From being abused by staff and other travellers to being denied access to toilets, flying is an increasingly distressing and frustrating experience for many wheelchair users. Here, they share their storiesWhen Hannah Babalola boarded KLM flight 598 on 26 May, she was tired. A Paralympic athlete, she had been competing
Diane Taylor
When Hannah Babalola boarded KLM flight 598 on 26 May, she was tired. A Paralympic athlete, she had been competing at an event in South Africa’s Cape Town, and was hoping there would be no hold ups on her journey back home to Chicago.
Babalola, 37, is well-travelled. A former wheelchair racer, she now competes in marathons and has flown to dozens of countries over the years without big problems.
The first stretch of her journey home was a flight of almost 11 hours to Amsterdam. After boarding, she was told by the captain and crew that she wouldn’t be able to access an onboard wheelchair, known as an aisle chair. These narrow wheelchairs are used by people with disabilities so they can access the toilet during a flight. Crew members told her when she boarded the plane that if she needed to use the toilet, she would have to do so without a wheelchair – if this wasn’t possible, she was told she would have to get off the flight altogether.
Astounded by this – aisle chairs are generally available on wide-bodied aircraft – Babalola stood her ground, despite becoming increasingly distressed. The crew offered various justifications for their position, including the captain’s fears that the chair would be unsafe to use if there was turbulence. She was also wrongly told that she hadn’t booked the flight as a disabled person (disabled passengers are advised to book special assistance at least 48 hours before taking a flight – which Babalola had done). She had bought a return ticket and had had no trouble receiving assistance as a disabled passenger on her outward journey.
“It was the first time anything like this had happened to me on a plane,” says Babalola. “They made me feel as if I wasn’t a human.” The crew called the police and security. Both declined to take any action against her, as there was no evidence she had done anything wrong. Desperate to get home, she finally agreed not to use the toilet during the flight. “The humiliation was unbearable,” she says.
What happened to her is not an isolated incident. When the Guardian first reported on Babalola’s case, a flurry of emails followed from others who had had similar experiences.
According to data published by the World Health Organization in 2023 approximately 16% of the global population experiences significant disability – about 1.3 billion people. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority outlines the rights of passengers to accessible air travel, which includes assistance moving through airports, and when boarding and disembarking planes. But such assistance has limitations. It applies only to people flying from UK airports on any airline, and for returns to the UK on either UK or EU airlines.
The National Centre for Accessible Transport published a report in July 2025, called Invisible Barriers: How public attitudes affect inclusive travel. It found that people with impairments or access needs that fall outside certain models have to fight to get those needs met. Those who were interviewed for the report said they had experienced negative treatment when travelling, due to assumptions and stereotypes around disability. The report looked at various types of transport, including planes; it found that disabled travellers sometimes have to endure abuse from other passengers, and that transport staff have a limited understanding of disability. One wheelchair user quoted in the report, who was travelling by plane, was denied assistance as they had limited mobility; they could stand up and walk in certain circumstances, but were unable to get down the plane steps without assistance. A crew member said: “Well you can stand, you can get off, you can go down the stairs.”
Sophie Morgan, a British TV presenter, writer and disability rights campaigner, is co-founder of Rights on Flights and an energetic campaigner for people with disabilities who fly. She was paralysed from the chest down after a car accident at 18, and began campaigning because her wheelchair was broken so many times by airport staff when she flew.
“I honestly think that if the airlines could ban us from flying, they would,” she says. “I feel sad that the same problems that were happening three years ago are still happening now. It feels like a case of one step forward, 200 steps back. When I was campaigning in the beginning I thought: ‘They just need to be told.’ In fact, they actually know full well, but they just don’t care. Where are we? We are nowhere. One plane captain told me I should wear a nappy on board.”
Sarah Richardson has a disability called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, which causes severe problems with her joints and bones. This makes travel, including plane travel, very challenging, and led her to conduct research for her MBA with 36 disabled travellers from around the world. Half the respondents encountered problems “almost always”. None reported no problems.
More than 83% of her respondents experienced stress and anxiety when travelling, and restricted food and drink in the hours before travelling to avoid the struggle of using the onboard toilet. Some resorted to wearing nappies on flights in case toilet access was impossible.
“I was really shocked by what I found in the interviews,” says Richardson. “Travelling systems are just not made for people with disabilities, and things have got worse with automation.” While researching her thesis, Richardson found that, as travel infrastructures have become more automated to boost efficiency and economic return, accessibility for disabled travellers is increasingly treated as a conditional service rather than something baked into the design of systems. “Travel systems are designed for average bodies and toilets are not designed for people with disabilities. It is particularly terrifying on long-haul flights.”
On a recent flight, she asked if she could move to a seat with more leg room, which was vacant, but was told she could only switch if she paid an extra $300. “When you are up in the air, you are a hostage. Disability is not a niche market. We are part of the community. Being disabled is seen as not important, not sexy, not interesting,” she says.
Some disabled travellers say they have to prepare for the worst when they book a plane ticket. Hasan Adeel has muscular dystrophy and flies frequently to visit family and to speak at conferences about his disability. He says he is frequently wrongly handled when being transferred between his wheelchair and his plane seat. “I have never yet used an aeroplane bathroom, as I can’t get through the door,” he says. “I feel that for airlines, rules are ranked higher than humanity. But you can’t argue with the airlines or they won’t let you get on the plane.”
On one trip, Adeel landed in Doha in Qatar and asked staff to help him transfer from his aeroplane seat to his wheelchair. He was left for 20 minutes. “They said they had never transferred a person like me before but that they would try,” says Adeel. “First they transferred me to the narrow aisle chair and from there into my wheelchair. They did not know the correct way to transfer someone with my disability and the transfer was not done in a professional way.”
Payal Shrishrimal, an artist who lives in India, is determined not to let the significant challenges of air travel get her down. She also has muscular dystrophy and, at 41, has far outlived the life expectancy of 20 that she was given as a child. “On one journey, when I was travelling home after recovering from surgery, the crew started whispering about me and my disability. They kept asking why I was using a wheelchair, and it made me feel very nervous and humiliated … Two or three hours before I leave home to travel to the airport I have to stop drinking water, because I know I won’t be able to use the toilet on the plane. Once, I was even asked to pay for the transport of my wheelchair, although there are [supposed to be] no charges for this.”
A recurrent complaint among wheelchair users is that, when their chairs are stored in the hold – in perfectly good condition – on landing they are returned to them battered and broken. One man discovered his electric wheelchair had been badly damaged when he arrived in London on an Emirates flight on 18 May. He is completely reliant on the chair and, as a result of the damage, has been confined to his home. “I have effectively been trapped inside my home, and unable to attend medical appointments, shop independently, or carry out normal daily activities,” he says. “This situation has caused significant distress, loss of independence, emotional suffering and disruption to my life.” He received no response from the airline, and nor did others who wrote to Emirates trying to advocate for him.
After the Guardian contacted Emirates, the airline agreed to take action. A spokesperson said: “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience he experienced. We are in direct contact with him and have arranged a temporary mobility device. We are also assessing options to replace his wheelchair as a permanent solution, and will continue to support him until the issue is fully resolved.”
Even those who are powerful and high-profile report appalling experiences when they travel by plane. Samanta Bullock, Brazil’s former No 1 wheelchair tennis player, now lives in the UK. She founded Bullock Inclusion, which creates social projects in fashion and sport to promote inclusion for all, and aims to change attitudes to transform the lives of people living with disabilities. Last month, she flew to New York to take part in the UN’s 19th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to further the rights of people with disabilities. She and her team had organised a fashion show for the event and discussed with officials how best to advance the rights of disabled people. But when she arrived at JFK airport for her flight back to the UK, she was told by British Airways staff that she couldn’t board the flight without a carer to take her to the toilet, as the flight crew wouldn’t be able to assist her. This would have required her to buy an expensive extra ticket.
“I have travelled my whole life and never had this experience before,” she says. “Eventually, they said they could transfer me to an American Airlines flight. I thought about not accepting the transfer and fighting this. But I was so tired from my trip and I just wanted to get home, so I agreed to the change.”
A British Airways spokesperson said: “We want to ensure a seamless flying experience for everyone and we’re sorry that our customer had a negative experience on this occasion. We are aware our customer has expressed concerns regarding her experience and we have reached out to her to discuss further.
“We serve hundreds of thousands of customers who require additional assistance every year and while we’re committed to continually improving our service, we work hard to support accessibility requirements throughout their journey.”
Morgan says that, because cases like Bullock’s continue to happen, she will keep on fighting. “I fly with my rights in my pocket, but our rights continue to be violated. We need to rebrand this as a crisis.”
As for Babalola, she continues to fight KLM. When the Guardian asked the airline to comment on her case, KLM said in a statement: “We regret that an incident occurred involving one of our passengers on the flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam on 26 May. Out of respect for the privacy of both the passenger and our crew, we find it inappropriate to discuss the details of the situation.”
Babalola has now engaged a lawyer to help her. “I need to take legal action, because otherwise this abuse of power against disabled people will continue. The experience I had on that KLM flight was distressing, degrading and humiliating. I felt intimidated by the flight crew.” On 19 June, she received a further letter from KLM, saying it was important to the company that all passengers are treated with “the utmost respect and dignity”.
“We are disappointed that we fell short of that expectation,” the airline added. It went on to apologise for the fact she hadn’t received the assistance she requested and included “sincere apologies” for her experience. The letter concluded: “We once again apologise for Ms Babalola’s experience on board flight KL598 and are making efforts to ensure that such a situation does not reoccur in the future.”
None of the people interviewed for this piece are holding their breath.
