I’ve just watched Sophie Morgan’s Fight to Fly documentary on Channel 4, where she campaigns for the government to rule that there should be space on an aeroplane, like on a train, so that wheelchair-users can take flights without leaving their wheelchair. At the moment, wheelchair-users have to leave their own chair in the hands of the luggage team and be strapped into an aisle chair (and skinny wheelchair the staff have to push) to be pulled down the narrow aisle and be lifted into your seat. If you need the toilet you have to go through this whole experience again and let the staff take you to the toilet. Some planes do not have aisle chairs and if the Disabled person needs the toilet, they have to crawl down the aisle. At the end of the flight, they collect you off the plane last, and your wheelchair is supposed to be waiting for you at the other end. Sometimes people are left waiting for a long time, and their mobility equipment is broken. The whole experience is anxiety-inducing no matter what the consequences. The documentary shows you much better than I can explain, I recommend it. Here’s a short trailer. On a UK train, there is space for a wheelchair user and an easily accessible toilet.

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I’ve taken one trip which involved flying, to Arkansas in the USA to visit family last summer. I watched lots of YouTube videos about flying with a wheelchair beforehand, so I knew the risks, and this trip was definitely a risk worth taking. When I used the aisle chair I crossed my arms over my chest like I’d seen people do in videos and the staff member assisting me commented that I must have done this before. No, but I try to be sensible and do at least some research before doing a potentially risky thing. We had to take one 10 hour flight (where I didn’t go to the toilet. I didn’t go on the way back either. I didn’t drink much in the run up to the flight, which is probably bad for you, and I just didn’t need to go, my body is very used to not going by now) and change for a short flight from Texas to Arkansas.

My mother booked the flights and the assistance, going through the details of all the journeys. She discovered the initial internal flight she booked did not have an aisle chair on board, so she rebooked us with a more expensive flight that had one just in case I needed it. It’s a sad reality that Disabled people are very used to paying more just to access the basic things other people have provided for them. On this trip, I found the staff all friendly and used to what they were doing. Our initial take off was delayed because the staff had some confusion loading my powerchair, which all folded neatly in its case, because it was much heavier than what I had said. I realised I had told them the weight in kilogrammes, but they were American so assumed the number on the tag was in pounds! We arrived at my aunt’s house after a successful day, but even then one of my mudguards was damaged and had to be got rid of (but I’d already broken the other one off by myself, so all things considered, this was a small price to pay. I’d definitely go again).

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The issue of space is one I am very familiar with. I could demonstrate this in countless ways, but for now I’ll just choose one: bookshops. In the UK (particularly central London) I find bookshops feel claustrophobic and I am very used to the fact that I’m probably going to knock books off display tables as I go past. In my family’s town in Arkansas, I was pleasantly surprised by how wide and spacious the second hand bookshop was. This is very ironic for a wheelchair-user who wants to work in books.

A new wheelchair space for aeroplanes is currently in development and is causing waves of excitement in the Disabled community. Hopefully I’ll be able to benefit from the Fight to Fly campaign before too long. I’m very grateful for all the disability civil rights activists who are out there, fighting for people like me.

I’ve thought about what I can do to help a lot, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to become involved in actual politics, but I do want to create art. I want to influence ideas. It is hard not to hold deeply political views about disability rights when your very ability to take up space in the world is restricted. The book I’m going to write, Alice in Wheelchairland, will inherently be political, because access is political. But I’m not the kind of person to tackle the system head on. I want to make art that asks questions about how we think and feel, about what we hold to be right, and what should be a right. We all take up space in the world, and I’ll take up space in my own way.




(Featured Image is some fanart of Judy Heumann. Read about her here. Judy was a trailblazer in the US Disability Civil Rights movement in the 80s and she passed away last year. Read her books, watch the documentary. She one of the few parts of the movement that people have made art about. We need more art).