I travel very often for work and as a person who uses a wheelchair it can be quite challenging. I race through airports on connecting flights and do my best to get to the gate to pre-board the flight. What irks me to no end is when they know that I have a connecting flight and then I have to wait for the airport staff who need to go and get an aisle chair to board me on the plane. There needs to be more of this staff available at airports. Rarely have I ever had an airline HOLD a flight that I was connecting to if my plane was delayed or if I was delayed because they did not have the aisle chair waiting on me when the plane reached the jetway. I have had my wheelchair broken by airline staff who try to put it back together when they must disassemble it to fit it in the plane instead of waiting for me to assist them in making sure my wheelchair is put back together properly.

I won't even begin to talk about the staff that has the responsibility to get me onto the aisle chair and then off of the aircraft. Sometimes I wonder if they've ever done that before. One such person got upset when I cursed rather loudly while he allowed my leg to be twisted like a pretzel to get me off the aircraft. I explained that had he been paying attention he would have seen that my leg was about to be ripped from my body due to his incompetence. I recently had the pleasure to be involved with the Ms. Wheelchair American Pageant and she came to our local airport and gave a talk to the airport staff about traveling for people with disabilities and how they could better serve the disabled public. Since that time I have gone through the local airport several times and I have noticed that not only are the airport staff friendlier but they now listen much closer and ask me the best way to assist me instead of assuming that they know how already.

I recently was up for a promotion, which would have involved some international travel, and not knowing what other countries are like in accommodating people with disabilities I had to mention that this was one of my concerns. I didn't want to get to a foreign city and not be able to enter the building or not be able to travel to a foreign country because they do not afford people with disabilities the same services we do here in the US. I was not offered the promotion of course. I just felt it was my responsibility to alert my employer to some potential issues that might happen since they had never dealt with a person with a disability before me and I was unaware of what traveling overseas was like.

I appreciate that there is a forum for me to talk with other travelers with disabilities and get advice and share ideas.