Decoding Disability

On a flight, a young child is dangerously swinging a fork at people around him while his parents and others are trying to get him to calm down. There is chaos with neighboring passengers trying to take cover, while some passengers are trying to assist the parents and stewards by attempting to pin the child to the seat. People start panicking loudly while the parents are desperately pleading with passengers to maintain a level of silence. After a few tense moments, the mother finally is able to get a hold of the child allowing the child to calm down. The pandemonium finally subsides and the flight continues peacefully to it's destination. When people begin to disembark, the same child is happily waving goodbye to the passenger and thanking them (imitating the stewardesses).

This may sound like a scene from a movie, but it is something that actually happened on an international flight I was on. So what was really going on here? The child was a differently abled child who got into a mode of panic when the plane went through some bad turbulence. The parents were probably not prepared at that moment when all hell broke loose and the child started swinging his arms around. Unknowingly he picked up fork in one hand. From what I could figure out, he was trying to reach out to someone to hold onto for comfort, but in that moment, it appeared that he was swinging around a weapon. The added chaos created by other passengers, due to their lack on understanding on how to handle the situation, simply made things worse. This was quite some time in the past and today medical science has progressed to allow for medication to help calm the person down quickly.

So was the child a threat? Were his parents at fault? Was the airlines at fault? Was the staff adequately trained to handle the situation? Were the fellow passengers capable of handling the situation? During this episode of less than 5 minutes, who would be responsible if someone had to get injured?

In the last few days, there has been a lot of mixed review regarding an airline that didn't allow a differently abled child to board the flight. The reason: The child had a panic attack some time back and even though the child had calmed down, the Airlines Manager felt the child was a flight risk. Passengers on board the same flight, including some who were doctors, said they didn't feel at risk, but the manager didn't relent. The airlines gave the family accommodation and put them on the next day flight to their location. So the question arises - Was the manager right or not? Can an Airlines Manager term a person with disabilities "At Risk" or not?

Let's start by trying to understand what Disability mean. To a common person, a person with a disability is usually a physically handicapped person. But under global rules, Disability is an umbrella term used to cover persons with Physical, Mental or Psychological challenges. If we ask a common person what Mental or Psychological challenges mean, we'd have a majority of them not having a clue. I was no different and learned about this topic only after I ended up marrying a Doctor who specializes in kids with Mental and Psychological challenges. These are what people have today come to know as "Special Needs" but which we prefer referring to "Differently Abled". Contrary to the myth that Differently Abled people are crazy or mad (I do not support either of these terms), they are generally more advanced in a particular skill but have challenges expressing it in public. The difference is that they need to be handled in a different manner from the mass public.

Label-locked thinking can affect treatment. For instance, I heard a doctor say about a kid with gastrointestinal issues, “Oh, he has autism. That’s the problem”—and then he didn’t treat the GI problem - Temple Grandin

Due to my better half, I get to know many things about Differently Abled kids and it's a new learning everyday. They are kids/people like the rest of us, albeit with some challenge, who need to be taught how to adjust to the world we live in. As part of my service to society, I work with a lot of kids. One among them happens to be differently abled. He has his quirks, but when he's in control, he's exceptional at the work he does and is loved by everyone. He needs to be handled differently and taught how to handle himself when faced with situations that are not comfortable for him. The kid on the airplane who was happily saying bye to everyone when he was in a non-challenging situation. He had no clue that he did something dangerous a while earlier whereas all he would probably have been looking for is something to give him comfort during the turbulence. As he had no visible handicap, an Airlines Manager cleared him for travel and that could have had a different ending.

In dealing with autism, I'm certainly not saying we should lose sight of the need to work on deficits, But the focus on deficits is so intense and so automatic that people lose sight of the strengths ―?Temple Grandin

The global education about differently abled kids/people is extremely poor. Almost everyone reading this post would not even know how to react if a differently abled person next to them has an attack. The general rules of the world do not apply here and every situation needs to be looked at on a case to case basis. There are numerous doctors who are working with differently abled people to help them cope in the general world. Disabilities like Autism, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, Hyperactive disorders, Learning disabilities, Asperger's, Dyslexia, Downs Syndrome and many others are affecting a large section of the population, especially children, and people need to be educated on how to properly adjust to it. Comparing these individuals to people with physical handicaps is absurd as they are very different types of disabilities. Parents and families should understand that this topic is not a taboo and need to accept the fact that such individuals may never be the same as a general person, but they can be provided help to cope with situations and should be enlisted with a good Doctor. There is no shame in seeking help to improve the acceptance of a person, Differently abled or not.

The recent episodes of ill informed people bashing up the airlines was very disturbing. It must be understood that normal doctors DO NOT have adequate knowledge on how to handle differently abled people. The decision taken by the Airlines Manager was based on his judgement at that point of time. If the child was allowed to board on insistence of the other passengers and God forbid something had to go wrong, the same people would have blamed this Airlines Manager. Whether his decision was right or wrong is something that can only be hoped form, but when a person has been authorized for the safety or others and takes a decision based on his best reading of the situation then they definitely do not deserve a media crucifixion.

Disclaimer:?The views expressed here are totally personal and do not represent the view of any community or professional organization that I'm a part of. The article/blog is intended to present readers with different perspectives of situation and does not intended to lure anyone in any specific direction. The views expressed are not intended to hurt or offend any individual, group, organization or community in any way. The names of people, groups or organizations mentioned in the post are based on what is available in public domain only. Any grievances caused are highly regretted.