Airport Employee Humiliates A Disabled Woman Because She "Did Not Look Disabled"

Nathalie Allport-Grantham does not always require a wheelchair, but she does have invisible disabilities that sometimes require that she uses one. Nathalie and her boyfriend arrived early for their flight and used a wheelchair to move her to the lounge area. When she moved from the chair to a lounge seat, an airport staff member took the chair saying that she would return it in a few minutes.

He never came back with the chair which forced Nathalie to walk to her gate that was five minutes away. When she got to her gate, she spoke to the woman working at the gate. "I told her I had pre-booked disability assistance and I need help getting onto the aircraft," Nathalie said. The staff member told Nathalie that she would have to pay extra to have someone help her with her bags.

Nathalie booked all of her assistance ahead of time when she purchased her tickets, but the staff member absolutely refused to believe that Nathalie was disabled. Nathalie tried to explain her condition to the staff member. She told her that lifting anything could cause her to tear muscles or rupture her organs to which the staff member replied, "Maybe next time don’t bring a heavy bag then."

The staff member then proceeded to say, "I’ve got disabled people to help and you are wasting their time." Nathalie was in tears but eventually got help from another airport staff member who saw that her name was on the list of people who required disabled assistance. Nathalie was eventually helped onto her flight, but the experience she suffered was horrendous.

Nathalie reached out to the company on Twitter to voice her complaint. The airport issued an apology and said that they were looking into the incident. RyanAir responded to her complaint by saying, "While we regret any inconvenience caused…London Stansted is responsible for wheelchair service and any problems with it."

Nathalie has had issues with other companies in the past and just wants these companies to be more aware when they are dealing with people with disabilities. Not all disabilities are easy to be seen, but it does not mean that they are not there. "I want to make a fuss because I believe big companies have a responsibility not only to follow the law but also to educate their staff," she says. We can only hope that Nathalie's story will open up the lines of communication between disabled persons and the companies that they interact with.