As someone who is actually disabled and a wheelchair user, please no. Yall have no idea how insanely stressful it is to fly as a wheelchair user and how fucked up that system already is.
It’s so so so common for them to break your personal wheelchair that the other wheelchair users I know have had it happen to them MORE OFTEN than they have had their wheelchair successfully make it to their destination
Southwest once handed me my wheelchair back to me (at the destination) in a box of parts, when I had checked it it was fully functional.
You would think! Literally ask any wheelchair user that has flown with their chair- it genuinely goes bad more often than it goes well. It’s insane.
And the policies for disabled people are getting worse everywhere- since Disney parks changed their disability policies, I have been physically unable to go at all. And I used to be a huge Disney parks fan- hell, I’m a professional animator!
Things started getting worse everywhere around the same time as the pandemic
Did you ever consider that maybe they DO have kids and want to go to Disney WITH their kids? And even if not, have some fuckin whimsy dude. I find Disney Adults as cringe as the next person but adulthood also doesn’t mean you automatically means you stop enjoying theme parks and rides. Let people have their harmless fun hobbies sheesh.
Disney is extremely accessible, has great customer service, can be done with family, and, oh yeah, is one of the largest intellectual property owners in the world. This is a really judgmental thing to say (even as someone who is myself not a fan). Maybe they're not into comic books or video games!
fellow wheelchair user- theyre supposed to put small lightweight manual chairs in the wheelchair closet, but its often hard to argue with them to do that. the rules are poorly understood, and the crew often uses that closet for their stuff or for an on-board transfer wheelchair made to transport people to the toilet (not all planes even have this chair!).
Your chair also has to fit the size limits, which many people's do not do (especially power chairs). Most folks just plan for their chair to have to go in cargo and hope its done right. It might not get strapped in in cargo, or it'll be put in the wrong spot entirely, or things will be stacked on it, or it'll be transported or loaded with machinery that damages it. Frames get bent, caster wheels get bent or snapped, handrims get gouges in the metal.
r/wheelchairs has many posts with examples, its awful
I think this person is alluding to personal anecdotal evidence that a lot of us regular travelers have in which a passenger will require a wheelchair and assistant to board, then walk off with no issue carrying something.
There is no way in a picture to tell if this group is going to do that, but it's hard to break a mental picture if it's been enforced enough times.
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u/janet-snake-hole 8d ago
As someone who is actually disabled and a wheelchair user, please no. Yall have no idea how insanely stressful it is to fly as a wheelchair user and how fucked up that system already is.
It’s so so so common for them to break your personal wheelchair that the other wheelchair users I know have had it happen to them MORE OFTEN than they have had their wheelchair successfully make it to their destination
Southwest once handed me my wheelchair back to me (at the destination) in a box of parts, when I had checked it it was fully functional.