You cannot tell someone who has a disability from someone who doesn't by looking at them. You cannot tell if a person is 'just lazy' by looking at them.
There's been a LOT of talk in this thread about 'just' wanting to shame the 'abusers'. Guess what? Go anywhere where disabled people are talking and you will hear or read tons of stories about people who were confronted by someone who that they were 'faking' when they had a legitimate disability. Thinking you can tell 'good' disabled people from fakers or lazy people who do not deserve accommodation at a glance is ableist and gross. Just because someone's not puttering around on a crutch whimpering like freaking Tiny Tim does not mean they aren't disabled. Disabled people aren't obligated to conform to whatever Victorian novel standard you have in your head so you can feel like things are 'fair.'
If you know someone personally who admits to abusing the system, fine, call them out. But they are a minority. Anecdotes aren't data. If there was a significant amount of fraud happening Disney would adjust the system, just as they did when the stories came out about those tour guides.
The question is: Do you want the (extremely small amount) of fraudsters to be denied more than you want people who need it to have access? That's the dichotomy. The more barriers you put in the harder it will be for people with legitimate disabilities to use too. I'd rather let 10 fakers sneak in than have 1 needing person go without. But that's just me.
The current system is IMO a happy medium between accommodating people who need it and eliminating the kind of fraud that would most impact other guests.
1. Your party goes to Guest Services. You explain who needs the accommodation and maybe generally why. They take that person's picture and link that and the
DAS to their
MDE profile. They then scan the rest of your party to link you all. Everyone has to be there. (No taking Steve's Magicband and having him join your group later.) They will then activate DAS for a period of time. (This varies. My Dad uses DAS because of his back and one time it was length of stay only, another it was good for six months.)
Any time your party changes you have to return to Guest Services. (Meaning anyone trying to pull the tour guide scam is likely going to get flagged given their constantly changing parties of people they have no history/relationship with and who have no history/relationship with each other. And the above point RE Steve means they can't sell themselves as a 'VIP' guide and unwittingly add people to their party who think it's a real VIP thing and have no clue they're using DAS at all. Or your shady in-law can't add you to their party without your knowledge.)
Let's use my Dad as an example: He could be in a party with my Mom and my brother one trip. Another trip it's me, him, and my best friend. My family all has the same last name and address and my friend has a long history of being in my MDE friends and family list and FP parties etc. with me. One day during the second trip my aunt and uncle, who live in Orlando, decide to join us. Again, same last name, longstanding park history together and MDE links. All three times require a
separate trip to Guest Services to adjust your party.
2. Anyone in the group can go to the attraction and get a return time. The time is usually approximately the standby wait and you can only have one at a time. (No having a return time for FOP in three hours and then trying to get one for Expedition Everest for one hour while you're still waiting for FOP. You can only wait in one 'line' at a time.)
3. When it's time to ride the DAS person has to be there and they have to be riding. (No Grandpa getting a return time for a coaster only the Grandkids are going on.) Their band/ticket gets scanned in the FP+ queue first. The cast member checks the photo. (No getting DAS for yourself and giving your cousin your Magicband for the day.) Everyone else taps in and you go through the FP+ queue.
All together: Photo and MDE records keep out tour guides and habitual scammers and prevent people from unwittingly abusing the system because of someone else. DAS has to be periodically renewed and party updated so you can't 'set it and forget it'. Photo and DAS person must ride requirement mean a legitimate DAS user can't 'cheat the system' and get a return time for any attraction they aren't themselves riding.
The one at a time limit means you can't be 'on line' for say 7DMT, Space Mountain, and Peter Pan at the same time. If 7DMT has a return time of two hours later, and then after that you get a one hour for Space Mountain, and after that a 1.5 hour for Pan you're 'waiting' 4.5 hours total for all of them. The benefit to 'doubling up' with shorter stand-by lines would seriously depend on how savvy and planning-oriented the DAS party was, which I feel like would skew heavily toward the legitimate users. And a savvy non-DAS planner would know all the tricks too. So if they rope-dropped 7DMT, and did Peter Pan just before closing, and waited until Space was a 45 minute wait, then they'd reduce the DAS person's time-advantage. It's very different from being an immediate front of the line pass.
If someone can think of a better system to keep out 'fakers' while not hurting the people who actually need it, I'd love to hear it. (And YES requiring a doctor's note would absolutely mean legitimate people would be unable to use DAS and NO it is not any guarantee that fakers would not still get in.)