Originally Posted by
DeafFlyer
If you encounter this, what happens when you insist that you really are disabled? I've been using a chair since age 30, which isn't that young, but still young enough to get people to think I don't look "handicapped". I haven't had anything happen with TSA, but they do ask me if I can get up, or if I can remove my shoes. Since I can do neither, I do have to insist sometimes that I really can't do those things.
I find that most TSA agents are incredibly poorly trained when dealing with people with disabilities. I'm a paraplegic traveling with my own chair, my legs have atrophied to the size of most people's forearms, and still, most of the time I encounter TSA, they will remark clever things like "uh, I'm supposed to push you, but your chair doesn't have handles" or bark things like "I need you to stand up." Once I tell them that I can't, they often get marginally friendlier, and will phrase requests more cautiously ("can you push up/lean forward/etc"). The shoes policy varies from airport-to-airport and day-to-day, but generally if I impress upon them how much of a production it is to get my shoes back on they will let me keep them on. I can't begin to imagine how badly they treat disabled people who don't look disabled enough (per the agent's opinion).
Also be prepared to get shoved out of the way by the elderly
who think you're encroaching on their "turf"
Ya, what's up with that? I have been getting angry looks from old people ever since I've been in a chair. It's not just when parking in "their" handicapped spots (I've gotten yelled at several times from people who were elderly but practically able-bodied), but also angry looks when rolling around in public. What gives?