Sunday, December 23, 2012

I wrote a letter and sent it to the Buffalo Airport today

Deaf Lady traveling By Plane To: BNIAinfo: Buffalo Airport: On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 2:07 PM, Susana King wrote: To the person in charge of the Buffalo Airport's Services for the deaf people : Could you kindly read this article in my blog http://deaf47.blogspot.com/ on the Deaf Lady traveling By Plane? I have been deaf my whole life and I have very unpleasant experiences every time I go to the Buffalo Airport, not being able to understand what is going on there. Have they ever thought of posting a closed captioned screen or monitor at each gate so that they can close caption everything the person is announcing over the microphone regarding the flights? I have nearly missed several flights when I have arrived at the airport 3 hours early all because I was unable to understand a word being said over the speakers about my flights. This is a huge problem for most deaf people and are they doing anything about it yet? It seems so unfair that deaf people like me have to pay for our flights but yet we don't get treated with respect when it comes to being able to understand when our flight is leaving. One time I even had to ask the attendant at the gate to let me know when my plane was boarding, by waving his hands and he forgot and I missed my plane. I was very impressed with the changes they made in the security area. I was so happy to see that they closed captioned information there on what can and can't be taken through there. The first time I have seen that was in December 2012, and I am so grateful for that. After all these years it was about time to do something there to help deaf people understand what is going on. The problems started when I had to walk through the security area., The guards were telling me what I had to do and I didn't understand or hear a word they were saying. They were very hard to lipread because they did not look straight at me when they spoke and they talked fast and pretty low also. So I just had to guess by using common sense and just saw what everyone else did to get through and did it that way. Is it possible for them to teach the people who work at security to use sign language for the deaf? What about putting more screens up right in front of the place where we have to put our things in the containers to be scanned and close caption what we have to do with simple directions? People like me are deaf, I cannot hear them at the security. Can the airport provide more help for the deaf people? My daughter is only 17, she shouldn't have to be the one to get me through the airport and on the plane on time every time I go. That really isn't fair to her. Please, I'm begging you to inform the Buffalo Airport to make life a little easier for the deaf to fly on a plane. Sincerely, Susana King

4 comments:

  1. So glad you took my advice Susana, and don't give up even if they try to push you aside. If you know of other deaf people, get them to also contact the airport (as deaf people use these services too). Also try to get other organizations involved in making changes so that everyone is treated equally.
    Might sound like a lot of hard work but it always pays off in the long-run and will make your trips more comfortable. Nice One.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome and absolutely. That is another one of your excellent ideas, thank you so much for sharing that one with me. That is a project I'm going to get started on because it's 100% worth it. I'm going to work on getting a hold of other deaf groups and see if they can get involved also.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I travel a lot and do notice that very little is done to help the deaf. Don't give up and keep fighting to get these places to do more.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes I agree. All I can do is to keep trying. :)

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear your comments: