In this post, I am going to focus on issues for people traveling with mobility equipment. Note that if they also have a service animal, the effect is multiplied.
The Cost and Complexity of Mobility Aids
I have many friends who travel and use various mobility aids. They have so many more problems than I ever have when traveling. Power chairs are extremely customized and therefore also extremely expensive. Even manual chairs may cost more than $35,000. They also need to be properly fitted for the individual. This may require options such as custom cushions, controls placed where they can be reached by the user, or a bracket for a communication aid, et cetera. If the chair is not fitted properly, the user may experience problems like muscle cramps, sores, or simply not being able to stay in the chair as long as needed. I can’t even imagine how difficult it is for a chair user to get through the TSA line-ups, let alone what happens when they have to get on the plane. I’m not an expert in this area, but I will tell you what I think happens.
Security Screening and Loss of Dignity
If the person goes through security and is not able to stand, they need to submit to a hand check, and this can be very invasive. The agents feel everywhere on the person and get as personal as that sounds. The agent will run their hands over the person’s whole body, and it is as intrusive as it sounds. Why is it acceptable for someone to run their hand up the inside of someone’s leg just to fly? If anyone at any other time did that, it would be considered sexual assault, but when we travel, we must just shut up and take it. As an aside, there are many other aids and/or devices people with disabilities need that can cause TSA staff to lose their minds. An example is, cochlear implants set off the metal detectors. I have been told that some people just take them off and go through deaf instead of dealing with how to manage setting off the alarms.
Transfers, Damage, and Replacement
Next, the person is only able to use their wheelchair up to the door of the jetway. They then have to transfer to an aisle chair and have to be pushed onto the plane by airport staff. This aisle chair is narrow enough to make it through the plane’s restricted space. Airlines could make their aisles wider, but they might lose some seats, and God forbid they make less money. Once the person has been pushed to their row, the airport staff must lift them out of the chair and into the seat, which is as uncomfortable and undignified as it sounds. The staff typically do not have any training or idea how to do so.
Knowing how poorly trained airport staff are in dealing with a service animal, I can’t imagine they know the best way to conduct transfers for various different people with various different disabilities. The entire idea horrifies me in thinking about how the individual has to give up their own freedom and independence just to travel.
Once Again, the Regulations Fail
Sadly, more often than not, the equipment the person with a disability needs to move around gets damaged in transit. Airport staff do not show enough care when moving the power chair to the baggage compartment. I have heard of many people arriving at their destination only to find that their chair has been destroyed in some way or other. This problem is serious and even more debilitating than anything I ever experienced. Unlike a suitcase that can be replaced in a few days, a custom-fitted power chair can take months to replace, leaving the user stranded. Due to the fact that chairs are custom fitted, airlines cannot have any way to provide a person with a temporary or other chair, so this puts the person at risk when using whatever equipment is come up with until their own chair is fixed or permanently replaced. In the U.S., this is even further complicated by having to argue with Medicare and insurance to get the chair replaced. Sadly, there are regulations that tried to fix some of these problems, but these regulations failed. Any plane landing in the U.S. must have a designated space on board to store the chair, but the space is sadly not nearly adequate. The closet was designed with a hospital chair in mind and is only 30 inches wide. This closet is not anywhere near adequate for a manual, let alone a power chair.
I sincerely hope that this situation changes sooner rather than later, but that it does not change for the worse. I can see well-meaning committees, groups, and government organizations making regulations about how best to transport mobility devices and getting it wrong, just like they did with service dogs.
The International Accessibility Challenge
Just like I have to research rules and regulations for my service dog, people who use wheelchairs have to be so much more prepared. They should have information about all the places that they plan to go while on their trip. Can they get into restaurant X or hotel Y? Is there an accessible path to travel, or are the doors in the buildings they will be using even wide enough for a chair to enter? Most importantly, when traveling internationally, what happens when you get to the place you’re going and you do not bring the right power adapter? Power chairs have massive batteries, and they need to charge. If you somehow brought the wrong power cord or adapter, your chair becomes a heavy thing that needs to be moved somehow, and power needs to come from somewhere. I’ve only been to Europe a few times in my life, but I often wonder how on earth chair users can get around in these older infrastructures. Doors are narrow, hallways are cramped, and even the accessible bathrooms are all done differently in different countries. There are no consistent international rules or regulations about how these things should be done. I am not advocating for regulations and rules, but I am advocating for communicating with people with disabilities so that we can have international standards that fit most situations.
Hope for the Future of Travel
In the next few years, I expect to travel a lot more, but getting there is not fun anymore. When I was younger and had a trip for many different reasons, I was thrilled and excited. Today, I am happy to get to my destination safely and hope that each time I travel I’ve dotted all my i’s and crossed all my t’s and can have a relatively smooth experience getting there. Until these regulations have changed and people understand more about how to behave with service animals and how important these service animals and our mobility devices are to us, we will not see a change. Please let me know if I missed anything, and please share with me any time where you had some of this happen to you. We need to share these stories for the change to even begin.
I hope you have enjoyed my series of posts about travel as a person with a disability. I am going to open comments on my website again, so please let me know what you think. What should I talk about next? And please watch out for those of us out there and make sure you don’t pet the dogs or break our chairs. Thank you David Martin for your feedback and your personal experience on this topic.