In 2020, a man in a wheelchair handed his ID to an official at a security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport. Paul Henness/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
In 2020, a man in a wheelchair handed his ID to a staff member at a security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport.
Anxiety, fear, humiliation-even potential harm. For many people with disabilities, these are part of air travel, from arriving at the airport gate to getting on and off the plane.
In 2018, Congress asked the airlines and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to provide a better flying experience for people with disabilities-but three years later, NPR found that passengers reported that the same problems continued to occur.
During a trip last year, a TSA agent told the blind Heather Leiterman to take off her guide dog-the harness, collar and collar of a black Labrador named Kirsty. belt. She explained to the agent that by doing so, she would lose control of the animals.
"This is how they know they are working. When the seat belt is open, they are working. When the seat belt is closed, they are just a dog."
But the agent insisted-even though TSA's own procedures say that these items "do not need to be removed" for screening. "He is very hostile," Letterman said, threatening not to let her board the plane if she disobeyed.
Heather Letterman takes her guide dog for a walk. When she was at the airport, an agent of the Transportation Security Administration insisted that she remove the dog’s leash, seat belt and collar, although this meant she would lose control of the service animal. Brennan Crawford hide caption
Heather Letterman takes her guide dog for a walk. When she was at the airport, an agent of the Transportation Security Administration insisted that she remove the dog’s leash, seat belt and collar, although this meant she would lose control of the service animal.
She said that when she called the TSA customer service hotline the next day, the officer who answered the phone refused to accept her complaint. "He said,'If the police officer tells you that you need to take this off your dog, you need to take it off your dog.'"
"Walking into the airport, I felt a sense of anxiety enveloping me," said college student Nathaniel Ross. "Not for my flight or to find my boarding gate, but for the inevitable interaction between me and TSA, which will make me feel inhumane and criminal because of my disability."
Rose explained that he had "some physical disabilities" that required him to implant medical equipment, including a feeding tube in his stomach and an intravenous tube inserted under the chest wall.
Rose said that the equipment he carries with him often confuses medicine with intravenous fluids. In 2019, the 18-year-old traveled to and from a children's hospital in Arizona and Ohio several times for treatment. He said that these liquid bags need to be kept sterile in a special container with ice packs and X-rayed at a controlled temperature, opened and inspected for a long time.
Then, instead of putting each bag back in the cooling bag, the agent on a trip excluded them. Rose said that when he and his mother asked the agent to put them back, she refused, "We were scolded. ," Rose said.
Subsequently, Rose was "slapped with two holes in my chest and abdomen" in front of the other passengers. Then, privately, he gave a second, more invasive and "humiliating" pat on "all areas" of his body.
His story and Heather Letterman's experience are just two of the more than 225 responses to social media appeals NPR has received. We asked people with disabilities to share their experiences at the airport; almost everyone responded with horror stories. These include: wheelchairs damaged in transit, airport escorts who never show up, children with autism separated from their parents at the security checkpoint, and pats that feel like sexual assault.
In the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act, Congress required airlines and TSA to address such air travel issues, and required more training, better and faster services, and better care of wheelchairs and other equipment.
The bill requires TSA to increase training on how to deal with the different needs of passengers with disabilities. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four American adults has a disability, and comprehensive and repeated training is required to understand various disabilities.
TSA extended all training for newly hired TSA agents from two weeks to three weeks. According to a TSA official, this includes 5 1/2 hours of guidance on screening people with disabilities and medical conditions. Then, at work, the agent and the supervisor discuss how to deal with specific situations, including handling disability issues.
Despite this, most of the complaints NPR hears from passengers are the result of agents not receiving training.
When Michelle Haag flew out of the Montana airport in June, she said that the agents were confused by what was shown in her body scan. "This is my colostomy bag and urostomy bag," she explained. "I have cancer." The TSA agent pulled her aside and patted her in front of the other passengers, which made her cry and feel humiliated.
Juniper Zayente, a college student with diabetes, was ordered to remove the pump that delivered a steady flow of insulin into her body and pass it through an X-ray machine—though she told them that radiation could damage expensive equipment. The agent complained: "She said I look too young to use an insulin pump."
One obstacle to better training is the high turnover rate of TSA agents. According to officials from the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing them, they complain about low wages and less workplace protection than other federal agents.
The main focus of the agents is to ensure air safety. There are stories about smugglers hiding drugs in wheelchairs.
"The work of our frontline officials is very difficult," said Jose Bonilla, executive director of TSA's Traveler Engagement Department. Protecting "personal safety" is the number one priority, but he pointed out that there is a growing demand for agents to create a "culture of dignity and respect." This is something we have been working hard to promote.
Congress also hopes to collect more data to show how to treat travelers with disabilities. A key metric: Congress requires the TSA to calculate the time it takes for passengers with disabilities to get help through the screening process.
But three years later, TSA failed to comply with this part of the law.
Bonilla told NPR that the agency cannot perform such statistics because it has not yet found a way to find all disabled passengers—because many disabled passengers are invisible. But this should not prevent agents from calculating how long it will take for people who are in a wheelchair or who have a significant disability to seek help.
TSA does measure the growing popularity of its TSA Cares program. People can call ahead and be picked up by well-trained airport staff, who will escort the disabled through security. There were 14,674 requests for assistance in the first year of the program (FY2015) and 27,711 requests in 2019.
Some people, such as Jeff Stanford, said that TSA Cares allowed his family to travel, especially recently to Disney World with his young disabled son, "very smoothly."
But as the use of this procedure increases, others question whether the TSA can keep up, especially at larger airports. Erin Mestas said she spent nearly two hours on the phone making an appointment, but when she and her 6-year-old daughter with Down syndrome arrived at Denver Airport in July, no one met them.
According to TSA, people with autism have the largest number of requests-they find the noise and chaos at the airport difficult to deal with.
Sarah Maxfield said that for her autistic son, going through airport security "is like a terrible challenge for him." TSA agent, his stranger, Yelled, urged him, took his things from him for examination, and separated him from his family. She said that TSA agents "are not completely calm, kind, gentle or patient."
Airplane passengers lined up for TSA security screening at Denver International Airport. Robert Alexander/Getty Images hide caption
Airplane passengers lined up for TSA security screening at Denver International Airport.
There is one exception: an agent took the time to learn a child’s "superhero name"—he prefers to call it—"This makes a huge difference."
Sandra Zeigler, an autistic adult, explained that delays in her audio processing slowed her response to verbal instructions from TSA agents. At the airport, she was repeatedly "yelled" and "scolded in an embarrassing manner" by agents, and she believed that she was sometimes pulled out for additional baggage inspection because of this.
Now, she wears a T-shirt to show the agents that she has autism. "Autism and pride" said. The other says "Autism and Vaccinations" in bold, and then "It doesn't matter" underneath.
"Sadly, under pressure and overwhelming situations, we have to'go out' to get that kind of understanding," Ziegler said.
Congress also ordered airlines to begin measuring one of the most common problems-how often wheelchairs or electric scooters are lost, damaged or destroyed during transportation. The idea is that public accounting will put pressure on airlines to start doing better.
During the pandemic, the number of people dropped as the number of people flying decreased, but now they are rising. In July and August of the past two months, about 26 wheelchairs and scooters were lost, damaged or destroyed every day—about the same as the monthly figures for 2019.
"They don't understand that when they damage our chairs, they are basically stealing our car," said Dan Formento, an Army veteran from Florida. "They took our legs away from us."
Losing a wheelchair can even be dangerous. People close to Engracia Figueroa linked her death to a series of events that occurred after her wheelchair was damaged.
In July, she flew back to California from Washington, DC, where disability activists spoke at a rally to promote the expansion of home care services. For patients with spinal cord injuries like Figueroa, wheelchairs have customized special seats and other functions to help prevent skin ulcers, which can grow quickly and painfully and become infected. Figueroa spent several weeks without a wheelchair because she and the airline clashed over whether United was responsible for simply repairing the $30,000 chair or replacing it — and finally agreed to do so.
According to the records of doctors reviewed by NPR, a few weeks after being "forced to sit on a borrowed chair" without proper cushioning, the previously "well-healing" bedsore reappeared. The organization advocating domestic workers "hand in hand" announced that Figueroa died on October 31 after being hospitalized for multiple wounds.
"We are sad to hear that Ms. Figueroa has passed away," a United Airlines spokesperson said. "We express our condolences to her friends and family."
Many people with disabilities tell us that for them, air travel requires different strategies and more plans. For people who use wheelchairs like Charles Brown, this includes calling the airline and TSA in advance for help.
For Charles Brown, president of the Paralyzed Veterans Association of America, flying can be difficult or even dangerous. His wheelchair was smashed, and once, an airline employee lifted him from the wheelchair. He fractured his tailbone and was hospitalized for three months. Paralyzed U.S. veterans hide caption
For Charles Brown, president of the Paralyzed Veterans Association of America, flying can be difficult or even dangerous. His wheelchair was smashed, and once, an airline employee lifted him from the wheelchair. He fractured his tailbone and was hospitalized for three months.
Wheelchairs are not suitable for most airplanes or jet bathrooms, so Brown, the president of the Paralyzed Veterans Association of America, fasts and does not drink alcohol before the flight.
He does not fly direct long-distance flights. He will arrange a stopover in another city so that he can use the airport toilet. He also made sure that he had a long stopover time in order to have enough time: let his wheelchair be taken out of the luggage compartment of the plane, let him get help to be transferred to a chair, and finally, let him have enough time to check it Will be used for the next part of his flight journey.
Because the jet’s aisles are so narrow, people like Brown need the help of airline employees or contractors to lift them from their wheelchairs to small chairs that can cross the plane.
In 2019, during a trip from his home in Florida to California, the man carrying Brown threw him onto a jet plane bridge.
"I'm a Marine. I'm very stubborn," Brown said. "I will do my best to take care of things." But when he got out of the car at the stopover in Dallas, he noticed the blood.
A few days later, in the pain of a fall, he went to a medical center in Virginia. The doctor diagnosed a fractured tailbone, and to make matters worse, the wound was infected. He stayed in the hospital for three months. There is surgery. He said he almost died.
But under the law, Brown cannot sue the airline. He can only complain. After being discharged from the hospital, he tried. But he said the airline told him that he waited too long to submit the documents.
For people with disabilities, air travel is governed by old—what people like Brown call—outdated laws. In 1986, US President Ronald Reagan signed the Air Carrier Access Act.
In March, members of Congress proposed the 2021 Air Carrier Access Amendment, which will strengthen federal actions against airlines that violate the rights of disabled passengers and give these passengers the right to sue. It also needs to redesign the aircraft to include safer wheelchair storage and provide better aircraft access.
"When you think about air travel, it's still 1986," said Heather Ansley, a paralyzed veteran, deputy executive director of government relations. "We haven't really made any progress in accommodating people with disabilities."
Other forms of transit are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed four years after the enactment of laws regulating air travel. Ansley said that greater progress has been made in using other modes of travel, such as buses. The ADA requested that they be redesigned to include wheelchair lifts.
But on the plane, Ainsley said, “There is no place to take your wheelchair.” A study by the National Academy of Sciences in September showed that most planes can be redesigned so that people can sit in their own wheelchairs. Avoid the danger of being lifted in and out. The Department of Transportation is developing a rule that may require larger toilets on many aircraft.
When celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Air Carrier Access Act in October, Transport Minister Pete Buttigieg stated that “ethical and financial needs” made flying more popular for passengers with disabilities.
However, there is still much work to be done to make flying more dignified.
“Disabled people are treated inhumanely at all times,” said attorney Catherine McFarlane. She complained of “rough pats.” TSA agents tried to open medicines that needed to be shut down and disinfected and were forced to represent them for a long time. This is difficult for her to do because she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. "I am afraid of my next flight. I am a lawyer and law professor. He does teach and write articles on disability law, but he hasn't figured out how to pass the TSA and fly safely."