Trump’s delay of wheelchair rule frustrates disabled flIers

WHITE SALMON, Wash — Seth McBride’s life changed forever on a snowy mountainside in British Columbia.

McBride was and still is a thrill seeker. Growing up in Juneau, Alabama, his stomping grounds of the untamed outdoors, he loved rock climbing, mountain biking, and especially skiing and soaring headlong over heart-pounding cliffs, cliffs, and cornices.

A few months before his senior year in high school, McBride was at a terrain park at the Whistler Blackcomb resort. He was 17 years old. He performed a maneuver he had done many times before: a backflip from a steep jump. But this time he accelerated too much, oversteered and fell on his neck. He immediately knew something was wrong.

“As soon as I landed, I lost all feeling in my legs and back,” McBride recalled more than 25 years later.

The prognosis was dire; Doctors told McBride he would probably never walk again, but he didn’t.

But that didn’t slow him down much.

Before they had children, McBride and his wife cycled 6,500 miles (McBride using a custom, hand-cranked bike) from Portland, Oregon, to the southern tip of Argentina. He traveled the world as a wheelchair rugby player; He won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and London.

Adventurous and brave, McBride looks unflappable. Until it comes to plane travel.

Not the hardships and aggravations that most people endure. McBride, 43, must follow a special diet on each trip and keep himself hydrated so he doesn’t have to use the restroom during the flight. Every trip involves the uncomfortable possibility of being pushed, or worse, dropped, while being transferred to your seat. He can never be sure that his wheelchair, his lifeline, will not be damaged or lost when his plane lands.

“There are few places in my life where I feel less detached than the airport,” said McBride, who currently plays competitive rugby at club level. “None of the systems are set up so wheelchair users can manage things on their own.”

Wheelchairs at Portland International Airport. Multi-purpose equipment cannot meet the various needs of disabled passengers.

(Will Matsuda / For The Times)

For a while, it looked like this might change somewhat as the Biden administration weakened. The federal government has issued a set of regulations that, among other things, require airlines to assume liability for damaged and delayed wheelchairs and improve the training of staff working with passengers with mobility issues.

But the Trump administration, which has made deregulation one of its top mandates, has suspended those requirements, while a trade association and several major airlines have sued to prevent the changes from taking effect.

For McBride and others like him, it’s a disappointing setback that comes after years of pressure on Washington to make air travel a little smoother and more humane.

“It sucks,” McBride said of the disgraceful situation of a wheelchair passenger. “I know a lot of people who refuse to fly anymore.”

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When is the Biden administration? new airline regulations published He explained his reasoning in the Federal Register.

Passengers who must return their wheelchairs must “rely on airline staff and contractors to use the wheelchair or scooter appropriately and return it in a timely manner in the condition in which it was received. Advocates emphasized that when an individual’s wheelchair or scooter is damaged by an airline, the individual’s mobility, health, and freedom will be affected until the device is returned, repaired, or replaced.”

Moreover, “Advocates note that wheelchairs are often custom-equipped to meet the needs and shapes of each user. Spending time in an ill-fitting chair can cause serious injuries, such as pressure sores, or even death from subsequent infection.”

The Department for Transport estimates that 1 in every 100 wheelchairs or scooters placed on domestic flights will be lost, damaged or delayed in 2024. Unless you’re the type of person whose well-being or even survival depends on their wheelchair or scooter being ready and working on arrival, this may not seem like a huge figure.

Mia Ives-Rublee directs the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. He said airlines that cater to luxury passengers and treat everyone like sardines have long put profits and interests ahead of the needs of disabled passengers.

“We’ve seen this tension continue to grow as people with disabilities become more active and the world becomes more accessible. They want to travel or do jobs that require travel,” Ives-Rublee said. While discrimination is clearly illegal, “Airlines aren’t doing enough to protect our devices,” making it “very difficult for people with disabilities to travel.”

Almost half a dozen of Ives-Rubles’ wheelchairs have been broken into by airlines in the last 20 years, and this can be both costly and life-threatening. A manually operated wheelchair can cost up to $2,000, Ives-Rublee said. The cost of a mechanized wheelchair can be as expensive as a used car.

McBride mostly travels from Portland airport. He feels less independent, saying, “There is very little space in my life.”

(Will Matsuda / For The Times)

(McBride said his “everyday chair” had nicks and scrapes. Worse still, the wheelchairs he uses for rugby were damaged, which “obviously is a big deal” when traveling for a match.)

Airlines and trade groups said in their lawsuit against the rule change that the Biden administration overstepped its authority and that the new requirements were too harsh. The lawsuit alleged that strict liability for wheelchair damage could subject air carriers to “unreasonable financial risk.”

Wheelchair rules were supposed to go into effect just before Biden left office. The Trump administration delayed these until March 2025, then delayed implementation until August 2025. Now the Department of Transportation says it will issue a new rule next August, with a 60-day comment period; This means no changes will come until at least 2027.

Ives-Rublee has little hope of relief.

“Given nature of administration “I doubt they’re doing much to preserve Biden-era regulations right now,” he said.

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The last thing McBride wants is for anyone to feel sorry for him. He’s not a victim.

“It was something that happened to me,” he said of the accident that left him paralyzed. “But things like this happen to people all the time. What matters is how you move forward and what you can do next with your life.”

McBride was sitting at the kitchen table of his custom-built home two miles up the Columbia River in rural Washington state. The single-storey, light and airy house, with concrete floors that smooth the path for his wheelchair, sits at the end of a steep dirt road. A backyard forest gives her children, ages 4 and 8, the same freedom to enjoy nature that she enjoyed growing up in Alaska. His son also has a climbing wall in his bedroom.

McBride, who works remotely, writes for New Mobility, a magazine for wheelchair users, and writes for the United Spinal Assn., a nonprofit advocacy group. Manages communications and marketing for.

His politics lean towards the left side of the spectrum. (On a cold, rainy morning, McBride wore a black Oregon Ducks hoodie to honor his alma mater, the University of Oregon, and his home in liberal Eugene.) Although he’s no fan of Trump, McBride doesn’t see making life easier for wheelchair users as a partisan issue. After all, he noted, it was Republican president George HW Bush who signed the landmark American bill.
With the Disability Act.

“We’ve made a lot of progress as a community working with Republicans and Democrats,” he said as the sun appeared briefly, illuminating the Douglas firs on his doorstep. “The fundamental issue of people having access to the same services and the same experiences as everyone else should not be political. … It is a security issue.”

He is certainly not against deregulation.

“I think it’s a big problem within systems that it’s overly complex for companies or people to do anything,” McBride said. “But most time regulations exist for a reason. That’s when private companies don’t do a good enough job of protecting the rights or safety of all people in a society.”

Given the chance to address Trump or Transportation Department chief Sean Duffy, McBride would say: Let’s take a plane ride.

“Take a trip with my rugby team and see what it’s like to have multiple wheelchair users on the same plane,” he said, “and how difficult it is and why we feel regulations are needed so that we can have a modicum of safety and dignity when flying.”

The cost of accommodation can reduce some of airlines’ profitability. But some things can’t be priced in dollars and cents.