Picture your perfect family day out: a trip to a theme park with your excited kids, perhaps. A day of laughter and adrenaline and fast food and candyfloss and popcorn, before they conk out in the backseat of the car on the way home, happy and exhausted.
Now, let me tell you what that same day out is like with kids who are neurodiverse. The queues are, quite literally, torture. Standing still for hours is unthinkable, reminders to “just be patient” or “wait your turn” are like an alien language and the food available on site is inedible, because the chicken nuggets are “the wrong shape”, the chips “not crispy enough”, the fish fingers are “the wrong kind of batter”.
The sound of other children screaming with fear or excitement on the rides becomes, suddenly, overwhelming; and you somehow managed to leave the ear defenders or earplugs at home in the general rush to get everyone to put their shoes on (at the same time as gathering up the all-important devices and fidget toys and comfort toys). They’ve got their hands clapped over their ears and they’re shivering, because by now it is raining and cold but your child won’t wear a coat – they’ll never wear a coat – because coats are “uncomfortable”.
There are flashing lights and too much neon, people pushing and shouting and talking too much – and far too loudly. And then, just as you’re approaching the front of the queue for a 20-second ride you’ve somehow waited all day for, they have a meltdown and refuse to go any further. You have to leave the queue, having been on no rides, and go home.
Later that day, your child tells you they “don’t really like” going out on trips and wish you could just “stay at home”, where it’s calm and safe and quiet and there are routines. You’ve spent more than £100 on this family “treat” and you feel like a failure. Everyone else seems to enjoy the school holidays, so why can’t you?
This is the reality for parents like me with kids with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – which is why the news that Merlin Entertainments, which runs theme parks including Alton Towers, is trying out a new exclusivity policy, in which it will test out excluding people with autism, anxiety and ADHD from the disability fast lane, is deeply disheartening and disappointing. They will instead offer access to sensory rooms and quiet spaces.
Disability fast passes are, quite literally, the only way families like mine can enjoy a “regular” day out. Without them, we won’t bother. What’s the point? Trying to have a fun and successful trip without them just feels like torture.
And conducting this trial over the February half-term feels like a particularly sick joke: a week when places like theme parks are at their busiest; when queues are longer than ever, when “treating” your child (and treating them just the same as everybody else) puts increasing pressure on parents.
Merlin Entertainments said it is listening to feedback and keeping this approach under review ahead of its main opening season. But it just feels like another way neurodiverse kids are being excluded from everyday life – and stigmatised. Merlin Entertainments’ decision to restrict access passes at Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures and Windsor Legoland doesn’t feel like an isolated decision when it comes off the back of a wave of decreasing tolerance and understanding of the challenges faced by people with “invisible” disabilities, worldwide.
In 2026, neurodivergent people – and shamefully, children – are under attack from all quarters, including by powerful politicians who should know better.
We’ve seen it in the US, where in September President Donald Trump effectively started a misinformation war on autism, claiming there has been a “meteoric” rise in the numbers of people with the condition and making the reckless suggestion that taking paracetamol during pregnancy can “cause autism”.
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We’ve seen it here, too; in the discriminatory language deployed by the likes of Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, who in November described children wearing ear defenders in school as “insane” and said neurodiverse conditions like ADHD were being “massively overdiagnosed”. (He later apologised after an outcry from parents). He also claimed there was a current “crisis” in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and suggested schools should “manage” without “labelling” children.
Reform UK might be a fringe party, but these are certainly not fringe opinions: even the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, as good as punched down on neurodiverse children in December when he announced a review of the supposed overdiagnosis of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, rather than detailing how he intends to help 500,000 people currently waiting for assessment.
Autistic kids are already being demonised and attacked by those in power – so why can’t we just let them enjoy the very simplest of pleasures: a day out on a rollercoaster?
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