From
The Local:
A group of 22 holiday makers with hearing difficulties who were prevented from boarding an Air Méditerranée flight for "security reasons" will have their case reviewed by the state authority for defending human rights. ...
"In the procedures of Air Méditerranée, the hearing-impaired are considered persons of reduced mobility," said a spokeswoman [for the airline], adding that in such a case the airline would normally assign a member of cabin crew for every five people.
From the European Commission Regulation No
1107/2006:
"Disabled person" or "person with reduced mobility": any person whose mobility when using transport is reduced due to any physical disability (sensory or locomotor, permanent or temporary), intellectual disability or impairment, or any other cause of disability, or age, and whose situation needs appropriate attention and the adaptation to his or her particular needs of the service made available to all passengers.
At issue is whether deaf people have impaired mobility due to an auditory deficit. Commentary on the subject has likened deaf people in this regard to hearing passengers who don't speak English or French and would be as dependent on visual cues from the cabin crew for assistance in an emergency.
Air Méditerranée can be contacted at:
25 rue du Luxembourg
31410 Le Fauga FRANCE
+33 534 48 20 00
I certainly will be writing them a letter.