I bought on a airplane tonight to journey for work for the primary time in three years. I averted flying as a result of airways are infamous for damaging wheelchairs. I hoped this journey would go easily, and that… | Emily Ladau

I bought on a airplane tonight to journey for work for the primary time in three years. I averted flying as a result of airways are infamous for damaging wheelchairs. I hoped this journey would go easily, and that the massive occasion could be my talking engagement on the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.

Instead, the massive occasion was that Delta Air Lines totaled my wheelchair this afternoon on the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. It was utterly destroyed.

I’m heartbroken and livid. I mentioned an undignified and unceremonious goodbye to the chair close to baggage declare, and now I’m in a really uncomfortable however practical loaner chair.

I’m hoping to simply get some relaxation on the lodge tonight earlier than the talking engagement tomorrow, which is about incapacity points together with ableism and inaccessibility. Both of these have been in full pressure for me at present.

The U.S. Department of Transportation discovered that for each 100 wheelchairs or scooters transported on home flights at the very least one is broken, delayed, or misplaced.

Disabled folks deserve to have the ability to journey safely, for work or leisure or any motive in any respect. I shouldn’t should worry for my freedom of motion whereas merely making an attempt to exist. This is downright unacceptable and inhumane, and it must cease. Airlines must do higher. Livelihoods and lives rely on it.

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