A recent opinion article in the Telegraph Journal up in Canada really poses an obtuse view and some out of line comments on air travel in Canada for people with disabilities.
The article- “Airline ruling could cause more harm than good” was triggered by this recent ruling:
“Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a ruling that says people who need an extra seat on a plane because they are either disabled or obese need only to pay one fare.”
The article is credited to an individual who claims to be a quadriplegic and “a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he wrote his thesis on Canada’s Residential Schools. He is currently studying conflict resolution.”
The article is a wild ride in misguided logic not only regarding air travelers with a disability, but about disability itself. Rather than rant on the authors feeble logic and flawed views I thought I would post some of the more obnoxious statements from the article along with my comments in italics:
“All this coddling and catering to the less fortunate is going a bit far. Sure, it is appropriate and makes sense to help out the less fortunate whenever possible, but in an industry that is struggling as badly as the airlines, this new law simply doesn’t make sense. The concept of equality is stretching too far and could actually become detrimental to social decency.”
The quote speaks pretty much for itself and its author who considers many of his peers less fortunate and coddled, and whose formula for social inclusion is Equality=Detriment to social decency. As for pulling the airlines out of their financial quicksand on the backs of wheelchair users? Airlines are a service provider, and the population they serve, by choice or by mandate, includes those customers who use wheelchairs. Improved services have never hurt an industry. It is much more logical to assume that service improvements will increase the number of wheelchair using consumers who in the past have been an under-served and an under-tapped market segment.
“Middle ground needs to be found on this topic, because too much coddling is crippling to the disabled and obese, and backbreaking to the already ailing airline industry.”
It seems the level of “coddling” has been elevated to “too much”. What constitutes lower level “coddling”? Aisle chairs? First/early boarding? Removable seat armrests?
“If such accommodations are to be made for the obese and disabled, shouldn’t accommodations then also be made for tall people who find airlines painfully cramped? Where does it end?”
Absolutely! Height, be it short or tall can be a disadvantage and under the right circumstances and in the right environment it can be disabling. Where does it end? Wherever it has to. I think most people would agree that traveling by air has become synonymous with traveling by cattle car. Any improvements in this mode of travel, be they for people with disabilities, tall people, or for that matter any traveler, would be a welcomed improvement and may go an extremely long way in increasing business for airlines.
“As for the disabled, at what point does being in a wheelchair not have to come with its own expectations, such as having a wheelchair that can fold for easier storage? As far as wheelchairs go, being in a rigid frame wheelchair is preferable to the less agile folding chairs. But if traveling is that important, then using a folding chair or paying a reasonable fee for storing a rigid frame should be acceptable.”
The type of wheelchair one uses should not be selected solely based on the occasional need to fly. Rather, the choice is based on an individuals entire set of needs, physical, functional, and environmental. Furthermore, a rigid chair can easily be broken down into several lightweight parts that can easily be stored in an overhead compartment or even stored in several locations if need be. Most rigid wheelchairs are in fact lighter and smaller than a large piece of luggage and considerably lighter and smaller than a folding wheelchair. Many weigh less than 20 pounds. And then there are powered wheelchairs which the author completely ignores. What is a powerchair user to do? Leave the chair at home to accommodate the airline company?
“Keep in mind, flying is a business and a privilege, not a God-given right.”
This is pure crap in my opinion. Agree, it is a business, and being a business it should adhere to some of the established business concepts such as giving consumers their money worth, good service, and accommodating customers as needed. Air travel is clearly not a privilege as the author implies. It is a consumer product or service and should be viewed and treated as just that. I think we all realize that flying is not a gift from god, unless of course you are born covered in feathers. Yet there are some rights that you do have once you lay down your bucks and enter into an agreement with an airline company. Those rights are the ones that are granted you by legislation and law. So, if the law states that you have certain options or services that must be made available then you do in fact have right to those. With all respect to your deity of preference- Not all rights are granted from above.
Let’s look at the flip side of this. What would a wheelchair user come to expect as a consumer. Some of these expectations might include the loss of wheelchair or wheelchair parts, damage to wheelchair that make it totally unusable, being dropped, manhandling that results in broken limbs and other injuries, being power-lifted dangerously over seat arms because airline staff have no clue where the removable ones are, jostling intense enough to disconnect urinal drainage devices and other support devices, endless waiting for someone to surface with your wheelchair and intense anxiety waiting to find out if it is still in one piece, weird looks from passengers, pain and discomfort in paralyzed extremities from spending to much time in small unfriendly seats, increased risk of pressure sores from extended sitting times on unforgiving seats, inability to use lavatories for lack of means of getting to one. Add to these all of the standard hassles of flying and it makes quite the argument for anything but being coddled.
As for the financially suffering airline industry- An extra dose of consumer coddling and some TLC may go a long way toward ending their suffering.
Hey wheelies, here’s hoping your next flight spoils you rotten.
For those who want to learn more about traveling by air with a disability:
Check out the free booklet from United Spinal on Accessible Air Travel
“Although air travel today is available to most people, barriers to access still exist. A passenger with a disability may encounter obstacles just to reach an airplane seat. It is vitally important for travelers with disabilities and their companions, travel agents, and others involved in air travel to know what to expect from the time an airline reservation is booked to the moment the flight touches down.”
