John Jenkins from Oxfordshire despairs when he has to take the train.
“Both when booking ahead and just turning up, the other station has not picked up the phone so a ramp at the other end can’t be arranged or confirmed. I’ve missed multiple trains because of this,” said the 71-year-old wheelchair user.
“When the promised ramp doesn’t turn up, I literally have to swing on the door frame while a kind person unloads my wheelchair so I can drop into it. This at 71 years of age!”
For John Matthews in Norfolk, it’s the apparent randomness of the rules that frustrates him. “East Midlands Rail do not accept my small mobility scooter on their trains as it has two front wheels – they only accept a triangular shape – but I can travel with my scooter on Greater Anglia.
“I can’t get my mind round why one company turns me down while another presents no problem,” he said. East Midlands Rail is updating its rules for mobility scooters on 2 September.
Cal Clarke, however, finds Greater Anglia trains the most frustrating: “Greater Anglia exclude wheelchair users from their first-class carriages: when they upgraded their fleet, we became persona non grata,” said Clarke, a former prison officer.
She now finds travelling in her electric wheelchair so difficult that she has begun to suffer anxiety attacks when she has to use public transport and no longer leaves the house except for medical appointments.
“The world isn’t made for people like me,” she said. “Buses, for example, have one space for wheelchairs and drivers who are unwilling to comply with the Equality Act by asking people to fold buggies or move shopping trollies. My complaints to the bus company fall on deaf ears and because where I live is rural, I’ve been stranded for hours and even overnight.”
Taxis were just as bad, she said: “Those that advertise as being wheelchair accessible often aren’t suitable for electric wheelchairs like mine but don’t say this, even if you ask them when booking. There’s no way I can be flexible: I’d decapitate myself if I tried to go up their ramps.”
Humiliating, distressing and frustrating travel issues aren’t confined to local transport systems. As a cabin attendant, flying Boeing and Airbus aeroplanes around the world for over three decades, Laurence has seen at close hand how disabled passengers are treated across the world when they travel.
“Disabled people should board first and disembark last for privacy and convenience. But very often they are brought on board last, while all passengers are watching, by airport workers who have no training and are often rude and unmotivated, in part due to the poor working conditions,” he said.
“Very often, disabled passengers have to wait over half an hour after landing for the ground staff to pick them up, so they don’t make it to the next flight,” he added. “They are left unattended at the baggage claim area, asking for help to strangers.”
Paying for an upgrade was no guarantee of better treatment, he said. “Disabled passengers travelling business are very often not taken to the business lounge that they are entitled to during the stopover. Then once they are onboard, many cabin attendants do not offer them any special treatment or help them in any way,” he said.
The lack of care was endemic, he said. “Generally speaking, anywhere in the world, flying while disabled means patience, inconveniences, disruptions, lack of sensitivity.”
Claire Stevenson, from Chester, recognises this summary. Unable to walk because of a disability, the 40-year-old has had “too many shocking experiences at airports to recount”.
“Once, the young man pushing my chair at Belfast City airport spontaneously decided to do some sort of spinning trick with me without warning and whirled my chair around 360° really fast like he was a contestant on dancing on ice,” she said.
“Of course, I fell out of the chair sideways as I have no capacity to keep my body upright without support. He was shocked that I had a ‘real’ disability because he was of the opinion that most people using the service were just lazy.
“Liverpool airport mobility services took me to the wrong gate and left me there alone. When it became obvious that no flight would be departing from that gate, I had to crawl on my hands and knees to the correct gate.
Another time, she said, the person meeting her at a baggage carousel came up from behind and, without a word of greeting or identifying himself, grabbed the handles of her chair and started pushing her away from her distressed elderly mother.
“He really hurt my back when the chair began to move by surprise. When I objected to this shocking and rude behaviour he shouted and shouted at me for my ingratitude. I was genuinely quite scared.”
Those with invisible disabilities fare no better. Janet, who is autistic, finds travelling by train almost unbearably stressful.
“Cancellations, platform changes and unclear information can induce a meltdown,” she said. “Rail staff are often unaware of the need to be patient and give clear information.
“Station staff are worse than those on trains but once I was overwhelmed and got on the wrong train and was bullied by staff on board who kept saying I was fare-dodging despite showing them my Autism Alert card. It was upsetting and embarrassing.”
Nina, a 25-year-old data analyst who is autistic, said booking special assistance in airports was a “minefield” and that she had been told that autism was not a disability at all.
“There are just so many hurdles: on Ryanair, you have to book it as an intellectual disability, which it is not. I’ve spoken with assistants and the airlines themselves, and they all say that to get support, I have to lie and say I need a wheelchair – but that means the special assistance station don’t know I’m autistic and so don’t know that in airports, I need immediate help with my triggers, which are crowds, haste and being touched.”
