United Airlines mistreats disabled passengers!

[mijan]

Everyone, if you have ANY sense of human decency, any sense of treating people properly, and know that the American Disabilities Act DOES indeed apply to airlines (just like any other business), then READ THIS experience of a young disabled woman who flew with them recently.  Apparently, as far as they're concerned, only old people can be disabled, and they can treat disabled people like shit. 

Read the whole thing.  Top to bottom.  It will infuriate you.  It SHOULD infuriate you! 

And then, re-post this everywhere.  Cross post.  Re-post.  Tweet it.  Post it to Facebook.  Post to Dreamwidth.  Spam your families' e-mail groups.  Make sure nobody you know EVER flies on United Airlines ever again.  I certainly won't.

Every single one of us, young or old, could become disabled at any time.  A traffic accident, a sports injury, a slip and fall, a disabling illness - you never know what will happen tomorrow.  That could be you in that woman's shoes, being treated horribly.  That could be your mother, brother, daughter, best friend.  Stand up for what's right, and make sure that United Airlines knows just how outraged we all are.  Even if they're the cheapest flight, book with someone else.  Send a letter to United Airlines expressing your displeasure.  Let them know what you think of their "policy" about disabled passengers.

Start by re-posting now.

Comments

[rubymiene.livejournal.com]

You know, I am not at all surprised if workplace safety or union rules prohibited flight attendants from lifting bags, though obviously, they could have handled it a lot better in terms of tone and other assistance.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

In the massive debate going on about this on the knitting forum, I just suggested that if that is in fact the case (which does seem reasonable) then perhaps there should be some kind of system in place where someone who IS able to lift the bags (like a baggage handler) can be called up to assist when necessary. (Perhaps you'd need to provide some kind of advanced notice when you check in, so they'd know to have someone spare to do that, whatever.)

Like you said, it's the WAY it's being handled in this (and other cases people are mentioning) that's just astounding.

(To say nothing of the attitude of many people, who keep insisting that it must be possible to carry "only what you need" in a small purse if you can't get something into the overhead compartment. So apparently if you need to carry any kind of medical equipment you're SOL unless you want to trust it to the checked baggage system. HAH.)