[nfbwatlk] Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C. activist crawled off his flight. But the humiliation was far from over.

Thu Oct 29 20:15:44 UTC 2015

I agree that I'd rather not put up with navigating among small turboprop
planes without an escort. But usually, I can catch a flight attendant or
passenger on the way out.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Becky
Frankeberger via nfbwatlk
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 1:06 PM
To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
Cc: Becky Frankeberger
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C. activist
crawled off his flight. But the humiliation was far from over.

What passengers? There was no one there but a few airplanes and they weren't
talking. Litterally no human beings anywhere within yelling distance.Some of
the airplanes were running, shiver.  

Becky and faithful Jake
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike
Freeman via nfbwatlk
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 12:51 PM
To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List' <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C. activist
crawled off his flight. But the humiliation was far from over.

Becky:

Did you *ask* other passangers for directions? I think *I* would be *glad*
that Alaska didn't fuss over me!

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Becky
Frankeberger via nfbwatlk
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 12:23 PM
To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
Cc: Becky Frankeberger
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C. activist
crawled off his flight. But the humiliation was far from over.

I am sitting here hurting so badly for this man. We were at Sea Tac and the
gal just left us on the tarmac. She never gave us any directions. I just
said Jake inside. He found the steps and surprised the flight attendant as
no one was supposed to board for another half hour. She made the complaint
herself to Alaskan of how we were just dropped off. I was so frightened and
my imagination just raced. So this man and his plight, ug. No one should
ever treat someone like that. Debby just like how WCB treats Sarah, like she
doesn't belong just because she has other disabilities.

Thanks for sending the article, ug, ug, sy. 

Becky and Jake      

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Debby
Phillips via nfbwatlk
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 10:18 AM
To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Debby Phillips <semisweetdebby at gmail.com>
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C. activist crawled
off his flight. But the humiliation was far from over.

Hi all, I thought this might be of interest to some of you.  I was quite
outraged for this guy.  And the comments were 
ridiculous!     Debby

 ---- Original Message ------
From: "Craig Phillips" <craphi at gmail.com
Subject: Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C.  activist crawled off his
flight.  But the humiliation was far from over.
Date sent: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 07:19:49 -0700

Stranded by airline, a disabled D.C.  activist crawled off his flight.
But the humiliation was far from over.

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/28/str
anded-
by-airline-a-disabled-d-c-activist-crawled-off-his-flight-but-the
-humil
iation-was-far-from-over/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_p3most

By Michael E.  Miller
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/michael-e-miller>  October
28 at
4:34 AM

Photo

D'Arcee Neal in London, where he went to graduate school.  
(Courtesy of
D'Arcee Neal)

D'Arcee Neal dutifully waited for a wheelchair.

He had just flown five hours from San Francisco to his hometown of D.C.
without a bathroom break because his cerebral palsy prevented him from using
the United Airlines toilets.  Then he had waited the usual fifteen minutes
for the plane to empty before someone could help him exit in a special
narrowly built wheelchair.  But the wheelchair never came.

So D'Arcee waited.

And waited.

Until finally, he could wait no longer.  As stunned flight attendants looked
on, 29-year-old Neal fell to the floor and proceeded to drag himself roughly
50 feet to the airplane's door, where his own wheelchair was waiting for
him.

"The craziest thing was that while that was happening, the attendants just
stared.  They just couldn't believe I was doing that.  It just seemed so
unfathomable to them," Neal told The Washington Post.  
"By the
time they came to their senses I was already out of the plane."

By now, you might have heard of D'Arcee Neal.  His horrific Oct.  
20
flight made international news.  "Outrage as man with cerebral palsy was
forced to crawl off plane," ran one headline
<http://www.inquisitr.com/2523210/darcee-neal-outrage-as-man-with
-cereb
ral-palsy-was-forced-to-crawl-off-plane/>  in the U.K.  "Severely disabled
man on plane crawls down aisle," read another
<http://www.examiner.com/article/d-arcee-neal-severely-disabled-m
an-on-
plane-crawls-down-aisle> .  And when United Airlines promptly
issued an
apology and a check, Neal appeared to be on his way to joining the long list
of people who have been abused and then paid by the airline industry.

What you probably haven't heard, however, is what happened
afterwards:
the ignorance, the Internet comments, the wild accusations and the
humiliation of crawling on one's hands in public - relived over and over
online.

"There is a contingent of the Internet thinks that I'm faking or I'm
opportunistic and I just want to get paid," Neal said.  "Somebody even said
that I was doing it to raise the profile of Black Lives Matter, which I was
really offended by."

The first thing you should know about D'Arcee Neal is that his life has been
pretty darn tough.  The D.C.  native is African American, openly gay and
disabled - a triple minority - after all.

"I was born with cerebral palsy," he told The Post in a telephone interview
Tuesday night, recounting how he wasn't allowed to pursue acting in college
because the university theater wasn't wheelchair accessible, and how his
expensive wheelchair was stolen last year
<http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Darcee-Neal-Wheelchair-S
tolen-
in-Logan-Circle-264838691.html>  while he watched after a friend's
apartment.  "I deal with all kinds of craziness that able-bodied people just
have no clue about."

But the second thing you should know about him is that he definitely doesn't
want to be pitied.

"I'm an activist, a storyteller, I perform with The Gay Men's Chorus of
Washington [D.C.].  I perform," he said.  "I just got done doing a
production of 'Little Shop of Horrors' at The Arlington Players as the
plant.  We had a five star review.

"I do things professionally in my life.  And yes I have a cerebral palsy.
And yes I use a wheelchair.  But it doesn't make me any less of a person.
It doesn't make me any less of a citizen.  People around the city are just
like 'oh,' when they see you.  The bar is lowered a little bit.  And that is
infuriating.  I'm almost 30 years old.  I pay my taxes.
And they look at you like, 'I'm just really sorry.  I'm sorry that that is
your life.' Well, I'm sorry you feel like that."

His attitude has propelled him to London for graduate school and into a
career advocating for better treatment of the disabled.

In fact, last week's incident occurred as Neal was returning from a work
trip to San Francisco where, as an employee of United Cerebral Palsy, he met
with Uber executives to discuss improving the "ride-sharing" service for
people with disabilities.

But it was another company that needed his advice, it seems.

Neal's return trip to D.C.  began badly.  Instead of asking him to board
first, as is airline policy, a United gate agent in San Francisco forgot and
seated the rest of the plane, he said.  As a result, it was nearly
impossible for Neal to take his seat, even with the help of the special,
narrow aisle wheelchair.  (His own chair is too wide for the aisles and was
stored during the flight.)

It was disembarkation, however, that would prove disastrous.

His plane touched down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at
around 10 p.m.  on Tuesday, Oct.  10.  First, Neal waited as his fellow
passengers streamed off the aircraft.  Then he waited for a United employee
or contractor to come and help him exit the plane as he had
entered: on the narrow aisle wheelchair.

But as the delay dragged on, and Neal sat on the plane with only a few
flight attendants, his patience began to wear thin.

"When the staff didn't show up, I asked the flight attendant what was
going," he said.  "They were just doing their job, and they told me, 'Just
stay here.  Just wait.  I'm sure he'll be here in a few minutes.'"

After about 35 minutes, Neal asked again if someone was on the way with a
wheelchair, repeating that he really needed to use the restroom in the
airport.  "He asked me why I couldn't use the bathroom on the plane," Neal
told The Post.  "But I can't even get up to the toilet bowl" in the tiny
airplane lavatories.

After about 45 minutes, Neal had had enough.  When the flight attendant told
him his own wheelchair was waiting for him just off the plane, Neal decided
it was time to go it alone.

"Honestly, I expected the flight attendants [to help me] once they saw that
I have a disability, once they knew that I had to use the bathroom," he
said.  "The next words out of their mouths should have
been: 'How can we assist you? What can we do to make that possible?'

"I'm not going to use the airplane bathroom when a perfectly acceptable
[wheelchair accessible] bathroom was 10 feet from the door to the terminal.
If you could just let me off this plane, then I could go to the bathroom the
regular way instead of you trying to cram me into this closet.

"So at that point I got out of my chair and onto the floor and started
crawling up the aisle," he recalled.  "One of the flight attendants turned
around and was like, 'Oh, you can't be serious.'"

He was.

Neal crawled roughly 50 feet on his elbows from his seat in 11 F to the door
of the plane and then onto the jet bridge, where his wheelchair had been
left for him.  Some of the flight attendants were stunned.  One, however,
had the presence of mind to bring Neal's bag and help him up the steep jet
bridge to the terminal.

Neal was angry, but he was also used to it.

"This is the third or fourth time this has happened" with United, he
claimed.  Neal said he had missed several connecting flights because of
similar delays in receiving wheelchair assistance, but he had never resorted
to crawling off the plane - until now.

"I mean, it's humiliating," he told NBC Washington
<http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Man-With-Disabilities-Cr
awls-O
ff-Plane-After-Airline-Fails-to-Assist-Him-336076281.html> .  "No one should
have to do what I did."

Still, he didn't want to make an issue out of it.

"I went to the bathroom and went home," he said.  "I didn't say anything to
anybody.  I wasn't being rude or anything.  I was just tired and frustrated
and it was annoying."

Neal arrived home just before midnight, fell asleep and then headed to work
the next morning as if nothing happened.  When he came home that evening,
however, he got a call from United.

Someone had complained about the incident - but it wasn't Neal.  
It was
one of the flight attendants who felt Neal had been neglected.

Now a United representative was telling him that the airline had "dropped
the ball," the situation was "completely unacceptable" 
and
that the employee responsible had been suspended, according to Neal.

Those claims generally match a statement United sent to CNN
<http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/us/united-airlines-disabled-man/>
on
Tuesday.

"As customers began to exit the aircraft, we made a mistake and told the
agent with the aisle chair that it was no longer needed, and it was removed
from the area," the airline said
<http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/us/united-airlines-disabled-man/> 

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