This week has brought multiple developments related to the Disability Access Service (DAS) changes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Just a few days ago, we learned that Disney has reversed course on previous attempts to block a shareholder proposal seeking a review of the DAS changes.
Disney has now provided a clear response, outlining when the shareholder proposal will be discussed and revealing the board’s recommendation to shareholders. This is a key update for readers following the DAS changes closely. The DAS disability pass eligibility changes, first introduced in 2024, have caused wide discussion and have continued to generate national attention.
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Disney filed its annual proxy statement announcing the next annual shareholder meeting for March 18, 2026, at 1 PM ET, which includes a vote for board members and an advisory vote related to executive compensation and other proposals.
What’s of most interest to those following the back and forth regarding DAS advocacy groups and Disney is the detail that the DAS shareholder proposal is listed on the meeting’s official agenda. “Independent Review and Report on Accessibility and Disability Inclusion Practices,” the official name of the shareholder proposal, will be put forth to stakeholders for a vote.
This proposal requests The Walt Disney Company to evaluate “the legal, financial, and reputational risks tied to its controversial Disability Access Service (DAS) changes.” The shareholder proposal asks Disney to commission an independent third-party review of its accessibility and disability inclusion practices, evaluating risks, comparing them against standards and competitors, and sharing the findings publicly and internally.
DAS was significantly restructured in 2024 in an effort to curb overuse, misuse, and other issues that were beginning to weaken the program’s effectiveness. As a result, many guests who were previously eligible for these accommodations became ineligible after the changes. Read more about the DAS shareholder proposal in our initial coverage.
So what will happen at the shareholder meeting? Well, shareholder proposals that are included in proxy materials will be brought to shareholders for a vote at the annual meeting. Initially, Disney sought to prevent this proposal from appearing in its proxy materials, but later withdrew that request. So we can expect a vote from shareholders at this meeting on March 18.
Disney Recommends Shareholders to Vote Against DAS Proposal
Also revealed in its proxy materials is the recommendation from Disney for shareholders to vote against the proposal. In the materials, Disney discloses that it decided to include the proposal due to recent regulatory changes, despite the assertion that it does not meet Rule 14a-8 requirements. Rule 14a-8 is a rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission that explains who can submit a shareholder proposal, how and when it must be submitted, and what types of topics can be included in a company’s proxy materials. While it may appear to be an act of goodwill, Disney’s decision to include the proposal is more likely a procedural and risk management move, even while still recommending that shareholders vote against it.
In the response, Disney argues it already has strong accessibility and disability inclusion practices in place already and that the company has been an industry leader in this area for more than 30 years, during which it has regularly reviewed and updated its approach.
The company points out the detailed public information available online and in its parks, along with a wide range of accommodations across its theme parks, media, and streaming platforms, including the Disability Access Service, captioning, audio descriptions, and other accessibility tools. Disney also emphasizes that it has robust leadership, governance, and risk oversight structures dedicated to inclusion and guest safety, which it says make an additional independent review unnecessary.
Because of this, the Board argues the proposal would not add meaningful value for shareholders and would require resources without providing new or useful information, leading it to unanimously recommend a vote against the proposal. The company also repeated its prior statements that the shareholder proposal is false and misleading.
While it is unlikely this proposal will pass – it is extremely rare for a shareholder proposal to pass when a board recommends against it – this is still a win for DAS advocacy groups. This back and forth has pushed DAS back into the spotlight and kept the conversation going, even though the changes were first introduced in 2024.
While DAS appears on the agenda, this upcoming shareholder meeting is more likely to focus on naming a successor to Bob Iger as CEO. The meeting also comes as Disney disclosed that Iger’s total compensation rose to $45.8 million in 2025, up from $41.1 million in 2024 and $31.5 million in 2023.
You can read the official wording from the proxy materials below from Disney’s recommendation to vote against the proposal:
The Board recommends that you vote against this proposal for the following key reasons, as discussed in more detail below:
- The Company is committed to the design and implementation of innovative and effective services that accommodate persons with disabilities and already reviews its practices on an ongoing basis. The Company has been the industry leader in accessibility for over 30 years.
- The Company provides detailed public information, tips and recommendations regarding its accessibility and disability inclusion practices, both online and in person in its theme parks.
- The Company provides strong governance and oversight of its inclusion practices, as well as risk management.
- The proposal’s request would not enhance shareholder value.
Across the Company, we endeavor to provide opportunities to enjoy our products and services. To that end, the Company has made thoughtful investments to incorporate accessibility for people with disabilities throughout our operations as we strive to design, promote and serve as a model for accessibility. The Company has given the same attention to detail in its development of the Disability Access Service program for its domestic parks, which provides an extraordinary benefit – never having to wait in the regular standby lines fo most rides for those who require that option. The Company also offers a broad range of different accommodations to assist in accessing the rides and other attractions in the parks, accessing our content and programming and experiencing our other products and services. For example, the Company offers a range of tools and accessibility features across our streaming platforms and networks, including tools such as audio descriptions, closed captioning, keyboard navigation and interoperability with popular screen readers.
The Company provides detailed information regarding accessibility and disability inclusion practices on its websites, including the publication of an Accessibility Topic Brief. Each of our theme parks also publicly provides thorough information about its accommodations and assists guests both before and during their visits. For our domestic theme parks, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort, this includes pages on the Disability Access Service program with guidance on registration and the process for using the program once in one of the parks.
The Company has strong governance and oversight of both its accessibility efforts and risk management. Our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer leads Disney’s global people and culture strategy: talent acquisition and development compensation and benefits; opportunity and inclusion; organizational effectiveness; and employee services and systems. Reporting to our Chief People Officer, our Senior Vice President and Chief Opportunity & Inclusion Officer leads the Company’s Opportunity Inclusion strategy and partners closely with leaders and teams across all segments to foster a culture rooted in belonging. The Chief Safety Officer leads the Company’s guest safety efforts for Disney Experiences, including those related to guest accessibility, in collaboration with businesses and leaders across the Company. The Board and its committees oversee the Company’s major financial, legal and reputational risks, supporting strong brand stewardship and mitigation of such risks. See section entitled “The Board’s Role in Risk Oversight” in this proxy statement for more details.
The Company already details the support and accommodations it offers to guests and consumers with accessibility needs, as well as risk oversight practices and governance. The Board therefore believes that the proposal’s request is not in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as it would not provide meaningful additional information to shareholders to merit the resources it would require.
For the reasons set forth above, our Board unanimously recommends voting AGAINST this.
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I can’t believe that those ignorant sherholders would ever discriminate against Disabled Children and adults that it might be there first or last visit to Disneyland I was going to go this summer from Las Vegas but now I will be looking for another place to spend my time at.
I’m going to cancel my Disney channel also I’m not going to support any Disney program’s any more and I think others will do the same. Just because a child has Autism YOUR GOING TO BAND THEM FROM ALL DISNEY PARKS. I HOPE YOU NO THAT’S DISCRETION BIG TIME.
I hope DAS remains how it is now. My family has DAS and it was hardly worth it before this. We were actyally t0reated worse before. I think because nothing was streamlined and SO many people that don’t need it were using it. Leading to unhappy consumers eith disabilities AND unhappy employees having to deal with that.
The obvious abuse was palpable and made it so DAS was actually becoming longer than normal limes at times.
Many reasons some people can’t handle the normal lines well and they were screwed while all the fakers took no notice because no big deal to them.
Of COURSE people are going to be unhappy when they are excluded from slemthing they previously had especially a “free perk”.
Time is money and it still costs time to GET DAS plus the cost for parks obviously. My family pays the same as everyone for less without DAS. That’s what that feels like. DAS still doesn’t quite make the experience equal. Idk I’d it could. But it’s worth it.
I feel sorrow for the kids suffering in the world and adults too. But DAS is not compensation for general disabilities. It’s not for people recovering from or waiting for surgery. It’s not for people that are a liability to ride the ride in the first place. It’s not a pity pass either.
A lot of people got away with lying. Others had DAS because of things that are temporary and things that make it difficult to wait by like 1-10%.
That’s not how this works. If someone having a bad day, greviving a loved one etc, feeling nervous makes it so they get DAS or has a broken leg etc…..then basically anyone and everyone could and would get DAS as available then it would mean nothing.
They need standards. They finally made ones that honestly make a lot of sense….and people are mad because they lost something that it never made sense to have in the first place. People are confusing sympathy with justice again.
Just because a situation makes you feel bad doesn’t mean you’re entitled to something.
Disney HAS proper legal disability access in place when it comes to the parks. Legally they have ramps they have the things. They have invested a lot into the tech to help people that are in wheelchairs etc.
They still use all that…
They can’t modify every ride and inconvenience the majority of their consumers for morbidly obese people, for example. Most people today have some health issue. You don’t get a privilege for ride time because of that.
To us, we are grateful. But not having DAS makes it not worth. We would not go. It’s that important. We see people get turned away all the time and they just mope and then around the parks having a blast anyway.
Disney HAS ride swap and single rider and all these other ways you can enjoy the parks if you jave someone that has a non DAS rider disability.
Really I think maybe they should’ve renamed it better. It confuses people that thing it means anyone with any disability whatsoever can get this service. They have other accessibility around the parks not linked to this. They didn’t do away with that.
No one has been wronged. You can FEEL that way. But they fixed a broken system.
Exactly, and well said.
We went to WDW last fall, and the difference in not only the volume of people in the LL, but the resultant improvement in how the standby line moved was evident.
DAS was way overused – anyone who asked for it got it, and quite frankly, having a real disability doesn’t mean that one needs a DAS in order to be accommodated.
I don’t see discrimination. I do see a lot of effort to make things accessible, and yet be fair. I have seen abuse of the system in the past, so if anything, I would blame those who abused the system that make it harder for everyone.
I am a disabled veteran and we made use of the DAS mostly for my Service Dog (SD) standing in line is one of my biggest concerns for my SD because I’m worried about the SD getting Trampled on or anything like that however since it (DAS) has been limited to what it is we were forced into the standby lines and after a year of annual pass I must say people arent as bad as I once feared with my SD I’ve also noticed that the line. Moves faster without the DAS violators and at the end there was a lot it was amazing to see how many people took advantage of the system. But I honestly must say I don’t hate that it’s limited to the capacity that it is. And as long as there’s no large group going through the fast pass/lightning lane the stand by line moves much faster because of the priority that the other lane draws. So if I had a vote it would be to leave it alone as it stands currently.