A woman named Jennie Berry posted an upsetting video on Twitter of her terrible experience on a flight. Paralyzed from the waist down, she had to drag herself down the aisle in order to get to the lavatory.
The caption is equally disturbing:
“Shocked and disgusted with Albastar Airlines- told me I should wear a nappy on board as I’m disabled and they don’t have an aisle chair. This is what I had to resort to. Please share- this isn’t acceptable!”
This was followed by the hashtags #disabled #wheelchair #AlbastarAirlines
In the video, Berry explained that she usually gets an aisle seat. Unfortunately, there were no aisle seats available on the flight and the crew wouldn’t let Berry sit at the front “even though there were spare seats.”
When Berry asked to use the lavatory, she was told “no.” The crew didn’t even help her get there- they continued to serve drinks and refreshments. The video shows her partner having to manually help her onto the toilet.
“One staff member quite rudely told me that disabled people should just wear nappies on board,” Berry explained in her narration. “Which I find bizarre.”
Berry was told there was no room on board for an aisle chair. But she questioned the validity of this seeing that the plane had room for refreshment and duty free carts.
People left supportive comments and expressed outrage that any carrier would treat a passenger with such blatant disregard.
One Twitter user wrote, “Fu*king outrageous. In this day and age. So everyone who is in some way disabled should wear a pad. Disgraceful.”
As far as accessibility for disabled passengers is concerned, it’s clear that the airline industry has a long way to go.