In this grim campaign of vitriol, blatant misogyny, and veiled racism, the disabled have been largely invisible. One candidate (Donald Trump) disliked any reminder of frailty, avoided appearances with wounded veterans, called them “losers,” mocked people with disabilities. Candidate Kamala Harris reached out to everybody, but her rallies featured enthusiastic able-bodied voters. Where are the millions of Americans with disabilities? Many are at home, kept out of the mainstream by corporate intransigence.
With the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, our government pledged to integrate people with a range of disabilities into the mainstream. The law marked comprehensive civil rights legislation. Yet decades later, the evidence of success is underwhelming. People in wheelchairs appear on television advertisements for stores that welcome people with disabilities as staff and customers. (The easy-access doors at big stores like Walmart, Home Depot, etc, whatever their architectural merits, are a beacon for many people). Most facilities, though, consider a side ramp, or back entrance ramp, sufficient for compliance with the law. Some facilities add special elevators, hard to maneuver. Still others have doors with “call buttons.” Even hospitals sometimes have revolving doors — more than a challenge for people with canes or walkers. The notion of universal access has proven elusive.
So thank you to the United States Department of Transportation for pursuing a long-held beef: American Airlines’ callous (a.k.a. cruel) treatment of wheelchairs and their users. “(American Airlines Fined $50 Million for Treatment of Passengers Using Wheelchairs).”
A four-year investigation revealed “cases of unsafe physical assistance that at times resulted in injuries and undignified treatment of wheelchair users.” And the Department of Transportation followed up with a fine. The Department had previously fined airlines for disregarding the rights of passengers with disabilities. In 2016 the government fined United Airlines $2 million for mishandling wheelchairs, but the fine was reduced to $700,000 after the airline compensated passengers. In 2019 the government fined Frontier $50,000 for not accommodating a passenger with quadriplegia. Fifty million dollars is the largest fine.
When an airline damages a suitcase, most passengers accept the damage as a risk of flight. (Many passengers are thrilled just to find the suitcase at baggage claim.) The journey down a crowded ramp to a crowded turnstyle can leave a suitcase battered.
With a wheelchair, the damage can cost thousands — assuming the wheelchair can be repaired, and assuming that the passenger has readily available an alternative working wheelchair, something very few passengers have. One piece of impractical advice for wheelchair-users is to remove all removable parts (sideguards, cushion, armrests, headrests, footrests), put them in a duffel bag, and carry the bag onto the plane. That presupposes that the passenger can easily strip the chair of the essentials, lug them onto a plane, and then re-assemble the chair on arrival.
Harm to the chairs constitutes one failing. A more egregious one is harm to the passenger. In the act of helping users transfer from the wheelchair to the seat, and vice versa, some passengers report that staff, poorly trained, dropped them. Passengers can sue for damages; but litigation is not easy.
American Airlines is not the sole miscreant. The New York Times reported that last year domestic airlines mishandled more than 11,500 wheelchairs and scooters. When players from the Wheelchair Basketball Association took a Southwest flight from Phoenix to to Richmond in 2024 for the national championships, airline staff took the wheels off the machines, leaving a 300-piece puzzle in baggage claim, with no added employees to help reassemble the chairs. In spite of airline apologies, the trip home through Midway was no better.
The rights of people with disabilities have not been campaign fodder. No focus groups. No above-the-fold articles. But I hope this fine spurs the corporate behemoths behind our airlines to accept their responsibility to serve all of us. President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA. President Biden expanded its reach. Let President Trump recognize the humanity behind the law, and continue the push..
Joan Retsinas is a sociologist in Providence, R.I., who writes about health care. Email joan.retsinas@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2024
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