Post by vintage on Jan 4, 2018 22:01:22 GMT -8
Even with my injury, T9 incomplete, I have experienced rude treatment from ignorant people (both medical and non-medical) who thought I was able to do more than I was doing, and who refused to help me (turn myself over, open a door, etc.). Here’s a lady who made advance reservations for help at an airport and was still ‘shamed’ for asking for that help.
“Disabled woman told she didn’t look sick enough to warrant help boarding plane
By Gabrielle Fonrouge January 4, 2018 | 10:32am | Updated
Disabled woman told she didn’t look sick enough to warrant help boarding plane
Nathalie Allport-Grantham Nathalie Allport-Grantham. A disabled British woman claims she was refused help at a London airport because she didn’t “look ill” enough, reports said. Nathalie Allport-Grantham, 23, booked special assistance on her flight to Nice out of Stansted Airport on New Year’s Eve because of her two chronic illnesses, the BBC reported.
But when she showed up at the gate looking for help, she was told she wouldn’t get any assistance during boarding and she was “wasting [the airport’s] time.” “She basically looked at me and said, ‘I’m here to help disabled people, I’m not here to help you,’” the scorned woman told the BBC.
Allport-Grantham suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which limits her movement and causes chronic pain, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which quickens her heart rate, preventing her from walking long distances and leaving her prone to frequent fainting. “The way she spoke to me and what she said was just awful,” the young woman recounted.
“Because you pre-book, she has a list of people she’s waiting for, so people can’t just turn up and say, ‘I need help.’ But she didn’t ask my name. If she’d just looked at her list she would’ve seen I was the person she was waiting for.”
Allport-Grantham sometimes uses a wheelchair but when she doesn’t, her disabilities are “invisible,” leaving people to doubt whether her ailments are legitimate. “It’s something I and everyone with chronic illnesses is used to — being judged and being called a liar,” she said. “I’ve been told before, ‘You look too pretty to be disabled.’ People have an idea that a disabled person has to look a certain way.” Stansted Airport apologized to the woman and said in a statement that it was “disappointed” to hear about her experience. “We are speaking to the provider to find out more about the circumstances of the incident,” the airport said in a statement.”
