I am conscious that I follow many others in this thread and do not wish to take their comments out of context.

In the end, it is each person's individual choice whether or not they wish to assist another person, in seat allocation as in all other aspects of life. Each person on the aircraft will have a different set of needs and values, and they will consider the request weighing those needs according to their values. And as each person's values are different, there will always be those whose values we profoundly disagree with.

Speaking personally, I can invisage occasions where I would say no to a seat swap (if it's so two friends can sit together and I have to give up an aisle seat for an economy middle seat and they're not very nice in asking) but I can imagine very many more situations where I would happily swap rows and aisles/windows (even in economy) to assist others who were not happily accommodated. Like many others in this forum who are blessed with being able-bodied, moving for this family would be an instinctive and immediate yes from me (unless I were travelling with a disabled family member myself).

The old saying 'before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes' appears to be most apposite here. I wish that the 'non-swappers' had a greater sense of the difficulties and challenges facing that family - every single aspect of air travel is likely to be more difficult for them. Perhaps until you travel with a disabled family member it is not possible to appreciate their hardships and their courage. If the 'non-swappers' understood this, they would be in a better position to weigh their own needs with those of this family - not all of them would decide to move, but I feel confident that many of them would feel more inclined to sacrifice some of their own comfort if they fully understood the challenges faced by that family.