“We almost never get justice”: A traveller whose wheelchair broke in transit fights back

Zoe Simmons’s travel story went viral on social media – and saw Qantas offering to resolve the case of her wheelchair being broken in transit. But as Zoe points out, one righted wrong does not fix the global issue of travellers with disability being mistreated.

The world likes to tell disabled people that we are powerless. But recent events have shown me otherwise.

A few weeks ago, I flew on a plane for the very first time during the pandemic. It was also my first time flying as a wheelchair user.

I was terrified.

I’d heard so many horror stories from wheelchair users over the globe. I hoped it wouldn’t happen to me too. But it did. Like all airlines, Qantas, the airline I was travelling with, insists on separating people from their wheelchairs. On landing, I discovered the left brake on my wheelchair had been broken in transit. When I approached Qantas for help, I was denied. Twice. Because they claimed that a broken brake was “minor”.

I was enraged. Not just for me, but for every single other disabled person who’s had issues while flying. Whether that be mobility aids getting damaged or lost, or humiliating and dehumanising treatment.

We almost never get justice and we almost never get answers. Our grievances just get swept under the rug and we’re often too tired to fight.

Well, this time, I decided to fight. Despite extremely limited capacity due to chronic pain and fatigue, I started posting about my experiences on social media. I made videos, too. And pretty quickly, my story went viral.

Suddenly, I was getting thousands of likes, shares, comments and messages, as well as interview requests from multiple news outlets. I was even commissioned to write my own article.

At this point, Qantas decided to do the right thing. They claimed there had been an internal error and that all mobility aid cases should always be escalated to their advocacy team.

I’m not convinced. Especially because my claim was knocked back with the same answer, twice.

I fought back and was able, eventually, to get a promising response, but so many others battling airlines and airports around the globe haven’t. And since sharing my story, I’ve received so many comments and messages, with people asking me how they too can get justice.

It’s heartbreaking. I wish I could do something to help. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make things better. I wish I could make the non-disabled community and those in power see how widespread this issue is. It’s not enough to just raise awareness, we need to create change.

Even more disheartening are the countless online trolls telling me I’m “attention-seeking” and making this up. As if any disabled person would voluntarily put themselves through this. As if disabled people don’t experience these things every single day.

I even had one person say “disabled people just shouldn’t travel”. How ridiculous!

Sadly, as the disabled community knows all too well, it’s not just air travel where this issue is rampant - it’s everywhere. Ableism, inaccessibility and discrimination permeates pretty much every fibre of our society. And yet disabled people are made to feel like we are the problem.

I shouldn’t have to battle to get a resolution. No one should, which is why I’m going to keep making as much noise about this as I can. I hope airlines and airports around the world are listening because disabled people deserve better. And despite what you tell us, we do have power.