[Oabs] airline travels and assistance

Tue Jun 23 20:12:44 UTC 2015

Hi Kaiti and all,
  Firstly I hope  you had a wonderful trip!

  I think airport travel is always a tricky thing and I encourage  one to do what they feel is best for  them in the given situation.
 I think that it is perfectly alright for a person to navigate an airport without assistance if this  is something they feel they want to do.
 If on the other hand one would find it easier or much more  efficient to travel with assistance  then by all means they  should feel comfortable doing so.
 I am a person that doesn’t mind  exploring if I have the time and opportunity to do so.  But if I’m working with a tight connection or an  airport that I don’t want to spend the mental or physical energy to figure out, then I would much rather  request assistance to the gate.
 There are times  when I ask  for assistance to the gate and the person I get will kindly show me to the gate and that’s the end of it. There are other times when the individual who responds to the request will take  me to the gate, and practical check me in and get me to the line to board. Personally I am a big fan of getting what  assistance I need and really nothing more than that, but again to each their own.
   I applaud  you for wanting to write the letter,Kaiti because most people (including myself) get home and are so tired and so over it that they just want to put  any negative  behind them.

 I guess I’ll finish out with a story that just came to mind: I was on my way back from Arizona when the plane  made a scheduled stop in   San Diego. for whatever reason they asked the  passengers to leave the  plane so I decided to hit the restroom.
 I had made it to the restroom and back with no problem or conflict until someone who claimed to be from the police department stopped  me and asked for my identification  and claimed that there were complaints that I had been bumping into people (it was 5  p.m. on a sunday evening in a crowded airport) and that I had apparently gone to the restroom without assistance (didn’t know this was a crime). I did call the police  department to make a complaint  but I  don’t remember it going very far.
 I don’t know if it will happen in our life time when a blind person can check in, go through security, go to their gate, board  the plane  travel and get their luggage afterward and their be about as much  fuss and stress involved in the  activity as our sighted peers have in the same respects, but I sure to hope this becomes a reality sooner than later.

 On          
> On Jun 23, 2015, at 9:53 AM, Brennen Kinch via Oabs <oabs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I know i would prefer a wheel chair depending on the condition i was in but i think its a matter of opinion how a blind person wants to be lead 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Jun 23, 2015, at 10:35 AM, Kaiti Shelton via Oabs <oabs at nfbnet.org <mailto:oabs at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm hoping we can have a little discussion on this topic, as many of
>> us will be traveling by plane to the convention soon and in the
>> future.
>> 
>> There are conflicting views on how one should be independent in an
>> airport.  Some say that you should not take any assistance and should
>> do all the way-finding on your own.  For me, my take on it is that I
>> am most independent by realizing that certain situations are better
>> handled with assistance, including airports.  I'd much rather get to
>> my gate quickly and efficiently rather than waste time trying to find
>> the right concourse myself, and then have to scramble to make my
>> flight.  This was also true in the case when I had a 3 hour layover in
>> Charleston on Sunday and wanted to be shown other locations in the
>> airport so I could buy myself lunch and freshen up in the women's room
>> (I had been traveling since 3:30 our time that morning and had things
>> like a change of clothes and my toothbrush in my carry on).  I don't
>> abuse these things; for example, once the skycap showed me where the
>> restroom was I was able to make it back to my gate area without
>> assistance by retracing my steps.  I could have wasted so much time
>> stopping other hurried passengers to find these things (which I feel
>> isn't really my place anyway as now you're impacting someone who's job
>> isn't to help you find things), but instead I got lunch and took care
>> of what I wanted to in under 15 minutes.
>> 
>> Another aspect of airports is the wheelchairs.  The first time I flew
>> Delta to the 2013 convention I was never greeted with a wheelchair.
>> This time I got one at almost every stop, ironically except for in
>> Jamaica where their blind are either cared for by family or are
>> institutionalized most of the time.  United was good about letting me
>> refuse the wheelchair without much fuss, and so was American airlines.
>> US Air, a part of American, wasn't as good.  They were by far the most
>> clueless when I called to set up guide services in advance.  United
>> and American Airlines both specifically had options for guide only
>> services for visually impaired travelers.  US Air didn't seem to know
>> what I was talking about and then the lady started scheduling a
>> wheelchair because that was apparently the only service she knew of.
>> She said I could refuse to take the chair, though, but then found
>> guide services on the next screen.  When I landed in Cincinnati a
>> wheelchair was there.  I was told by the skycap that was there that I
>> had to take the wheelchair.  I started refusing like I usually do, but
>> it wasn't working.  I insisted that there was nothing wrong with my
>> legs, but he said he wasn't allowed to escort anyone unless they were
>> in the wheelchair.  I don't believe he was trying to con me, and he
>> did appologize for it later, but it seems ridiculous that the airline
>> would specifically employ people to escort only people in wheelchairs.
>> I even asked if he could do what other airlines did and just leave the
>> wheelchair at the end of the jetway, but he repeated he wasn't allowed
>> to do that. Because I had been traveling for 14 hours by that time I
>> didn't fight him further on it.  I took the chair (which made me feel
>> sorry for wheelchair users as it was not comfortable at all), and let
>> him push me to baggage claim.  He did end up leaving the wheelchair in
>> baggage claim and just escorting me like I wanted him to from there,
>> partially because there was no way he could have wheeled the chair and
>> hauled my suitcase at the same time and my hands were already full
>> with my guitar I had to bring on the trip.
>> 
>> What do you all think I should do?  I was thinking of somehow writing
>> a letter or trying to speak to someone who handles these things for US
>> Air about this.  I was not given the assistance I requested and
>> frankly, they kind of placed their employee in the middle.  Had I not
>> been so jetlagged and had a ride waiting for me already I would have
>> put up more of a hard stance against the wheelchair.  I'm also going
>> to be sending a letter of some sorts to the Charleston airport because
>> their security personelle did not know how to work with me through
>> TSA.  The woman who scanned me crossed her arms like an X and tried to
>> grab both of my hands, almost as if she were creating a support for me
>> to lean on or something.  I then got a pat down from the knee below
>> for some strange reason, which my parents hypothesize was out of a
>> thought that because I'm blind I'm a target for someone else to
>> reverse-pickpocket and place something on my person.  I know
>> pickpockets are good at what they do, but I can't imagine they would
>> have been able to successfully slide something up my capri pants legs
>> or into my tied tennis shoes without me noticing.  The pat down was
>> also after I had already been through the metal detector, so I can't
>> imagine why they would only check below the knee even if it were a
>> random search.  I will say the skycaps at Charleston were very good at
>> letting me just follow them or use sighted guide when we were in
>> crowded areas, ut I've never seen that in TSA before.  I know I
>> probably looked tired, but I doubt I looked unstable on my feet or
>> anything to prompt such a misguided approach to working with a blind
>> person.  What do you think?
>> -- 
>> Kaiti Shelton
>> University of Dayton 2016.
>> Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
>> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
>> Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma
>> 
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