JR,
This is an issue of civil rights. It is just as unacceptable to exclude people with a disability from public services as it was to exclude black people from the lunch counter at Woolworths.
The built environment was created by people... and they built it in such as way it excludes many of the citizens of the country from accessing it. The ADA and other similar legislation around the world is civil rights legislation aimed at reducing this exclusion. It is not even particularly onerous.
To argue that people with a disability should be denied their civil rights because some people try to defraud the system by claiming SSI is illogical and immoral.
I don't know what makes you think that people able bodied people should have more rights than people with a disability. There should be no distinctions between those we think are the "deserving" disabled (in your vernacular, the paralysed) and those you clearly don't think are deserving, those with mental health problems, obesity or smoking relating illnesses. It is just utterly unenforceable and it is iniquitous.
Can we also dispel the idea that disabled people are seeking "special treatment" or "priviledges" by asking for assistance from airlines. They are simply seeking to have access to the same public services that everyone else have. Wheelchair users are perceived to get special treatment, as they often board first. What everyone forgets is that they often disembark last and are left languishing in chairs sitting around waiting for people to assist them. If you are changing planes in Chicago or Atlanta, the distances involved are often overwhelming and the are simply asking that the playing field be levelled so that they can access the same public services as everyone else, without being judged.
After all... there but for the grace of god....
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