“This is me, being carried down a flight of stairs in a broken aisle chair—no armrests, straps that wouldn’t tighten enough to keep my body in, and front wheels that were busted off,” Tori Hunter wrote in the caption of a TikTok video she shared on Global Accessibility Day this past May.
“You can see from my face how distraught and absolutely terrified I was. The individuals that were sent to help me disembark this plane likely had very little training on how to do so. […] We didn’t speak the same language so they continued along without understanding my repeated ‘no’s.’ Never in my life have I felt so out of control and so disconnected from my body.”
Hunter, 26, was born with a disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, an irreversible genetic condition and neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens her muscles over time. For her entire life, she has relied on her power wheelchair to get around, which she drives using a joystick. Her condition, however, hasn’t lessened her passion for travel. If anything, it’s fueled it.
But her condition can make travel more challenging. For Hunter, a trip that takes the average traveler a week or so of planning takes her months, if not longer. “Being a child, my parents always planned everything,” she told Thrillist. “So I never really realized the intricacies of how much went into planning an accessible trip until I started traveling by myself.”
During the months of preparation for the Costa Rica trip during which she made that video, Hunter says she contacted the medical desk of Air Canada, the flight operator, three times to ensure they knew she could not walk or climb stairs. In Hunter’s experience, that meant the airline and the airport would collaborate to ensure they would use a jet bridge to disembark. Thrillist contacted Air Canada for comment, and this story will be updated if they respond to our query.
“They knew even upon check-in at the Toronto airport—we confirmed that I couldn’t do steps and that I needed assistance on and off the aircraft,” said Hunter. “So it really truly wasn’t until we landed in Costa Rica that we found out that there would be stairs.”
“I was never informed that this would be how I would have to disembark the plane, and it never crossed my mind given that this airport does use jet bridges,” Hunter wrote in her TikTok caption. “In fact, all of the other planes around us were pulled up to them.”
In the video’s comment section, many users took Hunter’s words as a shot at airport workers. “I see nice people trying to help,” reads one comment that received more than 75,000 likes. “Great staff, thank you guys! People will always complain,” chimes in another.
To Hunter, though, those comments miss a more important point—that the travel industry provides insufficient and dissatisfying service to those traveling with a disability, regardless of how kind local staff and individuals are.”Everyone was super nice, super friendly, and a thousand percent it wasn’t the fault of the crew members at all,” Hunter said, addressing those comments. “I was very grateful for their help, but I don’t think that they should have been put in that situation either.”
When she was 17, Tori Hunter took her first trip to Europe without her parents. This was the first time she realized how challenging traveling can be when you’re alone and have a physical disability. “I know that it can be really hard to find those tips and tricks, especially when you are not an ambulatory wheelchair user and you’re not able to get up and simply walk,” said Hunter. “Everywhere I go has to be completely accessible for me to be able to partake.”
Hunter isn’t the only one going through accessibility-related issues in the travel world. Every year, thousands of travelers with disabilities face unnecessary challenges. For example, according to the Department of Transportation, airlines damaged or lost more than 11,500 passenger wheelchairs in 2023.
Since returning from her first “solo” trip to Europe (she’s always traveling with at least one personal caregiver, as she needs daily assistance with specific tasks, including transferring on and off her bed), Hunter has dedicated her social media to increasing awareness about accessible travel. Hunter maintains a blog sharing accessible travel tips and itineraries for those in similar situations. Hunter has almost 14,000 followers on Instagram, and her TikToks have gained nearly 500,000 likes.
Traveling remains both a joy and a stressful experience for Hunter, but through her social media presence and blog, she continues to advocate for accessible changes. We sat down with Hunter to learn more about what it means to be traveling with a disability in 2024 and to discuss what changes are needed to make the travel world more accessible and inclusive.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Thrillist: When’s the first time you got on a flight?
Tori Hunter: I was pretty young. I would probably say I was four or five.
And when was the first time you realized flying would be different for you?
I was probably around 10 years old when I had my first big experience of inaccessibility with an airline because when I was younger, it was pretty easy. I would have a manual chair. It was pretty easy to just hold up and throw it in an aircraft. But I was around 10 when I brought my power wheelchair for the first time. We were flying to Hawaii, and it got horribly damaged. That was our first time really seeing how inaccessible air travel is for people with disabilities.
Air travel reports show how many wheelchairs and mobility devices are damaged on planes every year, and the rates are often quite alarming. Can you estimate how many complaints you’ve had to file regarding your air travel experience?
We’ve definitely had my wheelchair damaged over 10 times in our travel experience. Some of them have been relatively minor, and by minor, I mean they pop the wheels, which still impacts me when I get to that destination. But at least it’s a fixable issue. I’ve also had times when my chair was completely demolished, and it didn’t drive anymore. It’s been pretty brutal.
How do you try to prevent this from happening?
My family and I figured out the tips and tricks for how to avoid the situation, like how to bubble wrap and pack my wheelchair really well. We’ve also learned that in addition to looking at freight prices and times and all that, we have to book certain flights on certain aircrafts that can accommodate my power wheelchair sitting upright because if the cargo door is not big enough, then what they’ll do is they’ll put the chair on its side, which is when it gets the most damaged.
Has this information been provided to you by the carriers?
They don’t put this information on their website as in, like, ‘Oh, if you have a disability, make sure you do this.’ This is just something that we’ve figured out over time by looking at the details tab of a specific flight. I’ll just find the model of the airplane and look at the cargo door height to see if it will accommodate my wheelchair.
That seems like a lot of work.
It is a lot of work, but it’s also what I have to do to make sure that my chair gets there.
Would you say this is the most challenging part about traveling in a wheelchair?
Transportation is the biggest one. It’s not just getting there on the airplane. It’s also when you arrive at your destination. Wherever I go, I need a fully accessible vehicle, and that depends on where you’re going. Especially some of the places we’ve been to in the Caribbean or South America. They may only have one accessible van on the whole island.
Things can’t be spontaneous. You have to plan months and months in advance. Even something as simple as, ‘Oh, we want to go out for dinner tonight’ has to be planned months in advance because we have to arrange that transportation ahead of time.What about flying? What’s the most challenging part of traveling on a plane?
It’s the stress and how uncomfortable it is for me because I’m not able to stay in my wheelchair.
I have to be lifted out of my chair and into a regular seat, and it’s quite painful. It’s also quite uncomfortable because I’m not supported by my wheelchair. Not only that but once I’m in the seat, I can’t move until I get off the plane. I can’t get to the washroom. I can’t get up. I’m stuck there.
Longer flights must be draining.
I’ve been on a 12-hour flight to Hawaii, and I wasn’t able to use the washroom the whole time. I think people don’t really understand the implications of people with disabilities having to get out of their wheelchairs to sit in a regular seat. I have friends—myself included—that will dehydrate for three-plus days before a flight so that they don’t have to go pee the whole time. There needs to be some improvements about plane bathrooms because that’s such a huge barrier.
You mentioned that you try your best to be organized before a flight to make it more comfortable, but at times—as seen on your Costa Rica flight, which you shared on TikTok—airlines fall short of expectations. Did you end up confronting Air Canada after the incident?
All they said was, ‘Sorry, all policies were followed. ‘In fairness, I never asked for a jet bridge in writing, but I was under the assumption that there wouldn’t be stairs because I had three separate phone calls with their medical desk letting them know that I was flying with my power wheelchair, that I couldn’t do stairs, that I was not ambulatory. And we confirmed it again with the person at the checking desk. I guess they never flat-out lied to me. They never said there would be no stairs, but they never informed me that there would be stairs, either.
At the same time, though, some airlines are working on making planes more accessible. Last year, Delta announced plans for a seat that would allow wheelchair users to board the aircraft without getting out of their wheelchair. What are your thoughts about these accessibility improvements in air travel?
I feel very optimistic about the future of air travel for people with disabilities. Delta’s prototype is huge and a game changer for allowing people with disabilities to remain in their mobility devices. This is better for our comfort and will prevent mobility devices from getting damaged.
It’s also going to allow people who have not been able to fly to explore the world. I have so many friends who cannot physically be transferred out of their wheelchairs. Some people have ventilators or other conditions that don’t allow them to sit outside of their devices, and air travel has completely been out of the question for them.
So I do feel really excited, not just for myself, but for everyone. I feel like so many more people will have access to exploring the world now.
You mentioned plane bathrooms must be made accessible. What are some other key improvements you want to see?
The ground crew handling our mobility aids needs more training, empathy, and understanding. They’ll just check them in the cargo hold, treating them like a piece of luggage when they don’t actually understand that these are our legs. This is the only way we can get around. And if they’re damaged now, our whole rotation, our whole trip, is ruined.
Do you feel like airlines and, more generally, the travel industry are doing enough to be inclusive toward travelers with disabilities?
No. I think they’re truly doing the bare minimum, what they’re federally regulated to do, and nothing more. At the end of the day, airlines care about profit. Unless governments are mandating these changes, I honestly realistically don’t see them doing it on their own.
What are some accessible changes across the travel world that you want to see?
Information is such a huge one, and that’s part of why I started my blog and do what I do. I would love to see more companies be more mindful of putting accessibility information out there. Even when I’m booking a hotel, they never have photos of the accessible rooms—I need to see what it looks like, what the bed height is to see if that works for me, I need to see if there’s a roll-in shower, and so on. All of this information is just not readily available. And it’s not just hotels. It’s restaurants, airports, and airlines. It would just make planning so much easier.
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