[Sandra C]

This is not just BA - all airlines and airports are guilty of refusing to be fully aware of the dangers to their staff and to the passengers by using people who have not been properly trained in pushing wheelchairs. They are also guilty of employing people who have insufficient people or language skills to wheel someone in a wheelchair. People in wheelchairs are not inanimate objects but are often treated as such at airports. Often greater care is taken of property!

For nearly 40 years I have worked trying to bring awareness and improve facilities for people with disabilities, who sometimes were also elderly.

With that expertise I know that the MAJOR PROBLEM in the situation of the lady in a wheelchair being bumped into a wall is that most people assume that pushing wheelchairs is EASY! The reverse is true pushing wheelchairs is HARD and requires specific training.

The following is the assumption of most people – the average person would:
1 not lift a heavy person but would push their wheelchair!
2 not recognise the dangers of a faulty/worn out wheelchair
3 wear unsuitable and therefore unstable footwear to push wheelchairs
4 never think to check that the person feels secure with their pushing!
5 often push wheelchairs too fast for everyone’s safety
6 often push too close to other people, objects or walls
7 weave quickly around slowly moving people causing danger & nausea!
8 have no knowledge of pushing up/down ramps
9 approach a ramp/step from the wrong angle risking toppling wheelchair
10 attempt to push up too steep a ramp
11 not turn wheelchair round to descend backwards down ramp
12 have no knowledge of the dangers of travelators/moving walkways
13 have no knowledge of entering/exiting lifts or automatic doors
14 have no knowledge of ascending/descending a pavement
15 often push too near edge of pavements etc risking toppling wheelchair
16 FAIL TO CONCENTRATE WHILST PUSHING A WHEELCHAIR

I have personally observed all of the above and more at BUSY Airports and with a variety of Airlines for the past 25 years whilst travelling each year for 3 months. I have seen so many small statured women in high heels push heavy people in wheelchairs up and down ramps! Those women are unaware of the huge risk of damage to their own spine in pushing someone heavier than themselves without adequate training and the correct footwear.

Whilst travelling I have often taken the responsibility of the care of elderly/disabled people when the airline/airport staff failed to do so. They were all initially strangers to me but as soon as they realised that I not only knew what I was doing but that I also genuinely cared trusted themselves into my welfare. One very delayed flight I had around 20 frightened elderly people tucked under my wings at an airport in the States. Staff had come and gone on/off duty throughout that day with little concern for those people’s welfare for the 15 hours they waited for the weather to subside. A little kindness costs nothing.

I have trained many, many people in how to push wheelchairs with concern for the person in the chair. My life’s work with the disabled was as a volunteer. None of us know our future – all those years ago I was not to know that I would have an accident skating and break my back so that I now use a wheelchair. How glad I am now that I served and taught others to serve. No one queues up to get a disability but many, who without compassion abused others, may find themselves reliant on the kindness or not of others one day eh!

I have just joined Airline Complaints and will use this site to bring awareness of Airlines/airports that do a bad or good job in caring for the disabled/elderly.