FEMW

To the OP - I was aghast reading what you had to go through. Whilst I do not suffer from IBD my mother with Alzheimers does and there's been a few coffee shop incidents I've had to clean her up. I can relate to the distress you went through. The sunflower lanyard will make me more aware of those who may have hidden disabilities. Whilst you should never have had the indignity of travelling as you did, I am glad it eventually had a positive outcome.



I find that offensive. I am profoundly deaf as opposed to Deaf (which is the community you refer to). I live in a hearing world. I do not live in a community of solely Deaf people who shun the hearing world and who dont consider themselves to have a disability. I have perfect speech and wear high-powered hearing aids. It is noted on my frequent flyer profile but since I tend to fly with my partner I tend to state that I dont need assistance as such but it should be noted on the CC flight details. I do need assistance on-board as most CC seem to talk away from me instead of looking at me. My biggest bugbear is the in-flight announcements as I have no idea what is being said. The announcement can go on and on without a break so my partner doesnt get any time to relay the message. it is good to see that BA are now investing in accessibility staff and BSL videos. But they need to remember that not all deaf people use BSL (I dont because I have speech - I'm a lipreader and reliant on subtitles) - why dont they ensure that all IFE come equipped with closed captions. BA's answer is that they have headphones that can be used with the T setting. They were better in the days of the analogue hearing aids and now the digital aids just dont have the same compatibility. (Only putting this in in the hope that someone from BA Accessibility is reading it!)

The worst thing about being profoundly deaf is the isolation as someone has pointed out - they are often ignored.