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After the airline refused to supply him with a wheelchair, a 49-year-old disabled man was forced to drag himself to the front of an Air Canada aircraft to exit. According to CBS News, the man said he was in “significant pain” after the incident. Rodney Hodgins wants the flagship carrier’s protocol changed so that when an aircraft lands, someone is always present to help the individual with a disability. Hodgins utilizes a motorized wheelchair because he has spastic cerebral palsy, a collection of conditions that impact a person’s ability to move, balance, and posture. He had allegedly modified his motorized wheelchair before the flight to fit in the cargo section.
“We use the services of a third-party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas to provide safe transport on and off aircraft,” says the Company
The flight attendant, however, advised the pair that there was not enough time for them to get a wheelchair on board before the jet had to be made ready for takeoff again after the plane landed, according to his wife Deanna’s recent Facebook post. When the flight attendant requested that Rodney get off the plane by himself, the pair thought she was joking. However, he was able to move past 12 rows of seats by using his upper-body power. Hodgins is reportedly a hardware salesman from British Columbia. He flew to Las Vegas with his wife to celebrate their anniversary in August. He told CBC News: “It was quite painful for me to do that in the first place. It hurt my legs. For three days, I felt terrible on my holiday. I thought they didn’t care about me; they wanted me to get off this plane.”
Deanna said in the post that the incident left them devastated. She said, “It took us struggling, in front of a dozen people as some looked away and others looked on with shame, to get him off that plane.” She added, “He hurt his legs and I hurt my back—emotionally, a lot more were hurt … my husband’s human rights were trampled on and Air Canada won’t respond to us and never did reach out as they promised. Rod is the most beautiful human on the planet and didn’t deserve this.”
The company acknowledged the pain Rodney Hodgins and his wife suffered as it said, “We use the services of a third-party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas to provide safe transport on and off aircraft.” “Following our investigation into how this serious service lapse occurred, we will be evaluating other mobility assistance service partners in Las Vegas,” it added. This is utterly disgraceful. The total disregard for the rights of #PWD is appalling. Persons with disabilities are not second-class passengers or citizens; they are Canadians who are entitled to the same services and opportunities.
