[nfbmi-talk] Fw: NO RAMP FOR YOU! American Airlines Humiliates Passenger With Disabilities

[Terry D. Eagle]

Sounds like the typical airlines [quote] “sensitive approach” [unquote] to
serving the persons with disabilities community needs, including the
sensitive approach employed by the Wayne County Airport Authority, toward
persons with disAbilities!  This is truly outrageous!  The airlines will
hold up a departure for some other minor reason, but will not depart late to
allow a person with a disability to board a plane with dignity and basic
human respect, through use of a wheelchair ramp?  How disgusting!  And then
to not compensate the woman for her humiliation and embarrassment, and their
outright ignoring the accommodation regulations of the Air Carrier Act?  I
hope she is awarded much more than $8 million!  

This is an outrageous classic example of those charged with enforcement of
anti-discrimination provisions of laws and regulations intended to provide
basic human dignity and respect to persons with disabilities being ignored
with impunity!  And I’ll bet the airline personnel responsible for the
humiliation and embarrassment, including the airline’s captain, are still
employed and collecting a paycheck, paid in part by the fare of this
humiliated and embarrassed woman!  Where is the justice?

With an example like this injustice, before we know, the Wayne County
Airport Authority will have disabled passengers crawling to the terminal,
from the new ground transportation center,  to catch a flight, and media
coverage of the extraordinary spectacular survival skills displayed by the
person with disability not being killed while crawling across lanes of
traffic, dodging moving vehicles, to make their departure on-time, and after
crawling up the airplane’s portable steps!   


NO RAMP FOR YOU! American Airlines Humiliates Passenger With Disabilities 
Published June 14, 2015 
By Kaitlyn D’Onofrio 
Theresa Purcell was ready for a normal flight to San Diego – but this isn’t
what she got. 
Purcell uses a wheelchair because she suffers from a neurological disorder
called Charcot-Marie-Tooth’s disease. So when she was ready to board the
plane, she was stunned to learn she wouldn’t be afforded a ramp. According
to airline employees, it was too close to the plane’s departure to set it
up. 
The situation was degrading for Purcell, she recalls: 
 “I [said] I can’t walk up on the stairs, and then she was like, so how you
going get on the plane then? And I was like, oh wow,” Purcell 
told ABC News affiliate KHON-TV 
. “I crawled up onto the steps. I crawled into the plane. There was no other
way for me to get on the plane so I crawled up to the plane. I was
humiliated. It was embarrassing to have 50-something people watch you crawl
into a plane.” 
 Purcell and her attorney, Christy Ho, have  filed a lawsuit  against the
airline company. They received a lengthy apology in response, part of which
read: On behalf of US Airways and American Airlines, please accept our
apologies for the difficulties Ms. Purcell experienced with her request for
level entry boarding. It is imperative to provide essential care and to have
a sensitive approach when assisting our passengers who have special needs. 
 According to CFR 14 Part 382, carriers must train employees with respect to
awareness and appropriate responses to passengers with a disability,
including persons with physical, sensory, mental and emotional disabilities,
including how to distinguish among the differing abilities of individuals
with a disability. Additionally, airlines must promptly provide assistance
requested by a customer with a disability in enplaning and deplaning. This
assistance must include, as needed, the services of personnel and the use of
ground wheelchairs, accessible motorized carts, boarding wheelchairs, and/or
on-board wheelchairs, and ramps or mechanical lifts. 
 However, an apology that simply reiterates a company’s guidelines (which
greatly differ from what actually happens, apparently) does not make up for
what happened to Purcell. 
 According to the  2010 census, 18.7 percent of U.S. citizens reported
having some type of disability, whether it be in what the census categorizes
as a communicative, mental, or physical domain – and 12.6 percent stated
they had a severe disability. The census goes on to say that “Roughly 30.6
million individuals aged 15 years and older (12.6 percent) had limitations
associated with ambulatory activities of the lower body including difficulty
walking, climbing stairs, or using a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walker”
– like Purcell. This severely restricts – or even prohibits – people from
traveling. 
 Nearly 600,000 people with disabilities  don’t even leave their houses
because of transportation restrictions. And for those who are able to
travel, they should expect to be able to travel the same way any other
passenger would. But horror stories like Purcell’s will likely make them
even more hesitant. 
 Purcell’s tale also shows that simply having guidelines in place is not
always enough. Despite the fact that American Airlines alleges that
“airlines must promptly provide assistance requested by a customer with a
disability in enplaning and deplaning,” this assistance was by no means
provided when Purcell attempted to board the plane. And although the company
claims its employees must undergo training so they can make appropriate
adjustments when needed, this training was not implemented either. 
 Purcell and Ho requested compensation from the airline, but were told,
“American Airlines will not be issuing any compensation for your client’s
injuries claim.” 
Ho stated that she is seeking between $6 and $8 million for Purcell if this
case goes to trial. 


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Martha
Moore via nfbmi-talk
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 11:18 AM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List; NFB of Indiana Mailing List;
Michigan Association of Blind Students; nfbp-talk at yahoogroups.com; Tyler;
Jeff Sykes; Christy Witte; joanbutts at att.net; Lizzie Kazmierski
Cc: Martha Moore
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Fw: NO RAMP FOR YOU! American Airlines Humiliates
Passenger With Disabilities

 Sharing - how embarrasing!  Martha Moore, MPA, DTMEmbrace Today and be a
Change Agent

      On Monday, June 15, 2015 11:15 AM, Martha Moore <moorema at gvsu.edu>
wrote:
   

 SHARING......

http://www.diversityinc.com/news/no-ramp-for-you-american-airlines-humiliate
s-passenger-with-disabilities-2/


   
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