Sophie Morgan: 'Every wheelchair user I know has a horror story about airlines'
Stranded and humiliated – airlines must do better by people with disabilities, says the Fight to Fly presenter.
In January last year, I touched down at Heathrow after a long flight to find the airline had effectively broken my legs. I’m paraplegic, following a car crash at 18. My wheelchair and its battery-powered attachment had been damaged beyond repair. The wheelchair acts as my legs – if it’s broken then so is my ability to get anywhere and do anything.
It was the latest in a long line of similar incidents, but I know I’m far from alone. Pretty much every wheelchair user I know has their own horror story of poor treatment by the airline industry, ranging from the shabby to the downright brutal. They’ve been refused travel, stranded on board, told to wear a nappy and even carried over someone’s shoulder. Non-disabled passengers remain largely oblivious to our plight as we get loaded on first and taken off last, like some kind of guilty secret.
Well, we’ve had enough. After that incident at Heathrow, I set up the campaign group Rights on Flights to push for a systemic overhaul in the way disabled people are treated by an industry that has blithely ignored us.
I filmed some of the challenges I face and over time that’s evolved organically into a Channel 4 documentary exposing the scale of the problem, showing my experiences and those of other disabled passengers who bravely went undercover as they tried to navigate flights all over Europe from different UK airports and airlines.
You’ll have to watch to see what they experienced but, sadly, it was every bit as bad as I’d expected, and I hope it helps viewers understand the complexity of the problems disabled people – especially wheelchair users – face from the moment we arrive at an airport.
It’s not as simple as our chairs getting broken, lost or damaged, or even the insults and the finger-pointing, horrible though this is. It’s also the nerve-racking sense that you’re entering a lottery from the moment you book your ticket.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve decided never to fly again, joining the ranks of those who have given up trying, as they can’t face the prospect of being stranded at home for three weeks while they wait for a replacement wheelchair. But of course I do, not only because my work demands it (I’m going to be hosting the Paralympics for NBC this year), but also because I want to live a full and adventurous life. Sadly, airlines are all too often a barrier to the freedom the non-disabled take for granted.
They’re not the only ones. I’m thrilled that we are far more represented on screen in primetime shows like Strictly Come Dancing, but empowering as this is, that increased visibility doesn’t translate to real change on the ground.
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Last year, I went to 10 Downing Street with other disability advocates to hand over a petition calling for airlines to take action, but I couldn’t get access to the building and had to make the presentation outside. What does that tell you? It tells you that a building is more important than a person in the UK.
To me, this speaks volumes about the reality of life as a wheelchair user here, and it’s one reason I moved to America, where the laws are more robust and less vague. In the UK the word “reasonable” is found in legislation preceding any adjustments, such as ramps, that need to be made for disabled people. More often than not this word is used as a loophole.
But the good news, as I show in the documentary, is that all this can be changed with some dedication and passion. We need better legislation, aircraft design and training so airlines really understand the issues we face. Until that happens, I feel it’s my responsibility to fight as hard as I can for change.
This article appears in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, out now – subscribe here.
Read more:
- Rip Off Britain's Angela Rippon: Consumer programming is vitally important, so why does the BBC keep it in daytime?
- Nick Ross on 40 years of Crimewatch – and whether it could return to primetime TV
Sophie Morgan's Fight to Fly airs Monday 22nd July at 9pm on Channel 4.
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