What to Do When an Airline Loses Your Wheelchair

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New Mobility’s latest issue includes an article with advice on what to do when your wheelchair is lost by an airline:

  1. ­­­If you have a collapsible manual chair, request your chair be kept in the cabin of the plane — they cannot tell you no if the plane holds 100 passengers or more.
  2. File a complaint with the DOT and the airline if anything happens to your assistive device.
  3. Request to speak with the certified accessibility officer at the airport you’re at, as well as their direct supervisor.
  4. Document everything, especially as it’s happening. And request continued phone calls with the accessibility officer throughout the process. They will try to pass you off to multiple third party vendors but staying in direct contact with the airline is most important.
  5. Follow up. The airline will try to write you off by providing you with a refund, but remember they’re concerned about lawsuits and bad PR. Staying on them and demanding better from the American Association of Airport Executives could lead to meaningful change.

Read the rest on the New Mobility website.

Georgian makes history as the first black woman with a disability to receive a pilots license

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled gripe session to bring you some rare good news. Leslie Irby of Atlanta earned her official sport pilots license after successfully completing her first solo flight through Able Flight, an organization that strives to help people with disabilities get to the cockpit. This makes Irby the first black woman with a disability to get a pilots license, according to the website Because of Them We Can. Read more about Irby’s journey there!

Leslie Irby, the first black woman with a disability to get her pilots license, sits next to a small aircraft in her wheelchair.

Mum and disabled daughter abandoned at Stansted Airport

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A mum has revealed the ‘distressing’ ordeal she suffered at Stansted Airport after being forced to sit her four-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy on the tarmac due to the lack of disability assistance from airport staff.

It comes as a study by the Data Investigations Unit at the Oxford Mail’s parent company Newsquest found more than 700 people with disabilities or reduced mobility were left stranded at airports across the UK between 2015 and 2018 due to errors and failures with assistance services.

Staff shortages, connection times, gate changes and system errors were blamed for passengers being forgotten, stranded and missing flights, despite booking assistance.

Read the rest in The Herald.

Perth deafblind woman refused boarding Jetstar flight says airline discriminated against her

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As airline horror stories go, Vanessa Vlajkovic has a more devastating one than most: being refused boarding a flight because she was travelling alone.

The 21-year-old journalism student had booked a flight from Perth to Adelaide on Thursday evening for a short holiday.

It was meant to be her first unaccompanied flight as Ms Vlajkovic, who is deafblind, usually travels with a support person.

“I called [Jetstar] twice and had a discussion with some staff to make sure that they knew I had a disability, to make sure that they knew I had special needs,” Ms Vlajkovic told the ABC through an interpreter.

“What they said at the time was ‘Yeah, all good, that’s fine’.”

Read the rest on ABC.net.au

‘Wheelchair rule’ aims to foster friendlier skies for travelers with disabilities

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Stakeholders, including the airline trade group Airlines for America (A4A), are trying to find ways to transport wheelchairs more safely. “There is an ongoing effort by A4A and our member airlines, together with disability groups and wheelchair manufacturers, to address the most efficient and safe handling and storage guidelines to reduce the number of wheelchairs damaged in air travel,” A4A spokeswoman Alison McAfee said via email.

They are working on a checklist for dimensional, performance and instructional information for assistive technologies; procedures and training for how to handle them; and labeling and design specifications to help manufacturers create devices that are better suited for air travel. McAfee said the organization aims to have the checklist completed by the end of 2019.

Read the full “Wheelchair Rule” story on The Washington Post.