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I got on the plane and immediately lost my dignity


Josh Wintersgill: Rights on Flights

As a wheelchair user, Josh Wintersgill has always found air travel particularly difficult – but is campaigning for change (Picture: Josh Wintersgill)

As airline staff lifted me painfully and awkwardly into my seat, I felt a stark loss of dignity.

It was 2017 and I was boarding a flight to Tenerife from Bristol, but the staff didn’t have any equipment to help lift me into the aircraft seat. So they had to lift me under my arms and legs, jarring my back and bruising my legs where I’d hit the seats during the manual transfer.

This wasn’t the first time I’d struggled to board a plane, but it was the most demoralising. To make matters worse, I was surrounded by passengers who were already in their seats, all while giving me stares and glances. 

Air travel presents an array of avoidable barriers for passengers needing assistance — whether for mobility, sensory, visual, hearing, or other needs. Basic tasks like checking-in, getting through security, boarding, securing equipment, and moving about the cabin can be unnecessarily challenging or even impossible.

The thing is: Accessibility should not hinge on the goodwill of strangers, ill-equipped staff, or the lack of accessible infrastructure.

It’s something I’ve battled my whole life. Life as a wheelchair user has been bumpy (excuse the pun) to say the least.

I’ve always had to fight for basic access to things like school, care support, employment, getting a car, and so much more. It’s a good job my nan brought me up with the motto: ‘Put “can’t” in your pocket and pull out “try”.’

Air travel has always been a difficult and different kettle of fish.

On top of that incident in 2017, I was once forced into using a horrifically uncomfortable manual wheelchair and being ushered to the special baggage area, where I was lifted in front of hundreds of people. It was the same on the return flight for that trip, too.

Then there was the occasion where I had the joystick and lights of my wheelchair bent, as well as my wheelchair pouch go missing.

Josh (far left) and fellow disability rights campaigners outside 10 Downing Street (Picture: Brett Cove)

I knew I couldn’t wait for change.

In 2018, I had an idea to create a company called ableMove, which would provide a range of transfer aids designed to make boarding, transferring, and positioning easier and safer for wheelchair passengers.

Around the same time, I came across the Stelios Awards for Disabled Entrepreneurs and decided to apply for it. Remarkably, I won, which meant that I secured a £30,000 investment from easyJet Founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

We eventually came up with the easyTravelseat, which is a sling that is used to physically lift a passenger into an aircraft, rather than doing it manually. Ever since, we have sold it into every continent in the world, with significant success in the UK, Europe and North America.

In 2021, ableMove conducted a survey that revealed over 75% of wheelchair users still face barriers when flying, and 43% have stopped flying altogether due …read more

Source:: Metro

      

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