praised Disney World, which she said allows parties with disabled people to board quickly.

“They don’t even blink once at you, when you have someone with disabilities with you,” she said.

In March, after corporate officials approved the new ride policy, Onken said Valleyfair noted the change on its Web site and mentioned it in its rider safety guide, which is available at the park, in an effort to try to inform everyone about the change.

However, Setchell complained to Valleyfair staff that a notice hadn’t been posted on the Web site. She told a reporter that when she checked the site the day after the field trip, there still was no mention of the new policy in the section dealing with disability passes.

She looked again recently and there was new information that she said wasn’t there earlier.

Setchell has contacted autism support groups to notify them of the change.

“Am I way off base here?” she asked parents.

One person responded that they would reconsider bringing their child to Valleyfair.

Another said the point of the pass is so a trip to the park can be a more enjoyable experience, not a bigger hassle:

“As for all the other people thinking it’s not fair that they get to go first, I challenge them to spend a day with some of our children and realize how unfair life can be, and then they can tell me it is unfair . . . Unbelievable how some people can be. … ”

Setchell said the wait will be especially hard on children with autism, who struggle with patience and won’t understand why they have made it up to the ride, only to be turned away.

While at the park, Setchell said, she spoke to someone from another school, which had brought autistic kids to the park.

When told of the new policy, Setchell said the women told her, “‘We might as well turn around and go home. We’re going to deal with meltdowns all day.’ ”

Setchell said she was told that school had spent $55,000 to bring students to the park and it might not come back now.

Valleyfair’s policy reversal was news to the PACER Center — a Minnesota-based advocacy group for children and young people with disabilities — when contacted by a reporter.

Onken said the Valleyfair has received comments about the new policy, but she declined to elaborate on the nature of those comments, citing patron confidentiality.

Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.