The Problem with Planes

One issue that garners little, if any, attention in the arena of disability rights is that of accessibility on airplanes for people who depend on wheelchairs to ambulate. Specifically the accessibility of the airplane restroom facilities. While it may not be completely obvious to some, wheelchairs can’t fit on airplanes. Airplanes are much too cramped and space is much too precious a commodity. So, once a wheelchair-user is seated on a flight (the airline brings them aboard first before everybody else) you are pretty much stuck in that seat until the flight is over and everyone has left the plane.

Anyway, if you have the misfortune of needing to use the restroom while on your flight (who could ever imagine that happening?), a paraplegic (or anyone who can’t walk on their own) is forced to use the system the airlines have in place for such occasions. And it is subhuman. They bring up a little back-less stool, euphemistically called an “aisle chair” (it’s NOT a chair) which you must get on and then be ridiculously over-strapped and tied down in. Of course, I can’t propel this stool on my own. So then (keep in mind this is all being done in front of the entire load of passengers on the plane) an airline employee pushes this stool (with me “locked and loaded” in it) to the bathroom, unties me, and I get off the stool and go to the bathroom. Then I get back on and the whole fiasco is repeated.

To me, this is forcing those of us who can’t walk to be treated as second-class citizens. I refuse to EVER fly on an airplane again unless and until major changes are made to the airline industry. As a compentent, autonomous adult who has paid just as much for my ticket as every other passenger, I don’t feel I am demanding too much when I say I should be able to take myself to and from the restroom ON MY OWN. For the longest time, I was absolutely baffled as to why this issue hadn’t sparked more outrage within the disabled community. There simply HAD to be a reason, for this is simply WRONG. But I think I have at least a partial explanation…

Well? Don’t leave us hanging!

What kind of accommodations should the airlines make instead?

Well, ok. I just didn’t want to blather on there without gauging interest in the matter from other members.

It’s because they (most other wheelchair users) simply don’t use the bathrooms on airplanes.

The vast majority of people who use wheelchairs due to spinal-cord injury have also suffered bladder-function/control damage. Thus they rely on some form of catheter-system to empty the bladder (there are a few different types). Now nobody would consider this a “good thing” about life in a wheelchair, chronic urinary-tract infections are a fact of life and other problems as well. However, in the specific circumstance of a flight, having the urine drain into a bag discreetly covered under your clothes is probably preferable to the torturous ordeal those of us who are paralyzed but DON’T catheterize must endure when needing to go.

Because bathroom trips are so rare for para-quadraplegics, most simply haven’t experienced the injustice that such trips entail. Now I’m not saying I am the ONLY one who is completely paralyzed yet does not catheterize, I’m just saying that I am part of a much smaller sub-set of wheelchair users, one not represented by the community as a whole. Of course, this is just theory but it really resonates with me.

Didn’t I make that clear in my OP? They should make it possible to allow me to take myself to and from the restroom.

No, you didn’t. How should they make it possible?

“I don’t feel I am demanding too much when I say I should be able to take myself to and from the restroom ON MY OWN.”
-Well you didn’t read it very well then. And how in the world is it MY responsibility to be the architect of structural airplane renovations? It is MY responsibility to speak for the rights of myself and my disabled peers that aren’t being met and upheld. It is the AIRLINES’ responsibility to figure out how to “make it possible”. I am neither an engineer nor an architect. :eek:

And it doesnt even have to be as radical as complete airplane renovations. Even simply making a device available which is manually-propelled would work. I don’t know if that would be possible without renovations or not but like i said, Im not an airline engineer.

The airlines don’t design the toilets. You’d have to go to the manufacturer. Now, what do you do about the aisles? You can’t make the airplane wider. I won’t go into it here. So you have to remove seats. A typical medium-range airliner has two-and-three (five across) rows. So you’re talking about removing 20% of the seats in order to use a standard-sized wheelchair. Airlines are already losing money, so they’d have to raise ticket prices. So you’ll have to pay at least 20% more to fly.

And you’ll have to pay for a ‘seat’ for your wheelchair, just as fat people often have to buy two seats. Why not just sin in your wheelchair? Because your wheelchair isn’t certified equipment. Every single thing that is part of the aircraft must meet engineering standards. Seats have to be crash worthy and undergo stringent testing. Are you going to buy a certified chair for the times you want to fly?

It comes down to ‘reasonable accommodation’. It’s not reasonable for an airline to remove 20% of its seats in order to accommodate one person on one flight out of a hundred. The accommodations they make are reasonable. Maybe you should use the restroom before you board. Frankly, airplane toilets are disgusting. I haven’t used one since the '80s.

I don’t even know where to begin picking this post apart. First of all, I NEVER said ANYTHING about having a problem with the toilet itself. I don’t know where that came from, but it was all you, not me. Second, I also NEVER said I wanted to be able to bring my wheelchair aboard, again all you. You are making alot of assumptions here. And your lack of empathy could not be more stark. I guess you would never understand the outrage I feel unless YOU were forced to be treated like an invalid yourself.

My guess is that the OP will indeed never fly on an airliner again, because TPTB will determine that it is too expensive to redesign the planes to accommodate wheelchair bound adults.

It’s certainly possible to do so, though it may mean compromising some safety requirements for handicapped passengers. I though about buckling wheelchairs to the floors or side walls like the systems on some city buses. but what about seat belts? I’ve never seen a wheelchair with a seat belt.

Also, at one point the OP claims to be an autonomous passenger who should be allowed to use the facilities without assistance. At another point the OP says he’s “completely paralyzed”. Is there not a contradiction here? What am I missing?

Probably from here. But my roommate was talking to me and I did not focus my full attention on the post. Sorry.

I have been in a position where I could not walk. Fortunately it was not a permanent condition. Not because of that, but I am a very empathetic person. But I have little sympathy or tolerance for people who whine too much about their situations. You come in here and demand that ‘something’ be done. I tried to explain to you why such accommodations would not be feasible. What you’re asking is that every airplane be handicap-accessible. You are demanding that millions of passengers (and you) pay 20% more for their tickets on every flight on the chance that someone will be humiliated by having to be pushed in an aisle chair.

I would not change places with you. You have to deal with your disability. You can either accept the reasonable accommodations that have been made with as much grace as you can muster, or you can choose not to fly. I’m sorry, but I reserve my empathy for people who don’t play the ‘poor me!’ act.

How, if you are completely paralyzed and without your wheelchair, would you be able to go to and from a bathroom on your own ANYWHERE, let alone on an airplane?

Please clarify what your mobility issues are.

There is already an engineered solution. You can purchase them at most any store and has been used by pilots and astronauts successfully on long flights and by adults with medical problems.

I’m sorry, I didn’t elaborate here very much; something along the lines of redesigning the “aisle chair” so that it can be self-propelled in some fashion. Not necessarily like that of a wheelchair, but in a way that I can use it w/out being pushed.

Again, you are a prime example of the ignorance and apathy I deal with everyday. ?!“poor me”?! Give me a break. I am speaking up about a situation that is NOT RIGHT. I hope to God you don’t ever suffer any such hardships. There is only one way to affect change. Get out there and make noise.

?
Are you referring to catheters?

If so. LMAO

So your only issue is that somebody has to push you in the aisle chair and you can’t maneuver it yourself? I don’t really see how that’s the onerous part - it seems to me that the onerous stuff is unavoidable (i.e., the chair must be small, you can’t use your regular wheelchair, etc) because of requirements of the design of aircraft. I mean, it seems to me that it’s actually more onerous to fly for those far more common people who are too grossly obese to fit easily down the aisle of a small plane, and they won’t be accommodated anytime soon.

That and the humiliating procedure one must go through of being “securely” strapped in the aisle chair before being carted off. It’s so over the top it’s almost funny.

You’re going to redesign the entire worlds airline fleet? So you can go to the bathroom on that Houston-NYC hop?

I have absolutely no doubt that this very issue has been discussed and re-discussed quite comprehensively, in this, the most regulated of industries. However, TPTB has apparently determined that, given the physical, political, security, and financial limitations of air flight, this is the best method to get this accomplished.

Instead of discussing this with us, who have no power, perhaps you ought to bring it up to the FAA?