Jamey Perry: About a month before I was scheduled to travel to New Orleans to cover my episode, my boss @johnrogers.bsky.social asked me how it was flying with a wheelchair. I told him—it’s terrifying. Airlines break an average of 30+ wheelchairs A DAY. www.travelersunited.org/the-time-is-...

What was in the box? A wheelchair! Admittedly this is pretty anti-climactic for those hoping for #LeverageRedemption spoilers. 😬 But it’s super duper important not just for me, but for all Disabled people in this industry, and for our allies everywhere. Let me explain:

#LeverageRedemption #whatsinthebox 😈

About a month before I was scheduled to travel to New Orleans to cover my episode, my boss @johnrogers.bsky.social asked me how it was flying with a wheelchair. I told him—it’s terrifying. Airlines break an average of 30+ wheelchairs A DAY. www.travelersunited.org/the-time-is-...

Airlines damage passenger wheelchairs — more than 200 a weekwww.travelersunited.org The airlines damage passenger wheelchairs and lose mobility devices at a rate of more than 200 a week. It's criminal.

Every. single. time. I board an aircraft, I am at risk of losing my sole means of mobility for an indefinite amount of time Can you imagine what that feels like? Knowing every time you board a plane, there’s a 1 in 65 chance the airline will break your LEGS.

Sure the airlines will replace a chair they clearly broke. But not in time to enjoy your Hawaiian vacation! Or do your job! Or go to the PARALYMPICS! www.usatoday.com/story/travel...

Paralympian Patrick Flanagan devastated after wheelchair 'destroyed' on the way to Tokyowww.usatoday.com Paralympian Patrick Flanagan of Ireland is calling on the airline industry to do better after his wheelchair was broken on his way to the Tokyo Games.

When I inform nondisabled people about this they are SHOOK. Am I for real?? How has this been allowed to go on?? Can’t we do something?? My response is always “It has happened to sitting US senator & war hero Tammy Duckworth too & nothing has changed…” www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/in-the-...

‘Left in the lurch’: Airlines break an average of 25 wheelchairs a day | U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinoiswww.duckworth.senate.gov The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois

Airline travel is one of the underreported nightmares of being #Disabled in America, a country which very much has the resources to change or fix it. But nothing changes. Why? You guessed it—#ableism! That’s why it was so amazing that my boss even thought to ASK the question.

Even more amazing was his response to what I told him: “Wow, that sucks. Would it ease your mind if production shipped one of your spare chairs to NOLA ahead of time? That way you’d KNOW you had a functioning chair there regardless of what happens on the flight.”

Reader…I could’ve cried. An accommodation! That I didn’t even have to ask for! Because an ally asked first! And when the Showrunner says “We’re shipping a wheelchair to the production office,” the production office says, “Yes sir!” So that’s what we did.

This is how it should be. A lot of things get lost in the sauce, especially in such big productions, I can imagine. But it should never be the people working it and their needs. I'm glad you got to have this experience of umprompted easing of mind. I hope many in kind will follow.

I've known him distantly for oh god years, and this is who he is and who I am to be.

<3

I have to fly lying flat, so it costs me 3 times the usual price. Fuck the airlines.

And they'll fight, make you prove it

God, lord, let me work for @johnrogers.bsky.social just one time. That’s the good shit.

I am laughing at how much he will hate all of this but… He IS an amazing boss!

i mean i‘m not even remotely close to ever working in TV or film, although that‘d be the goal, and top of my Would Love To Work For/With List is definitely one john rogers obviously because leverage is his baby and it‘s my everything, but also just because he seems to be a really good guy

Are they trying to induce rage? Because they're good at it.

Note: It may be *located* in first-class, but it doesn’t actually require the passenger to *pay* for first-class. That would be Delta who would require it… and of course they will.

That's what the story seems to indicate. Disabled people have the opportunity to be super wealthy and avoid losing a mobile device or be poor and get it mangled.

There's a new push to force airlines to do better about this. The DOT is open for comments right now: (Link card won't load for some reason) www.transportation.gov/briefing-roo...

I had no idea. This sucks. Is there any organized effort underway to confront this problem?

There's been enough heat they are rewriting regs, now open comments time w the gov site. Years of lived xp n advocacy efforts in disability circles finally breaking thru. Add your comment! @nicolaz.bsky.social writes eloquently on disability tax, here's one nicolagriffith.com?s=travelling...

Theres an easy fix for this: fine the airline (and don’t let them pass it off to a handling agent) 200 grand every time they do this. They’ll pretty soon find a way to stop it happening.

Another issue is delay at security because only one employee is trained to screen a wheelchair. And the fact that it takes 15-30 mins to get it back when the plane lands.

The fun part of being screened in a wheelchair is when an untrained screener tells you to lift your arms for the pat down and the shocked look you get when you say you can't.

My son uses a power chair. He has flown eight times in his life (four round trips). The airline has broken his chair twice. Once was easily fixable (it was dropped off the end of the conveyor belt and needed some manual adjustments before he could use it at all). The other time? Enraging.

We’d flown to Miami and they unloaded the chair from the plane and left it sitting on the tarmac by the plane. For 45 minutes. In a torrential Florida downpour. This fried all the circuitry in the chair. He had to use a manual chair (which he does not have the means to move himself) for the trip.

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