• Traveling with a disabled person

    From gfretwell@aol.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 1 17:01:03 2022
    I really got an education about ADA. I have had to take an ADA course
    every 2 years since 1996 for my license but actually living it is a
    whole different thing. I had Judy in a wheelchair at all of the
    airports mostly for speed but also because she can't walk long
    distances. We were carrying an O2 concentrator and a back pack with
    two spare batteries other medical equipment, meds, emergency clothes
    etc in addition to her giant purse and my computer. It actually all
    fit quite nicely on a Delta wheel chair but it was pretty heavy. A lot
    of the ramps I was on exceeded the ADA allowable slope. The worst was
    the jetway from the DTW departure gate into a small regional jet. That
    one was exciting. I also found us in several places that did not have
    the legal wheel chair turning radius. The layout of an airport wheel
    chair is bigger than the standard ones anyway. We got no real help on
    the way up and it was real ugly from baggage claim to the rental car.
    I was dragging 2 big rollers, one on top of the other, pushing the
    wheel chair and Judy was dragging a roller. We were a sight I imagine.
    I wrote up a nasty survey to Delta, pointing out the ADA violations
    may be actionable. It must have got someone's attention because on the
    way home Delta had a wheel chair and attendant everywhere we were near
    a Delta counter. (curb side to ticket counter and gate to plane).
    Coming up the ramp from the regional jet to the gate at DTW was fun.
    They sent a little 135 pound latino guy who was really struggling. I
    offered to push it up the hill but he said he had to do it. (Bear in
    mind, on the way there, nobody was around to help at all) Once we left
    Delta land we were on our own tho. Without the checked bags it wasn't
    horrible. I was still pushing three hundred + pounds. The empty chair
    probably weighs 80 (all steel frame) and we had about 40 pounds of
    carry on.
    I just kept thinking, one of those ADA lawyers who makes a living
    suing people could have had a good time following us. That is probably
    why Delta responded so fast to a survey I expected would be ignored. I
    will say they did a great job getting us into a first class seat out
    of DTW that morning, even if the "help desk" was useless the night
    before. We did end up in Tampa and not Ft Myers tho. It was worth the
    $300 Uber to get home. A rental would have ended up costing more and I
    would still have a problem returning the car when I got here. My bags
    were at RSW and Delta delivered them to the house.

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