{"id":2183,"date":"2019-01-27T23:11:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T04:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2019-01-27T23:11:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T04:11:19","slug":"will-airline-bans-on-solo-wheelchair-travel-lead-to-more-accessible-travel-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2019\/01\/27\/will-airline-bans-on-solo-wheelchair-travel-lead-to-more-accessible-travel-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Airline Bans on Solo Wheelchair Travel Lead to More Accessible Travel Restrictions?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On January 25, 22 year-old Shen Chengqing was supposed to take a\u00a0Hong Kong<\/a> Airlines\u00a0flight to Tianjin in northeastern China at 8.40pm. However, after she arrived at the airport for the 3\u00bd-hour flight, Shen said airline staff refused to check her in as she could not walk and did not have a travel companion. In an audio recording Shen sent to the\u00a0South China Morning<\/a><\/em> <\/a>Post<\/a><\/em>, an employee of the city\u2019s third-largest airline can be heard saying Shen had to be offloaded as she was unable to walk. \u201cBecause of this reason, we refused to let her board the plane alone,\u201d the female employee told Shen\u2019s friend, who was with her at the airport. While flight attendants can help wheelchair users move to and from their seats, the airline said employees would not help with personal care including using the toilet and taking medication, due to safety concerns. \u201cFor these needs, we recommend you travel with a personal care attendant,\u201d the website reads. A spokeswoman for Hong Kong Airlines on Saturday said that when Shen went to check in on January 25, staff concluded after a detailed evaluation that she would have to take the flight with a companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These kinds of restrictions placed on solo wheelchair travelers by certain airlines are nothing new. Cathay Airlines states very clearly on its website, \u201cIt is a requirement that you travel with a safety assistant if you are unable to physically assist in your own evacuation.” On the Avianca website, it says, “A safety escort (assistant) may be required to travel with you, due to disability\u200b\u200b [if] you have a mobility impairment so severe that you are unable to physically assist in your own evacuation of the aircraft.” Numerous other airlines have similar requirements, including requiring you to have a companion if you can’t give yourself medication, feed yourself, or attend to your own toileting needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have traveled by myself to 43 countries as a wheelchair user, and most of those have required solo air travel. I’ve been asked about my ability to evacuate an aircraft in an emergency by myself four times. Each of those four times, I responded that in an emergency, I would be able to drag myself to the door of the aircraft. That seem to be an acceptable enough answer for the crew, and I have yet to get kicked off an airplane or denied boarding. This is why the whole thing is complete bullshit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two types of plane crashes \u2014 those in which some people survive and those in which everyone dies. You can guess which type is more common. This policy for solo wheelchair travelers is strictly for liability purposes. Airplane crew members have a million things to tend to in an emergency, and don’t want to be saddled with the physical or legal responsibility for evacuating a passenger who can’t walk. This is totally based off the assumption that in a plane crash or other emergency, everyone else will easily be able to walk off plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Flying solo on Air New Zealand after they asked me if I could self-evacuate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know if you’ve seen any plane crash videos recently, but there’s a good chance that in a plane crash with survivors, many of those people will probably not be able to walk off the plane either. If they didn’t start out as wheelchair users, they might end up that way. In a different kind of emergency where they are able to deploy the inflatable slides and everyone is able to calmly get off the plane, I’m not sure I can imagine a scenario where they would just leave me or another wheelchair user behind because we were taking too much time dragging ourselves to the slide. Even if I did have a companion, where’s the guarantee that my companion would be in good enough shape to physically pick me up and carried me off the plane? Having a companion on a flight is no guarantee whatsoever that they will be of any use in an emergency. For the record, there are zero physical requirements for that companion. But somehow, if I were bringing a 90 year-old lady with me who could still walk, that would be acceptable for certain airlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let’s walk away from logic and reasoning for a minute to take a look at the broader implications of these policies aimed towards solo wheelchair travelers. In addition to flying by myself to all of these places, I stay in hotel rooms by myself. I can probably count on one hand the number of accessible hotel rooms I have slept in that are located on the ground floor. In Europe, there are rarely any hotel rooms on the ground floor because that is where the lobby and usually a restaurant are located. In the United States, I often stay in hotel rooms that are above the 10th floor. If there is a fire or earthquake, there is no way I am driving myself down 10 flights of stairs. I have to sit there and wait for the fire department to come and get me. However, not a single hotel manager has ever asked me in my three years of traveling as a wheelchair user if I was with a companion who could help evacuate me in an emergency. For many reasons, of course a companion would be more helpful than not, and I believe certainly more so in a hotel than in an airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Traveling solo on Irish Rail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So then, why do airlines require companions for emergency evacuation purposes and not hotels? And is there potential for hotels to start requiring this if more airlines demand that solo wheelchair travelers have a companion with them? Will bus companies start requiring a companion in case the bus is in a crash or the ramp to enter and exit the bus breaks? Will I be banned from subways or trains because I can’t self-evacuate after a derailment? Will I be denied boarding on my cruise ship because I can’t walk onto the lifeboat? Practically speaking, there is no way that just one person can help a wheelchair user in a 400 pound chair get off of a burning bus, and there’s no way that a woman who weighs 120 pounds can carry her 250-pound husband who is a wheelchair user down 10 flights of stairs. Yet, this magic companion is somehow able to satisfy corporations and their attorneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I treasure my independence as a wheelchair user more than anything, and it has allowed me to visit so many parts of the world in the way that I see fit. What bothers me even more than the policies themselves are the fact that the people who created the policies are most likely not wheelchair users and don’t understand how independent we are, despite the fact that we can’t walk. We know that we are taking certain risks when we travel alone, and we willingly accept those risks. I’m pretty sure that if I were to be denied boarding or told I was getting kicked off a flight, offering to sign a waiver would do me no good. I was hoping to fly alone to Ecuador this spring on Avianca, and something told me to check their policies for disabled travelers. I’m glad I did or else I would have wasted money on a ticket, just to be informed of the airport that I would be denied boarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cruising solo on the Crown Princess.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know how to try to change these policies or help educate airline management on why they’re so ridiculous. I also know that I can’t afford to pay for someone to travel with me, and I don’t know anyone with the time or money to be my travel companion. This isn’t to mention the fact that, with only a few exceptions, I don’t like traveling with other people. I’m concerned these kinds of policies might spread to other parts of the travel sector and further restrict our ability to travel independently. For now, all we can do is read the rules to try and prevent any issues at the airport or on the aircraft, and spend our money on airlines and businesses that respect our independence and ability to travel solo<\/a> as wheelchair users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 25, 22 year-old Shen Chengqing was supposed to take a\u00a0Hong Kong Airlines\u00a0flight to Tianjin in northeastern China at 8.40pm. However, after she arrived at the airport for the 3\u00bd-hour flight, Shen said airline … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[31],"yst_prominent_words":[3730,3733,1366,3720,1758,3732,3731,3713,503,3727,3726,3725,544,3721,3719,1624,332,1495,960,636],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travelogue","tag-solo-travel","latest_post"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/7073AE61-401F-492E-86E9-4380048130ED.jpeg?fit=1886%2C1391&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8IhCJ-zd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2468,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2019\/03\/11\/what-the-boeing-737-max-8-crashes-mean-for-future-accessible-air-travel\/","url_meta":{"origin":2183,"position":0},"title":"What the Boeing 737 MAX 8 Crashes Mean for Future (Accessible) Air Travel","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"March 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On March 10, a jetliner with passengers from at least 35 countries crashed shortly after leaving Ethiopia's capital, killing all 157 people on board. 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To say that I spend a lot of time in airports and airplanes as a wheelchair user is an understatement, and I have the stats to prove it. 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