[nfb-talk] canes and planes

Fri Jun 26 20:06:55 UTC 2009

Dear Kat,

I have never had my cane taken away from me ever, when flying on a plane.
I do carry a NFB telescoping cane and usually collapse it upon entering the 
plane and hang it on one of my belt loops with the "D" ring clip that is 
tied to the top of the cane.
Most people never even see it there.  I then take it off, after I am in my 
seat and slide it into the seat pocket in front of me.
I have always found it strange that they don't want to let me sit in the 
exit row because I am blind.  Especially since I help develop and test the 
special "butterfly" valves that are used to inflate the 90 foot long exit 
slides at the emergency doors.
They are afraid that we can not read the instructions on how to open the 
doors and when they should be opened.
They think that we are not smart enough to know that you don't open the door 
if there is fire outside on that side of the plane, like we would not know 
just from all of the reaction of the other passengers yelling about it as 
soon as they see it.  There is also the fact that some of the doors open 
inward and weigh about 90 pounds.  Some open outward and some inward.
Most require you to pull a "bobby pin" safety pin and then lift up on a 
handle to get the door to open and automatically inflate the slide.
I think that letting a passenger get too drunk is a far greater danger than 
the presents of a blind person sitting in the exit row.  Especially when the 
lights go out.
Just enjoy your trip and good luck with your presentation.
Former resident of NAS Agana Guam.

David Evans, NFBF
Nuclear/aerospace materials Engineer
Builder of the Lunar Rovers and the F-117 Stealth Fighter
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathleen Millhoff" <kmillhoff at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 2:17 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] canes and planes

> Hi,
> thanks very much. there are still days when it occurs to me that for
> many in society almost anything would be acceptable other than
> blindness.
> Still, I expect we're going to win in the long run.
> This helps.
> kat
>
>
> On 6/24/09, David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com> wrote:
>> There were several incidents in the 1980's where people were
>> arrested, people were removed from planes, planes were held up
>> etc.  Then basically, with the passage of the Air Carrier Access Act,
>> in 1986 or 88 I think, we lost any legal defense we might have
>> had.  The airlines were able to put into this law that anyone sitting
>> in an exit row had to be able to do certain things visually.
>>
>> So, we have lost that battle, but the war isn't over yet.  I think we
>> were to early in our protests -- that is society just wasn't far
>> enough along in its thinking at the time where they could understand
>> and accept what we were saying.
>>
>> The one thing we did accomplish, which benefits all airline
>> passengers is that we forced airlines to look at their practices
>> concerning exit row seating, and give it more attention.  Way back
>> then people who shouldn't have sat there were allowed to do so,
>> people who sat there were allowed to get inebriated etc.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> At 04:17 PM 6/23/2009, you wrote:
>>>Good Morning from the Western Pacific,
>>>
>>>I'm getting ready to present some opening remarks at a technology
>>>conference here, and wonder if I could have some help; specifically,
>>>I'd like to move beyond myth, legend and hearsay and learn the truth
>>>about what happened when the NFB protested against having canes taken
>>>away on airlines. By the way, I'm pretty old, and never had a problem
>>>with my cane on a plane but since lots of people did, and the NFB
>>>dealt with it, I'd like to know some specific things. For one thing,
>>>I've heard or read or just intuited, that people blocked planes from
>>>take-off somewhere. I was working it into my talk when I realized that
>>>I didn't really know if this happened. Having been aided, corrected
>>>and advised many times on this list, I hope someone will help me learn
>>>the reality of the situation.
>>>Thanks very much.
>>>kat
>>>
>>>--
>>>kathy millhoff - "Let each morn be better than its eve, and each
>>>morrow richer than its yesterday."
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>nfb-talk mailing list
>>>nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> -- 
> kathy millhoff - "Let each morn be better than its eve, and each
> morrow richer than its yesterday."
>
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