[nabs-l] Air travel an advise required

Lucy Sirianni lucysirianni at earthlink.net
Tue Jul 15 15:44:36 UTC 2014


Hi Siddhi,

      I'm sorry you were given such ridiculously prejudiced 
information! You should certainly be able to board a plane on 
your own and take advantage of the airline's offered assistance 
only if and when it is truly helpful.  Having flown a fair 
amount, I find that the best thing to do is generally not to 
request assistance in advance, even if I think I may need some; 
I've never had a problem getting directions and/or a sighted 
guide once I show up at the airport, and I've noticed that once 
you're officially "in the system", employees do tend to be a bit 
more intrusive about the help they expect you to accept.  It 
seems to me that the training airport employees receive about how 
to interact with travelers who are blind is pretty inconsistent; 
some are polite and reasonable, others refuse to believe that a 
blind person could possibly walk through the airport without a 
wheelchair, let alone without a sighted guide.  I hope this 
inconsistency is something that will change someday, but in the 
meantime, just be firm in letting airport employees know what you 
do and don't need, and remember that you can always ask to speak 
to a  supervisor if you feel you're not being heard or respected.

Enjoy your travels!

Lucy
 ----- Original Message -----
From: siddhi desai via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:40:57 +0700
Subject: [nabs-l] Air travel an advise required

Dear All,
Hope you all are doing well.

Actually, I am planning to travel in USA and facing some issues.

I have flight at Chicago airport operated by EXPRESSJET 		AIRLINES 
DBA
UNITED EXPR owned by united airlines.  I am in conversation with 
their
customer care executive.  They have informed me that On US 
domestic
airport they do not allow individual  visually impaired to board
alone.  Is this an universal law or airline specific laws are
implemented? Or is there any provision of USA government to 
tackle
this issue? Is there any one travelled from this airline and had
assistance on board?

Sincerely
Siddhi

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