Step in the right direction

This week the final part of the EU Directive against discrimination of air passengers with disabilities finally went into force. It means that the airlines cannot deny disabled people boarding aircraft, unless there are clear security reasons therefore, or this will from now on be deemed discrimination. In my Brussels days I actually saw the beginning of this process which now has finished from the part of EU. I was called by the Commission to see if there were any possible kinds of discrimination that disabled people might meet in air traffic as the EU was about to start working on a Directive on Air Passengers Rights. The only instance they could think of was that some passengers might lose connecting flights because disabled people often disembark after other passengers.

I sent a message to my network and soon had some 16 pages with inbelievable kinds of discriminating behaviour. The mildest type was refusing visibly disabled passengers the right to travel alone. The worst I believe the routine of certain airlines to require e.g. wheelchair users to sign a declaration that they would not cause any trouble for the crew or fellow passengers.. And in between a series of small and great insults like requiring extra payment for giving a bit of assistance, refusal to take more than one wheelchair user in the plane, destroying assistive technology like electric wheelchairs because of incompetent luggage handling etc. Because of this many disabled people just refuse to go travelling!

Well, all this is supposed to improve now with the new Directive. Airports are responsible for assisting disabled passengers, not airlines. This will ensure better services for all and it is illegal to demand extra payment for the services. It is illegal to deny a person the right to embark on a flight or treat her in any degrading way because of her disability. The airlines will of course be responsible for assistance during flights.But the European Disability Forum is not all happy because Article 4 still opens for "using safety reasons" to deny a disabled person boarding. It is not clear what these "safety reasons" are - and they have so many times been used and abused before.But still - it is the first European antidiscrimination law for all EU and EEA states to follow, which is directed exclusively towards disabled people. You can read it here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_204/l_20420060726en00010009.pdf .

So fellow Norwegians - this is surely not a problem up here in the Land of the Good Will?? Well, did you read about this blind lady at Oslo Airport not too many days ago who was put in a wheelchair and left at the gate... and never was told that the gate had changed? She could obviously not read the monitor screen and does anyone understand what they say on the loudspeaker? Or did the staff at the gate worry even if she had checked in? No. She sat there for hours and hours until some police men interested themselves in her... probably because anxious relatives never met her in Paris. She missed her flight to Paris and everyone were sooooo sorry..