[nabs-l] Questions about getting assistance in airports

[justin williams]

You can either get assistance, or ask direction, and a combination of the
two.  If you take the assistance, be sure to instruct them as to exactly how
you want help.  Keep in mind, you want to make aur eyou catch your flight,
but you also don't want to get pulled and pushed around any old way..  When
I was offered a wheelchair, I put my luggage in it.
LOL.
 Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Aleeha Dudley
via NABS-L
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 5:28 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Aleeha Dudley <blindcowgirl1993 at gmail.com>; blindtlk at nfbnet.org; Sami
Osborne <ligne14 at verizon.net>; travelandtourism at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Questions about getting assistance in airports

Hello Sami, 
I would like to give my own thoughts on this topic. First let me say this. I
will soon be graduating from the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and much of
what I have learned stems from this training. I do not generally get
assistance at airports, unless it is a very tight connection between flights
at an airport that I do not know. Even then, as I learned recently, it may
not be a good idea. People can be very over helpful, pushing and pulling you
around, putting you in a wheel chair, making you late, and generally being
pains in the neck. So, I generally ask people where my gate is or where the
counter is. With their direction, I simply just start walking. 
> This allows me to really get to know where things are and it gives mea
good sense of what is around me. I always learn what my luggage looks like
so that I can find it myself by touching the bags on the luggage carousel.
I also wanted to ask you: what airline was it that asked if you had a dog?
Aleeha 

> On May 27, 2016, at 12:53 PM, Sami Osborne via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I hope you're all having a great holiday weekend and enjoying spending
time with family and friends.
> 
> This August, I'll be traveling from my home state of NY all the way to San
Francisco, CA for a ten-day-long music camp for the blind.  This will be my
first time flying by myself without my family.  I'd like to ask you guys a
couple of questions about getting assistance to the gate at the airport,
which we, as blind people, probably all need.
> 
> First of all, how much in advance should you let the airline know that you
need assistance? When my mom was buying the plane tickets, she discovered
that one of the questions they asked was if I was a blind person with a
guide dog.  She didn't answer that because I only have a cane.  But on the
airline's website, there is no information regarding getting assistance if
you're blind.  So I'd like to know if you'd need to apply for assistance
well in advance of your trip or just a few days before? Also, should you do
it on the phone or can you do it online?
> 
> Second, I know that they can help you to the gate, but will they assist
you with getting to the security checkpoint as well? When I go flying with
my family, the airport employees usually assist me with going through
security, so I already know that they can do that.  But as for getting from
the curb to the checkpoint, would they be able to do that?
> 
> Third, as I mentioned before, this is my first time  flying on my own.  I
know that a lot of times in the airport, they'll ask you if you want a
wheelchair, only because they assume the worst about us.  I think you know
what I mean.  Anyway, when I apply to get assistance, should I tell them
that I don't need a wheelchair and just use sighted guide with whichever
airport employee is walking with me, or would I need to do that  at the
airport?
> 
> I hope that you people who fly independently can help me with this.
> 
> Thanks and happy Memorial Day weekend,
> 
> Sami
> 
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