Traveling with Tourettes

[gonzette]

One of my sons has Tourette's. His symptoms are not severe, but can be annoying to others. We will be flying to DisneyWorld in October. I booked flights on US Air in February and chose seats that I felt would be best for both our family and others on the plane. Since that time, our seats have been changed and in some cases we are not even sitting together. Does anyone know if the airline has a policy for people in our situation? I am calling daily to try to change seat assignments.

 

[SueM in MN]

They may not have a direct link to it on their website, but each airline has a special needs department. When you call, ask to speak to someone who deals with special needs and disabilities. If that person doesn't know, keep asking up the line until you get to someone who can help you.
Once you get the right department, they can assign your seats and lock them so that they are not supposed to be changed. People tend to think of disabilities as only wheelchair/mobility, but the airlines do have to help with other needs also.
I did a search and found a
link to the Disabilities page from US Airways. I saw there is a link to contact them at the bottom of the page.

 

[gonzette]

Thank you for this information. I did not know that I could request to talk to someone about passengers with special needs. Even if this doesn't help this time, I will definitely try it in the future.

 

[seashoreCM]

If worst comes to worst I am sure that some other passenger will be glad to trade seats with you so you can sit next to your son.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to tell between someone who has a disability versus someone who is deliberately doing something they should not be doing or not doing something they should be doing. Persons with Tourette's are especially singled out because their movements sometimes look aggressive.

Even deaf people get treated adversely when they don't seem to respond when "everybody" expectes them to.

I can't think of any effective way of dealing with this other than having a name tag with an explanation e.g. "Have difficulty controlling my arm movements" or e.g. simply "I am deaf".

Try walking on tiptoe for a long time. How often would you lose your balance and have to flail your arms to keep from falling?

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

(This also applies to use of special facilities for the disabled such as Disney's Guest Assistance Passes)
"If you confess your disabilities, other people are almost always going to accommodate your disabilities"

 

[gonzette]

What is a "Guest Assistance Pass?" Does it apply to all disabilities and do you have to have documentation if the disability is not apparent?

 

[SueM in MN]

Originally posted by gonzette
What is a "Guest Assistance Pass?" Does it apply to all disabilities and do you have to have documentation if the disability is not apparent?

It's actually Guest Assistance Card. The distinction is that people think a Pass gave immediate access to the rides/attractions. The Guest Assistance Card is just a tool to let the CMs know what sorts of assistance someone with an invisible disability needs. It is not meant to (and usually won't ) eliminate or shorten the wait. What it can do is alert the CMs that you may need different conditions for waiting (like to bring a stroller in line and have it treated like a wheelchair, a quieter place to wait, etc.)

Please follow the link ion my signature to the disABILITIES Board for more information.

 

[SB in KY]

If you cannot get assistance from the airlines in advance I would politely repeat my story to the gate agent when you arrive at the departure gate. We have flown a couple of times with my friends family....she has 2 DS's with a syndrome that is similar to autism. Both times she got the boys situated at the gate and then told the agent what the situation was and how important it was to be seated together...when she explained that they might be quite annoying to other passengers if seated solo they were only too happy to rearrange a little....

Kind of like the time I was travelling with my 4 year old daughter and the flight was full, our connection late and no one wanted to move (we were the last ones to board)...and the 2 remaining seats were 6 or seven rows apart....so I calmly plopped her in a seat next to a man in a $900 suit, got out the snack bag, found the gummy worms and reminded her not to put her sticky hands on the nice mans clothes, then I got the sippy cup out and pulled the lid off and told her to ask for GRAPE juice when the nice drink lady came by (by this time he is bobbing around trying to find another empty seat) and then I pulled out a big bag of markers and a coloring book and told her if she ran out of pages to color maybe she could use some of that mans papers (he had been flipping through some huge report when we arrived), and because he still hadn't offered to move I told him not to worry if she cried for the first 20 minutes or so of the flight, she'd quit sooner or later....at that he leapt out of his seat and RAN to the other open spot...I honestly think he would have thrown himself out of the plane onto the tarmac if another seat had not been available!!

Just make it sound like you are doing everyone a big favor to sit by your own child and they'll move!!