[stylist] Flying Blind--for Angela

[James Canaday M.A. N6YR]

bravva Lori!

very well done.  may I share this?

jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 05:34 PM 10/23/2008, you wrote:
>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?
>
>
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