I reside in Boston and need to go to my daughter in Los Angeles. Straightforward, proper? E-book a flight, go to the daughter, fly dwelling. If solely. I take advantage of an electrical wheelchair that prices about the identical as a small SUV. I am afraid it is perhaps broken by an airline. My chair, a Quantum Edge, is important for getting round. To have a life.
Quantum and I met two years in the past and have been inseparable ever since. I did not see it coming, our relationship. It by no means occurred to me that I’d develop a crippling illness that might ultimately require the usage of a 400-pound mobility machine—however I digress.
Again to go to my daughter. Or moderately not go to. To fly to LA, I’ve to ditch the Quantum and pray it does not break once I land. Airways mishandle hundreds of energy wheelchairs every year, in line with knowledge from the Division of Transportation. A couple of in each 100 wheelchairs and scooters transported within the maintain are broken, delayed or misplaced.
Some wheelchairs are so broken that they pose a security threat to customers or turn out to be unusable. Think about handing in your prescription glasses and squinting anxiously the whole flight, solely to have them returned with cracked lenses and a damaged body.
It will get worse. To go to my daughter, I’ve to surrender bodily autonomy. Dangers being handled like a ham web page. Airline workers — strangers with obscure and uncertain schooling — will elevate me out of the Quantum and switch me to the “strolling chair,” a small wheelchair used for boarding and disembarking. As soon as on the aircraft, they are going to push me down the aisle, cease at my row, and switch me to my cabin seat. Fellow passengers might or will not be trying. On touchdown, I get to do it once more, in reverse. And sure, disabled vacationers have been misplaced or critically injured when transferred incorrectly.
The enjoyable does not cease there. Large-body jets are required to have an accessible toilet, however a wheelchair person can not get to the toilet with out returning to the small walker to be pushed to the bathroom by a crew member. Single-aisle flights at present lack accessible bogs, so disabled passengers dehydrate themselves or put on grownup diapers. I used to be blissfully unaware of all this as I used to be in a position to go away.
For instance I collect the braveness to fly. If my wheelchair is badly broken, the airline is on the hook for restore or alternative prices. However it could take weeks or months earlier than I’ve an electrical automobile prepared. A loaner chair may work, however not should you want a custom-made chair. Chances are you’ll miss work or college, even have to remain in mattress. That is quite a bit to dwell on at 30,000 toes.
There are answers. At a minimal, airways may very well be required to make use of common storage bins to guard electrical wheelchairs and scooters, or restraint straps to safe these costly units within the maintain. However what would actually make me really feel included can be staying in my very own seat, rolling down the jetway and on to the aircraft, locking down within the cabin and stress-free.
How is it that so little has been spent on ensuring individuals like me really feel welcome and cozy after they fly? Trains and buses can be found – why not planes? It seems that the People With Disabilities Act does not apply to airplanes — which explains why I can roll into authorities buildings however not onto a jet aircraft. What guidelines the skies is the lesser identified and comparatively toothless Air Provider Entry Act of 1986. The ACAA prohibits discrimination in opposition to passengers with disabilities—I am unable to be denied a seat on an airplane—however that is about the place the protections finish. The requirements for accessibility options on airplanes are so appallingly insufficient it is like a merciless joke.
I attempt to be optimistic. Earlier this 12 months was DOT recognized as a goal permits passengers to stay of their private wheelchairs on airplanes, and the Federal Aviation Administration initiated a “analysis roadmap” to analyze the feasibility. Brief-term enhancements embrace coaching necessities to higher help disabled passengers and correctly retailer their mobility units.
In June, Delta Air Traces unveiled a prototype to a normal airplane seat that transforms right into a safe energy wheelchair docking station when wanted. Discuss a game-changer! I am telling you airways, should you construct it, we’ll come.
Within the meantime, I will be right here in Boston ready for my daughter’s aircraft to land, however dreaming of spending Christmas along with her in LA. I see it now: The Quantum and I, decked out in tinsel, rolling off the jetway, neither of us the more serious for put on.
Suzanne Costas is a licensed impartial medical social employee in Boston. In 2008, she was identified with inclusion physique myositis. Over the course of 15 years, she went from utilizing a cane to a walker and eventually an electrical wheelchair in 2021.