Canada's Wonderland's new accessibility pass changes the experience for her child with autism, mom says
Every summer for the better part of a decade, Monica Matheson would take her daughter Jessica to Canada's Wonderland. But Jessica's mother says a recent change to the accessibility passes issued at the amusement park could dramatically increase the time her daughter will have to wait between rides, potentially leading to meltdowns that will colour their experience.
Matheson says Wonderland is her 14-year-old's absolute favourite place to go—a place she constantly asks about.
'Jessica is a sensory seeker. So, she seeks any activity that's going to put great movement on her body, so she loves any ride,' Matheson explained to CTV News Toronto.
With Jessica's autism—coupled with her secondary intellectual disability—Matheson says her non-verbal daughter behaves like a two-year-old and requires 24-hour supervision, needing assistance in all day-to-day activities with everything from eating meals to putting on clothes.
In previous years, Matheson says they would use the 'Plan Your Day' accessibility pass while visiting Wonderland, which would permit them to go on any ride every 30 minutes.
That pass, however, has been replaced this year with a new accessibility pass which allows holders to proceed to their next ride based on current wait times.
While the pass doesn't require those holding it to wait in line, Matheson suggested that it could still be a significant change for her daughter.
'It (the previous pass) gave us time. It gave her a choice in her rides, so she could leave the ride and choose the next one she wanted to go to and it was also perfect for times Jessica felt overwhelmed,' Matheson said. 'If there (were) too many people there, if there was something noisy going on, sometimes we need to find a quiet corner to go to and calm her down, so it really helped.'
'One blanket pass for all disabilities'
On May 12, the family went to the park to spend the day expecting the same accommodation that they have always received. Matheson says she reached out to the park days before to arrange to pick up their accessible passes—something she had done over the last few years—but never received a response, prompting the decision to head to the park a bit earlier to speak with customer service.
'When we went in to get the pass, we were told that they are no longer offering that, that they have one blanket pass for all disabilities,' Matheson said, noting a woman who had a bad knee and physically couldn't stand in line was offered the same accommodations.
A spokesperson for Canada's Wonderland told CTV News Toronto they now offer the Attraction Accessibility Pass (AAP) to guests who have mobility or cognitive impairments and difficulties waiting in queues.
'The primary change is how return times are assigned. Previously, return times were issued in standard 30-minute intervals. Under the updated AAP, return times are now based on the current wait times for selected attractions,' Grace Peacock, the regional director of public relations for Six Flags, told CTV News Toronto via email. It should be noted that Cedar Fair, which previously owned Canada's Wonderland, merged with Six Flags in July 2024.
With this pass, Peacock says guests do not have to physically wait in line and can visit other parts of the park or take time to relax until their designated return time.
But for Jessica, it's not about standing in line—it's about how long it takes to wait to go on the next ride, which Matheson says can lead to 'meltdowns.' This can involve crying, hitting, pulling or running away, and throwing things.
'Jessica (…) and a lot of kids or a lot of people with autism get fixated on things,' Matheson said. 'Jessica is unable to transition herself to another activity until she's been on the Vortex (for example), because she's so fixated.'
Matheson says she tried explaining this to the park that day, but they did not listen.
'I asked about the pass and they said, 'Your options are to take this pass—this blanket pass for everybody—or don't come to the park,'' Matheson said, adding they ultimately were refused an accessibility ride pass for Jessica that day.
Since they were already at the park, Matheson said they could not leave the park without causing her daughter 'extreme distress'—but Jessica still experienced several meltdowns. In one video reviewed by CTV News Toronto, Matheson's daughter can be seen crying, burying her face into her hands before looking back out at the park and letting out a sigh.
'Several times when she ran up the exit, she was met with staff who were annoyed that we were up there, despite seeing us struggle with her, demanding that we leave immediately and go to the other line,' Matheson said in a letter to one of the park's managers.
After their day there, Matheson said she contacted another Wonderland manager—again explaining her position—but was only offered the Attraction Accessibility Pass or a refund for their existing season's passes, as the accommodations they were asking for were no longer available.
'I asked them for the reason for it, and if the pass was causing any disruptions to their businesses or anything like that, to figure out why this pass had just been taken completely away,' Matheson said. 'I asked to both managers and they both said, 'It's Six Flags.''
And when Matheson asked if her concerns would be escalated to Six Flags, she said that she was told that while they would be escalated, 'nobody's going to respond to you and nobody cares.'
Peacock said they have since reviewed the matter internally, and said they believe 'this matter is the result of a misunderstanding.'
'We remain open to further conversation with the guest to resolve the issue,' Peacock wrote.
Accessible accommodations to be made to the point of 'undue hardship'
Under the Human Rights Code, it is the obligation of every organization—from schools to amusement parks—to provide proper accommodations to fit a person's disability needs to the point of undue hardship.
'That's a very, very high bar,' Ilinca Stefan, staff lawyer at ARCH Disability Law Centre, said of the provisions in the code more generally.
'There's only two appropriate justifications for discrimination and not providing an accommodation and that's either financial (…) or health and safety reasons.'
Citing third-party preferences or business inconvenience are not valid reasons, and are not adequate considerations for an organization to claim undue hardship, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
And on top of that, accommodations need to be individualized to fit that person's specific needs.
CTV News Toronto spoke with Bruce McIntosh, director of the Ontario Autism Coalition, to discuss the accommodations offered to Matheson. McIntosh said he was a 'little bit mystified' as to why they would discontinue that particular pass, when it had been something Wonderland provided to parkgoers previously.
'The reasons to offer the accommodation are going to vary from person to person but it's just a thing that we do for people to make their disability to stop being an issue, a problem,' Bruce McIntosh, director of the Ontario Autism Coalition, said.
'People with disabilities should have the same access to activities and buildings and transit and whatever else as a person who is not disabled exactly.'
Matheson says she and her daughter are going to try the AAP sometime soon, adding she will carefully document their day and Jessica's experience then, in hopes they can better understand the accommodations her daughter needs and bring back the pass that had worked for them for years.
'I just want them to work with me,' Matheson said.
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