Dear Hanna
I forwarded your post to a local, community disability list-serve
here in the San Francisco area
and someone suggested that you contact the World Institute on
Disability (in Berkeley, CA)...you can google them and check out their
website and see if you think they may be able to offer some concrete
services (or recommendations) on how to place additional pressure of
Ryanair to end its discriminatory practices and adopt more inclusive
practices.
Best
Amy Ifatolu
On 4/17/14, Hanna Pasterny <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear list Members,
> I would like to encourage you to react against discrimination of disabled
> passengers by Ryanair. There are few problems.
> Firstly, Ryanair web site isn't accessible and doesn't respect W3C
> standards. People who don't use mouse, including screenreaders users, how
> big difficulties to book the plane ticket. I am blind and I never managed to
> do it, so I have to buy tickets via travel agencies what is more expensive.
> In addition, with most versions of screenreaders it's impossible to check
> timetable. It's necessary to have access to this information, particularly
> if we bought the tickets few months earlier so meantime something could
> change. On this website there is no contact form. Once, after a long
> research, I managed to find an e-mail address, but one month later I
> received the information that my message has been removed without being
> read. So the only way to contact Ryanair is via post or fax. It's long,
> difficult and expensive not only for disabled people.
> Secondly, if we want to book the assistance for disabled passengers, the
> choice of impairments is very limited. During long years there were only two
> - wheelchair user and intellectual disability. So although I am blind, on my
> boarding pass it was always written "intellectual disability". After
> protests of disabled people and organizations representing them, few months
> ago Ryanair added "visually impaired", but it's still not enough. The
> information about passenger's impairment would make the work of staff
> easier. It's also important for safety reasons. They should know that on the
> board there will be a deaf person who needs visual information or an
> autistic person who needs a quiet place. Most of Polish airports have on
> their websites a special form to book the assistance. The choice of
> disabilities is bigger and there is a space for remarks and comments, so
> always before traveling I complete it. Unfortunately in other countries
> usually there aren't such forms, so there are more misunderstandings.
> Finally, since this month if buying the ticket we book the assistance for
> disabled passengers, during checkin, we see on the screen the message that
> you bookde the assistance, so to confirm your place, you have to call
> Ryanair. Below there is a link with their phone numbers in different
> countries. Without calling them, it is impossible to finish checkin. In
> Poland, probably in other countries too, it isn't a landline number but a
> very expensive one. In addition, we can call only from MOnday to Friday from
> 9 am to 7 pm. So if somebody doesn't know Ryanair obliges him to call and
> decides e.g. on Friday evening to make checkin for Sunday flight, he won't
> be able to do it. They haven't an alternative for non-verbal people. I asked
> at Ryanair desk of Krakow airport if non-verbal passengers and those who
> can't call Ryanair can make checkin at the airport for free. I was told it
> was impossible; they would pay a fine like everybody who didn't make checkin
> via Internet. The staff thinks that e.g. a deaf person can ask for help her
> family member. I don't understand why we are forced to call Ryanair. I book
> the ticket and assistance, I pay, so there must be a place for me on the
> plane. Why I have to pay more because of my disability? Moreover, calling
> them, it's impossible to choose a seat. Although my friend who has Asperger
> syndrome, needs a quiet place and suffers from claustrophobia, in Ryanair's
> call centre they booked for her a seat in the last row, where there is a lot
> of noise and other stimulations (smell of food, staff talking, people going
> to the toilet) and next to the window. She has been told it was impossible
> to change it. So it doesn't make sense to call them.
> When I can, I choose other airlines, but sometimes there is no choice and I
> have to fly with Ryanair. In my opinion Ryanair discriminates disabled
> passengers and humiliates them. I complained to the Polish Institute of
> Civil Aviation. I also asked them to inform me what Polish and European
> bodies I can contact. I wait for their answer. I sent an e-mail to European
> Disability Forum too. I would be gratefull if you react too. It's necessary
> that many people in different countries do it. Only due to that something
> could change.
> Happy Easter.
> Hanna Pasterny
> konsultantka ds. osób niepełnosprawnych
> Centrum Rozwoju Inicjatyw Społecznych CRIS
> ul. T. Kościuszki 22/5 44-200 Rybnik
> tel.: (+48) 32 739-55-12 wew.108; fax: wew. 106
> [log in to unmask]
> www.cris.org.pl
>
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--
Amy Ifátólú Gardner, MD, MPH, PhD
Iyánífá and Medical Anthropologist
Independent Healer, Educator and Consultant
Founder and Director,
Orísun Healing Consultancy
(orísun Yorùbá n. “source”; “well-spring”)
"My deepest concern seems to be the survival of manhood, of humanity,
of the spirit, because if these blossom and take hold, the economic,
the social, the political injustices will fall for lack of support; or
at least so I am obliged to think"
Katherine Dunham
"The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any
moment to give up what you are for what you might become."
W.E.B. DuBois
"If you bring forth what is within you,
what is within you will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what is within you will destroy you."
Jesus
"The Gnostic Gospels," Elaine Pagels, ed.
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