Disability Travel - Physically assisting one's own evacuation?

I'm looking for clarification on the ACAA requirement for passengers "incapable of physically assisting their own evacuation" to travel with a safety assistant. I'm a paraplegic and have flown countless times since my injury. I normally travel with my AB boyfriend or, if alone, on WN, which permits immobile travelers onboard without an attendant. I have an international solo trip coming up, but am uncertain about the safety assistant issue. I have read the federal register notice on ACAA (http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/rules/ACAA%20Final%20Rule%20-%20Fed%20Register.pdf) as well as various publication like the air travel brochure from United Spinal (http://www.unitedspinal.org/pdf/accessible_air_travel.pdf). Nowhere have I seen a clear explanation of the "physically assisting" clause.

Am I correct in assuming that they don't mean "walking off the plane" if they say "assisting"? If they meant that, the language should say that I have to "complete" the evacuation on my own. Am I assisting my evacuation if I sling my arms around someone and squeeze them so hard that their eyeballs pop out (while they carry/drag me off the plane)? That's how I've assisted in getting on gondolas in Venice, speedboats in Tahiti, and many, many airplanes. Is that good enough for the folks at the DOT and the airlines? Any clarification is appreciated!

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Is your primary concern that you may be denied boarding for your upcoming trip based on this sentence in the ACAA, or do you really want to explore how it might theoretically be enforced?

If the former, I'd suggest you not dig into the latter too much. As an independent wheelchair user, I've flown solo, outside of the US, on both mainline US and foreign carriers. None has asked me to produce a safety assistant.

I'd let sleeping dogs lie.

Thank you, Katja! You're on to me, English major primarily worried about denied boarding, but also intrigued by the semantics of the rule. It is bizarre to me that in hours of searching on pertinent sites I have not been able to get a clear answer. One would expect that with the abundance of denied boarding stories this rule would have been clarified by DOT or tested in court. In any case, thanks for the reassurance; I've heard similar stories from disabled friends.

The test cases tend to be higher level injuries (power chair, limited upper extremity function). From a disability rights perspective, these problems need to be understood and explored, but from the perspective of the individual traveler who happens to be lucky enough to be an independent para (or equivalent), they're not really relevant.*

*On most mainline carriers. Watch out for LCCs (ex: Ryanair) and some particularly paternalistic carriers (ex: Quantas).

And I'll add that the reason you haven't found a good explanation of the rule is because it's in general unenforceable. This is one of those areas where the safety concerns of the airline and the rights of individuals come into conflict, and it's extraordinarily hard to define the boundaries. We can all come up with hypothetical examples of people who appear to be able-bodied, but in fact can't effectively evacuate themselves (middle-aged overweight person with COPD attempting to climb down 80 flights of stairs in the WTC) versus people who appear to be disabled but who can in fact transport their own body weight over great obstacles. Add in prejudice and ignorance, and you've got a big mess.

And lastly, if for some bizarre reason you are asked to provide a safety assistant, the usual dodge is to turn to a sympathetic looking fellow passenger and say, "Will you be my safety assistant? I promise you will not actually have to do anything." If that person agrees, the airline is required to go along with it.

And lastly, if for some bizarre reason you are asked to provide a safety assistant, the usual dodge is to turn to a sympathetic looking fellow passenger and say, "Will you be my safety assistant? I promise you will not actually have to do anything." If that person agrees, the airline is required to go along with it.

Lol, I will practice that! Great advice, Katja, thank you & nice to meet you!

Katja,

I appreciate your post on this. I have wondered too, but preferred to "leave sleeping dogs lie". Some day, though, somebody's going to wake up the dogs. Let's hope that's far in the future so that there will be a long(er) record of safe travels to prove that we can travel safely.