[stylist] Flying Blind--for Angela

[LoriStay at aol.com]

Flying (blind) can be hazardous to your health
Merrick Life, November 13, 1986
Loraine Stayer

Having just come back from a convention of the National Federation of the 
Blind of New York State, I feel eminently qualified to make the statement in my 
title.   Every time I board a plane (proabaly an average of four times a year), 
my back goes up, and my stomach knots in tension.   but the cause of this 
isn't fear of flying.   I've been up and down too often to worry about that, 
though I admit to a prayer or two before take-off.   No.   The reason for my 
anxiety is that my husband is blind, and the airlines have, of late, been writing 
and enforcing whimsical policies regarding blind passengers.

Today we were told we might not sit in an exit row (in the name of "safety"), 
and were placed one row in front of the smoking section despite my complaint 
of being sensitive to tobacco smoke.   One of our friends, a young woman with 
a guide dog, was shifted out of seat 5A on the grounds that "the two seat 
section wasn't wide enough for the dog."   She was put into seat 1E, and then told 
she might not sit there, because it was the bulkhead exit row, and the dog 
lying on the floor would blocke passengers in case of an emergency.   I invited 
her to sit with me, and was told that, since I was in a two-seat section, that 
wasn't allowed.   The other passengers in her new row (7E) traded with me.   
It got me away from the smoking section, for which I was grateful, but it 
inconvenienced a number of other passengers, and insured that I couldn't sit near 
my family.   I challenged the "rule," and the flight attendant assured me 
solemnly that the piolt's manual said it was so.   This, despite the fact my friend
 had flown up to the convention on the same plane seated in the two seat 
section, row 1, seat A!   No one had moved her then, and teh presence of her guide 
dog insured that she would be the first one out of the exit in the event of 
an emergency.

Midway through the flight, the same flight attendant told my friend she would 
have to wait till everyone else left the plane before she got off.   My 
friend told me later she had no intention of waiting, and that she could get off as 
quickly as anyone else, havening had a multitude of experiences.   I assured 
her that once we had landed, she could do as she pleased, and no one would 
bother her, and it proved to be so.

Twice in my flying experience I have her blind persons referred to as "the 
blinds."   It is a piece of particularly appalling airline jargon.   I can only 
conclude they think of blind persons as pieces of furniture to be moved around 
as they please, with about as much feeling as said furniture.

Other members of NFB have related that they were told they could not sit in 
aisle seats.   Some were told on their return trips that they could not sit in 
window seats.   Often we hear that blind persons can't sit in exit rows over 
the wings, but must sit in the bulkhead-row exit seats.   Or conversely, that 
they may not sit in the bulkhead seats.   Or they are told they may not sit in 
the row in front of an exit row, or the row behind.   Federal regulations are 
quoted as the reason, though FAA representatives at our National Convention 
have assured us there are no such federal regulations.

Airline personnel get extremely nervous when a blind person with a cane or a 
dog appears, though they welcome blind persons who consent to the indignity of 
riding in a wheelchair, or who allow themselves to be shifted from seat to 
seat in a neverending game of musical chairs.   If two or more blind persons 
ride the same flight, the flight attendants often go into a fearful tizzy.   They 
begin talking about safety, though there are no real studies to show that 
blind prsons have ever caused or even been involved in airplane accidents, or 
that it takes blind persons longer to get out of a plane than anyone else.   (It 
doesn't.   It takes just as long for sighted people to leave, owing to the 
narroness of the aisles and the multitude of carry-on luggage).

Obviously, the issue here is a power struggle, and a case of discrimination 
against one class of people.   This is plainly illegal, and blind people often 
must go to jail to prove it.

The questions in my mind as I prepare for my next airplane flight are these:  
 If there is only the exit row left, will I be excluded from the flight 
because my husband is blind?   Will I actually get to my distination, or will I 
wind up in a police station because my husband was arrested for sitting in his 
assigned exit row seat, and refusing to be moved around like a piece of baggage? 
  If he may not sit in a two-seat section, does that mean we can't ride in a 
plane that has no three-seat section?   If he can't sit in the aisle seat, and 
he can't sit in the window seat, and he can't sit in the front row or the 
wing, what is really left for us but to take the train?


**************
Play online 
games for FREE at Games.com! All of your favorites, no registration required 
and great graphics – check it out! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1211202682x1200689022/aol?redir=
http://www.games.com?ncid=emlcntusgame00000001)