A physically disabled man was forced to crawl off a plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia last week after the airline did not help him exit the plane.
DArcee Neal was waiting for assistance but says that he really needed to go to the restroom and could not wait any longer. That’s when he decided that his only option was to crawl up the aisle to the doorway.
“I mean, it’s humiliating,” said DArcee Neal, who was returning from San Francisco where he had a speaking engagement about accessible transportation. “No one should have to do what I did.”
United Airlines issued an apology to Neal, saying that they deeply regret the long delay in providing an aisle chair to assist Neal.
Similar situations have occurred on multiple other airlines, according to The National Disability Rights Network. The Air Carrier Access Act guarantees consistent service to passengers with disabilities, but complaints are up 9 percent in the past year.
“In 2014 here were over 27,500 complaints in reference to things like this, so it is not uncommon,” said Dara Baldwin of the National Disability Rights Network. “I hate to say that.”
Advocates for people with disabilities who travel are collecting stories to determine what progress has been made under the Air Carrier Access Act and what still needs to be done.
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