Back in my chair I pushed into the gate area through a wide doorway. There was nothing in front of the door, of course, nothing that would block the flow of a lot of passengers disembarking. Off to the side was a podium, the kind where they check your tickets and documents when you are […]
Once again, and I know this is hard to believe, a fellow passenger attempted to steal my wheelchair from the door of the aircraft. My chair is old, well worn, and easily identifiable as a personal chair. It bares faint resemblance to the airport chairs. But just as I was told that my chair was […]
I couldn’t believe how I was spoken to, any of the three times it happened. First I was directed by an airport staff to wait in a section roped off for disabled people to wait to be pushed to their flights. I am able to push myself to the flight, I didn’t need and hadn’t […]
I was reading an article on line about a new tourist attraction in NYC that I’d like to go to see. As is typical, the reviewer never mentioned any form of accessibility. I know, I know, I know, it wasn’t published on a disability blog, but it was a piece that was meant to inspire […]
We were waiting to take off, sitting in the disabled area near the gate, with another couple. She used a really cool looking scooter and my interest in the fact that she had it at the gate started the conversation. I asked about her experiences with traveling with a scooter and that was it, we […]
I am a gay man. I am a disabled man. I am these things all the time but these things aren’t always forefront in my mind. Further, I don’t often feel both identities rise in me simultaneously. But. It happens. Joe and I were on a plane that had landed and we were waiting until […]
After learning that I would not be able to take the shuttle over to pick up the rental car I had to go back across to the airport sidewalk to wait to be picked up. To do this I would have to push uphill across a busy street, but no worries there was a police […]
I did ask. “Are the buses accessible that take us from the airport to the rental cars?” A beaming smile accompanies the word yes. When people are that happy about accessibility, for an odd reason, I get less trusting. “You know, with a ramp and everything?” Again a big smile and a yes. Okay. We […]
When we landed in Omaha, I was greeted by a young man who was there to assist me in getting from the plane to the luggage area. As you all know I’ve been working do become completely independent in airports and explained to him, once I’d gotten myself to the top of the arrivals ramp […]
In Canada, like the UK and other countries in the Commonwealth, we spell ‘labour’ with a ‘u’ … and today, in particular, I think that’s so appropriate. I was talking to an elderly woman yesterday who was really excited about her Labour Day plans, she will be taken by her aide to a family gathering. […]
