Koehler Guest Blog: Disneyland Series: The Caregiver

‍

To all who come to this blog series on archetypes at Disneyland, welcome. This series is your series. Here, Dr. Koehler offers insights into the presence of Dr. Pearson’s 12 archetypes at the Disneyland Resort, and here you will encounter new ways of thinking about those archetypes across the fan experience. This blog series is dedicated to the dreamers, the doers, and the lovers in The Walt Disney Company across time, with the hope that it will inspire new ways of engaging with the mythic mouse in the future.

--Inspired by Walt Disney’s openingday speech

Has The Mouse Lost Its Empathy? Musings from a Former DAS User

By Dori S. Koehler, PhD

What happens when a corporation’s policies stand in contradiction to the values they espouse to believe? In her book, What Stories Are You Living: Discover Your Archetypes – Transform Your Life, Carol S. Pearson suggests that life is best lived when we are in alignment with our narrative identity. In her work with psychologist Hugh Marr, she identifies twelve archetypes, each of which can tell the story of us, for good or for ill. Archetypes carry fullness of the potential energy they express, but we, as individuals and as the humans that make up the corporate culture around us, choose how we express that energy.

‍

Enter the Caregiver archetype.

‍

Pearson notes that caregivers are nurturing; they provide advocacy, support, and altruistic service. She also explains in her co-authored book on branding (The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes), that remaining true to corporate brands is essential to building and retaining customer loyalty. These qualities are central to Disney’s corporate identity. Disney’s theme parks are renowned for being inclusive spaces for all. Their customer service in support of marginalized people has been stellar in the past. They were the gold standard, going so far as to offer specialized safe spaces for autistic children and baby care areas for parents who need a moment of quiet to rest and nurse their babies. However, Disney has recently altered course in a way that is, well, troubling[1]. Despite their expressed support of diversity initiatives and the presence of disability representation in films like Wish, they continue to pull back on the services they offer disabled people in the parks.

‍

In 2024, Disney announced a revamp of Disability Access Service (or DAS, as it is often called). This service is an in-app service that offers approved guests a quick and easy way to schedule attractions without buying a Multi-Pass Lightning Lane. As part of the revamp, Disney announced that this constant and extremely efficient service was no longer available to anyone other than guests who have autism or a similar developmental challenge.

‍

This vague wording sent the disabled community into a panic. How would those with autoimmune diseases and other chronic illnesses navigate the parks without the accessibility system they had come to know and love? Shortly thereafter, Disney offered a statement that attempted to calm those fears, but the statement proved to be untrue. When the rollout happened in June of 2024, our worst fears were realized. Disney’s new system denies most of the guests who previously utilized it. And what is even worse is that the cast members in charge of the process consistently come across as cold and accusatory or worse, hostile.

‍

Disney claims that the rampant abuse of the DAS system is the reason for the change. They blame abusers and the social media influencers who teach people how to game the system. This may be partly true, but it does not consider COVID-19 as a mass-disabling event, nor does it consider that the upcharge for the new Lightning Lanes has priced out people with minor disabilities who would have otherwise avoided the system and used a free Lightning Lane.

‍

My husband is one of those people. He has a back condition that makes it impossible for him to stand in line for longer than 15 minutes without being in constant movement. DAS was a lifeline for him. It allowed him to access the park (and go home) without pain. Under the new rules, he no longer qualifies for DAS. The cast member he spoke to was dismissive and unkind. This seemed particularly odd to us, as the same cast member reviewed his case the year before and expressed solidarity for his pain. The accommodations given were neither useful nor consistent across the resort.

‍

Park patrons now have a choice – pay an extra $30 a day (or more during peak days), try to navigate the accessible lines that aren’t truly accessible, avoid the rides, or skip the parks altogether. Many loyal patrons have let their passes expire because of these changes. And many, like a terminally ill patron with brain cancer, are denied the one thing that would give them peace – a truly accessible trip to the Magic Kingdom[2].

‍

Like many others, we left last summer feeling demoralized by the apparent lack of care, a lack that echoed through the automated response we received when we emailed them with our concerns. After more than twenty years as passholders, we question the value of our passes. And we are far from the only ones. Our story is minor compared to others we have heard. Again, as Pearson notes, “Caregiver organizations often are most successful at providing consistent, high-quality service or care; creating stable and nurturing environments; and advocating for others at a very high level.”[3] There was a time when I would have gone to the mattresses in support of Disney’s ability to nurture and advocate for park patrons. But Pearson also goes on to suggest that caregivers must take care to avoid burnout lest they become martyrs. This might explain Disney’s overcorrection related to DAS – they felt taken by the people who were falsifying their need to DAS – but it also leaves us to question: how is Disney living its story as a caregiving corporation? With a brand new round of price hikes announced in October 2025, the middle class continues to be priced out of Disney vacations, a reality that stands in firm contrast to Walt Disney’s original ethos – a place where all kinds of families could come together and play. I suppose one could argue that the same austerity policies that have led to the decimation of the middle class also reflect decades of neglected caregiver energy. Is Disney willing to do better? Or will they ultimately decide to leave behind entire generations of Disney adults raised on their myths of inclusion? Will the Disney adults become Disney orphans?

Dori Koehler, Ph.D. is a cultural mythologist and scholar of American popular culture. She is a professor of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Popular Culture at Southern New Hampshire University. Her book The Mouse and the Myth: Sacred Art and Secular Ritual at Disneyland is available on Amazon. Her latest chapter on Disneyland live stream content creators and the construction of community is published in a second edition of Palgrave’s Performance and the Disney Theme Park: The Tourist as Actor. She also serves as the Director of Student Services at Fusion Academy’s Santa Barbara campus, where she lives with her husband Bruce and their cocker spaniel Sorcha.

[1] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-08-27/disneyland-disney-world-disability-pass-das-changes

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/guest-with-terminal-cancer-denied-disability-access-pass-at-disneyland-resort/ar-AA1qthY5

[3] https://www.carolspearson.com/archetype-pages/caregiver-archetype

‍