United Airlines Clueless About Disability – That Needs to Change - Yesterday

Some readers of this blog know that my wife, Deborah, has a severe hearing impairment – both ears. Deborah wears state-of-the-art hearing aids that are only somewhat helpful.

Unless you speak to her head-on, and then fairly slowly and clearly, the chances of her understanding what you are saying the first time around are negligible. Forget trying to be understood by yelling something from the next room.

My wife handles her disability with an extraordinary graciousness and patience, although that’s not to say she doesn’t often get frustrated and even angry at her hearing-befuddled state.

Deb’s one wish for the afterlife is that she will finally be able to hear like the rest of us--I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Travelling with a severe hearing impairment is obviously a challenge.

I have always encouraged my wife, when booking an air ticket on-line, to specify in the box provided that yes, she does have a disability, that she’s deaf, and yes, she does need assistance at the airport. (Most of us have trouble understanding airport and airline announcements, you can imagine that for her it’s a nonstarter).

So, enter United Airlines.

Last week my wife turned up at the United counter in Norfolk, Virginia, to check in for her flight.

United Airlines employee: Says here you have a disability. Do you need assistance?

Deb: Yes, I’m deaf.

Puzzled silence.

United Airlines employee (somewhat sullenly): Do you need assistance?

Deb: Yes, I have a severe hearing impairment.

United Airlines employee (now a little irritated): Do you need assistance?

Deb (sighing): Yes, it’s very difficult for me to hear anything. . .

United Airlines employee (obviously ready to move on): Do you need a wheelchair?

Enough said.

My cynical answer would have been “Yes, I most certainly do need a wheelchair, the hearing in both my ankles is not what it used to be.”

If this is the level of disability awareness in the corporate world, we have so much work to do that I don’t know where to begin.

Perhaps I could begin by reminding United that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities, and that being close to completely deaf certainly makes Deb a person with a disability.

Earth to United: Here’s what your employee should have said:

“Ok, it says here that you’re deaf. What can we do to help you? How about you stay as close to the counter as possible, and whenever there’s an announcement, either come over to me, or I’ll come to you, and tell you what we said.”

Nah, too complicated.

Much easier to offer the wheelchair.

 

End Discrimination Against People with Down Syndrome - Now

I really don’t care what new Republican Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s political views are.

But here’s what I do care very much about: She refused to discriminate against her unborn child when the Down Syndrome diagnosis came in.

As a society, we prattle on and on about equality, diversity, and "access.” The notion of inclusiveness-everything rules the day. Well, almost everything - as long as we’re not talking about people with an extra chromosome.

The evidence is irrefutable that those with Down Syndrome have been deliberately left out. When Down Syndrome is thrown into the equation, suddenly our high-mindedness sags. Inexcusably, I think.

For years advocates fought to have people with Down Syndrome brought from the shadows of institutionalization to their rightful place in our communities and lives.

Lately, though, there are fewer and fewer of them around.

Why? Because the vast majority of in-utero Down Syndrome diagnoses result in abortion. The numbers don’t lie: When it comes to people with Down Syndrome, they’re considered defective.

The message is clear - we’d rather just not have them around.

Good for Palin for standing up to the pressure from the medical community, which almost always recommends termination of the pregnancy.

Good for Palin for making the statement that needs to be made much more often:

Genetic discrimination against people with Down Syndrome must stop.

Now. No excuses.

Vera Just Needs a Ramp - Nothing Fancy

Late last week the Washington Post ran a story about the plight of people with disabilities in Russia.

Here’s the context:

Vera Samykina is an A student in all subjects who just completed ninth grade, a significant marker in Russian education . . . Samykina, 17, is determined to finish high school in two years and then pursue a university degree in English. She has never been inside a regular classroom, however. Most of her education occurs in her cramped Moscow apartment. Samykina has cerebral palsy, and until she was 15, tutors came to her house three times a week for a couple of hours to instruct her in her various subjects. For the past two years, she has been taught over the Internet by specialists in each subject.

Unfortunately, I’ve read these stories hundreds of times. Someone with a disability who has to fight hefty odds just to do things that the rest of us take for granted.

And the problems for people with disabilities, even in such a relatively developed country like Russia, are still quite elementary: lack of access, exclusion from school, treated differently because of their disability, etc.

The piece explains that even simple access issues are ignored, such as wheelchair ramps. Vera’s family has to physically drag her wheel chair up the 3 flights of stairs to their apartment. They have been unsuccessful in getting authorities to build a simple ramp.

Makes me want to grab a few 2 by 4s, saw, hammer, and nails, and head over to Moscow and take care of business.

Perhaps it’s time for a disability organization equivalent of Habitat for Humanity, building access and physically supportive structures for people with disabilities.

Offers, anyone?