Rights or Privileges?

Over lunch a friend and I chatted about summer plans. She asked if I’d like to go to Disney World for a week with her family over the summer since I was staying in Huntsville. I told her I’d love to, and that she really wanted me to because Disney policy moves disabled persons to the front of the line, but that I couldn’t take another week off work, since I’m taking two weeks off to go home for a couple of days and then to Hawaii with my own family. We fell to discussing the question of “should disabled persons be moved to the front of the line at amusement parks and other attractions?” It’s a valid question, one that’s being hotly debated by members of disability rights/advocacy organizations. Is it a right or a privilege? Should the government legislate it or leave it up to the individual companies? Here’re my thoughts on the matter.

Society doesn’t owe me anything because I’m disabled. It’s not their fault, and it’s not even a curse. I personally wouldn’t be any other way than I am. But that aside, it’s not their fault so why should they feel obligated to “make up for” my disability? Don’t stop reading here and think that’s my entire opinion. There’s more. I don’t believe companies have to treat us a little more special this way. It’s not their responsibility, and it certainly isn’t the government’s job to give us this privilege. It is just that, a privilege, not a right. Now, if a company wants to do it of its own volition for the sake of customer service or charity, they’re perfectly welcome to do so—I won’t argue! That’s their choice. It makes good business sense, in my opinion. Makes them look good and compassionate and customer-oriented to their abled customers, and makes their disabled customers very happy. There are some disabilities that make standing in line or walking a little farther through a parkinglot very difficult, or they can’t do it at all due to heat or distance or physical fatigue. So a company who doesn’t think of this and provide a service to make these types of situations more accessible will lose business over it. This also applies to wheelchair parking spaces, in my opinion. If a company wants to be customer-oriented and provide good service, they’ll go the extra mile. Otherwise they’ll lose the business and be thought of as heartless money-grubbers.

Now, the front of the line deal isn’t legislated but the disabled parking spaces issue is. What is the difference between the two? Is there a difference at all? What do you think the government’s role should be in these situations?