I used a night bag instead of a leg bag for the 13 hr trip. Using a water bottle, I emptied some of the bag into the plastic bottle to be thrown away. For spasms, I now use Valium 5 or 10 mg at night to avoid the violent hip spasms. On the first 06 flight to Moscow I was told not to take baclofen before my medical procedure (stem cells) & I was not taking valium. I found that if I was watching a DVD on a personal player, it would distract me enough to calm my body and eliminate or reduce spasms.

Once I held up a plane in San Francisco by standing in the doorway with my crutches while they got my fragile wheelchair out of baggage because the attendant lied to me that he was putting it in the closet. He told me he couldn’t do anything about it. I said, “If it went IN baggage, it could come OUT of baggage.” The other flight attendants reminded me I was holding up 180 people and I reminded them that I was also being held up and delayed and this would not have happened if the person had told me the truth. In civil rights struggles, people often try to humiliate the person into giving up. My wheelchair isn’t made anymore. It’s valuable to me, too valuable to laugh off going into baggage.

Resourcefulness and a smile or at least a sense of humor is key when traveling with or without a disability. And like Scott says, if you need help, ask for it. I’ve been helped by countless people in airports and planes, helping me get my crutches down from above, pushing me when I got too tired on carpeted floors, telling me about inaccessible gate changes, and fighting with elevator doors for me when wheelchair helpers didn’t show up(Miami and American Airlines is the worst for this).

Rick Kneeshaw
Board Member
Disability Rights Legal Center
Loyola Law School