Florida Mayor Harassed at Disney Parks for Using iBot Wheelchair

posted on Dec 01 by Stacy in the Disability Law, Disability News, Technology category

iBot Wheelchairs

Myron Rosner, mayor of North Miami Beach, FL, planned to enjoy a pleasant Thanksgiving weekend with his family at Walt Disney World Resort. Instead, he states he was harassed and demeaned by the park’s insistence that he lower his iBot 4000, a high-tech wheelchair which he purchased after seeing it on display at Epcot’s Innoventions, to use all four wheels. The iBot 4000 is a four-wheeled vehicle which allows the user to balance and move about using only two wheels while remaining seated.

Disney World officials claim that the employees who questioned Mayor Rosner simply mistook his iBot 4000 for a Segway, which can only be used while standing. Disney does not allow Segways at its parks, claiming they’re unsafe. In 2007, a lawsuit was filed by three disabled people due to that ban. The suit was settled out of court, but Segways still aren’t allowed at Disney parks.

Mayor Rosner and his family were finally allowed to enter Epcot after being let through by a park manager on Friday, but the questioning continued on Sunday as Rosner and his family were enjoying Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Sunday afternoon, at which time he was again told to lower the iBott 4000 to four wheels. They left the park as employees followed them around the park.

A spokeswoman for Disney World offered an apology, which Mayor Rosner said he appreciates, but states he still plans to initiate lawsuits against Disney for the embarrassment it caused him and his family. Mayor Rosner said that the apology “doesn’t make up for how they treated us. It made us feel, dirty, disgusted, undignified.”

More information/full story at The Miami Herald.