Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm From: mattioli@took.dec.com (John R. Mattioli) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Re: Emergency exits Message-ID: <12738@bunker.UUCP> Date: 17 Jul 90 13:53:54 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP Reply-To: mattioli@took.dec.com (John R. Mattioli) Distribution: misc Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 131 Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP Index Number: 9137 Oh no! Not the same old tired subject of airplane exit seating again! I thought this newsgroup was for discussing new ideas and problems. Now, immediately after returning from the ACB convention, I see the net world is over run by one of the oldest and most tired subjects of them all. I can't believe this, but I'll give my two cents just so I can say I did and then I'm going to kill all of the exit row seating issues and move on to something new. I have never much liked our friend and NFB dictator Mr. Ken Jurnigan. For some reason (his pushy political style perhaps) he just pushes all the wrong buttons with me. I find that he likes to present both sides of a story, but presents them in a very slanted way. Also, I get very disgusted by the feud going on between him and Oral OMiller (the head of the national office for ACB). This feud is 100% counterproductive and wastes time. I can understand why these two men don't get along, just as I can understand why the organizations they represent don't get along, but I really wish they'd both stop wasting our time with it! And what, you may well ask, do Kenny and Oral have to do with exit row seating? It seems there was recently a presidential press conference during which both Ken and Oral asked the president what he thought of various aspects of the laws relating to the blind. I've read the article in the Braille Forum that relate to this, but I just got my copy of the Braille Monitor yesterday, and I haven't read it yet. It seemed, from the article in the forum, that Ken felt that George Bush was less of a president because he had faith in the reports presented to him by one of his subordinates. Obviously, this report didn't say what either Ken or Oral wanted it to say, but I think it is absolutely disrespectful to argue with the president over such an issue. I mean let's all be a little distant from this issue for a second and let's try to rate it in terms of it's importance to George Bush. I'd say it's pretty low, and I'm blind. In fact, if it is highly important to any president, I want the man out of office. This is an annoying problem for the disabled, it is not an issue worth us all devoting our lives to. It is not an issue of discrimination as much as it is an issue of public safety. There are not a lot of airplanes crashing in comparison to the amount that are taking off. Air travel is a reasonably safe mode of transportation. I don't believe that allowing blind people to sit in exit rows is going to save the lives of lots of blind people. Yes, it's frustrating. Yes, it's humiliating. Yes, it's unfair. Sure, it's all of these thing and a lot more but it's not the end of the world! It's just the facts of life. In a situation where a blind person is sitting in an exit row, it is my opinion that aircraft evacuation is likely to be slower then if a capable, physically fit, well prepared person were sitting there. This, of course, leads to the question of what constitutes a physically fit and well prepared person. I can't answer that fully, I can only say that the airlines need to come out with tests that they can give people. If you need to be a certain height and you're not then you sit elsewhere. If you need to be a certain weight and your not then you sit elsewhere. If you need to be sighted and your not then you sit elsewhere. We all need a list of criteria that states what makes a person capable of dealing with the responsibilities of helping to save people's lives. I'd like to see the FAA come up with a list and put it into practice. If it makes sense and is supported by the airlines and if it is enforced then I'll be perfectly happy to sit someplace else. Another thing, and this is more important to me because it shows the lack of understanding involved here. As many of you may know, airlines have Braille versions of the emergency procedures. I recently read in one of these about the proper way to store a "flexible cane." It talked about how these canes should be placed on the floor under the row of seats in which the blind person is sitting so long as it doesn't stick out into the passageway. Now I think they meant to discuss straight canes instead of flexible canes but that's not what they said. It is carelessness like this that fuels the fire. Clearly airlines need to be educated better so that they know more about this subject. They don't need fights and stormy scenes at the airports. They don't need to through people off of the plane. They don't need any of that! And finally, one more quick point. In a speech to the NFB convention last year, Ken made a statement to the effect that it is impossible for a blind person to fly these days without feeling the threat of something terrible happening. Now I'm not exactly a frequent flier, but I do get around. In the last year I've flown eight times. I have never been told where to sit, I've always told the airline where I'd like to sit. I've never been put in a wheelchair, I've always explained that I can walk if they'd please lead me. I've never been treated like a child, I've always explained to the personnel, in a calm polite way, what I want and why I want it. When I'm offered the chance to preboard I take it if I've got a lot of stuff with me. This is a kindness to me as well as a help to them. If I don't have a lot of stuff with me I say "no thank you" and it hasn't ever been forced upon me. In short, Ken's accusation that a blind person feels threatened simply isn't true. Perhaps many of them do, but I, for one, and many other blind people I've spoken with agree, feel that I'm dealing with uneducated people in a situation that must be handled carefully, politically, and confidently. I don't ask for exit row seating because I don't want the responsibility if they give it to me (and I don't want the fight if they don't give it to me). So there you all have it. I just knew you cared :-). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Mattioli Most improved skier (american blind skiers association 1989) and humble to! (DEC E-NET) TOOK::MATTIOLI (UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!TOOK.dec.com!MATTIOLI (ARPA) MATTIOLI@TOOK.dec.com MATTIOLI%TOOK.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com (US MAIL) John Mattioli 550 King St. LKG2-2/BB9 Littleton, Ma. 01460