Visually impaired activist locked up for hours in disability lounge without food, help by Lufthansa

In yet another case of apathy by an airline, visually challenged gender activist Nidhi Goyal was forced to stay put for five hours in a disability lounge in Munich airport without any food. Goyal was on a Lufthansa flight from Mexico to Mumbai, and she had a stopover at Munich.

As claimed by the gender activist, despite her repeated requests she was not allowed to buy food or meet with her friend. Goyal added that she already communicated to the airline staff that she is hypoglycemic, still no one accompanied her to buy food. The activist also said that her boarding pass was confiscated and was not allowed to exit airport.

The visually challenged activist also wrote a letter to Lufthansa narrating her ordeal:

To Lufthansa staff

I am nidhi goyal , a blind woman an activist working on disability rights and gender justice from Mumbai. I was on your Lufthansa flight from Mexico to Mumbai via Munich departure from Mexico on November 12 10.35 am arrival munich nov 13 5.05 am; departure munich 11.30 am and arrival Mumbai nov 13 11.55 pm. Please find the ticket attached.

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I have travelled all over the world- USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, UK,  Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Portugal,  Vietnam SriLanka and Nepal. I am a frequent flier and have travelled extensively but the behaviour  towards me on this return journey at Munich airport was appalling. Have tweeted about this. Your staff has responded with a general complaint link. I have shared my email id and demanded a formal written apology, compensation for the trauma, and concrete action plan for change. But have received no email in around 5 hours

Incident:

Horrible first experience of being locked up in a disability assistance lounge- flying Lufthansa from Mexico, I land at 5.05 am at Munich airport in Germany. I have 6.30 hours before i can take the next flight. i am assisted to the disability lounge in satellite building. I double check with the male staff assisting me. Will someone be able to help me buy some food in a few hours please and my friend might come to meet me so i would like to step out of the airport since i have a valid visa. He assured me that the lady staff at the lounge will help me with this whenever i want. at 7.30 I request her to assist me to get to the cafe just a few minutes away. she refuses. I go to my seat pick up my purse and decide to walk out and hunt for the cafe on my own. She denies me exit! scaredI  ask for my boarding card back, she refuses. literally locked up there. after insisting, cajoling, asserting she agrees to consider assisting me in half hour if her replacement staff comes in.

I wait patiently. my friend calls in 25 minutes by now it is 8.13 and i go to the counter again asking for assistance to exit the airport instead of going to the coffee shop. and explain that i have a valid visa. she refuses. i still give her the benefit of doubt that she doesn’t understand english so well. so i call my friend waiting at the airport and request her to speak to the staff in german. so the staff after much discussion finally tells my friend that there is no possibility that my friend and I could meet. because they would not  assist and “not allow” me to step out alone. As if I am a child and they are my keepers or guardians.

By now i am agitated with the behaviour. i argue, request and assert my right to speak to one of her senior. she makes calls and from the little German i know i understand that she is talking about me but not giving me the phone. As if my requests and assertions counted for nothing. I again hear her speaking on the cell to her senior and i start loudly speaking from behind insisting that i wanted to speak to the lady on the phone directly. i get the phone they promise to call in 5 minutes. The call comes and again the staff speaks and keeps the phone.

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It is 8.35 by now. ten mins later another lady comes in and she says that i didn't book services so they wont provide it to me.I ask where is one suppose to book services? It was mentioned on my ticket that i am a blind passenger assistance is needed. and had repeated my requests to the person assisting during deplaning. she says too bad for the miscommunication and that mobility services in charge of providing assistance refuses to help . and i have no choice but to wait. because they wont allow me to step out. not to meet anyone . not to buy food. oh yeah and if i needed it so much she could do a favor and buy me a coffee. Infuriated, i was forced to send my friend back from the airport. I repeated that I would need some food because i was hypoglycemic and i am vegetarian so i didn't know what was available for her to buy. She refused to take me out of the lounge with her. Or again let me step out alone. “not allowed” is  all they said. She said my only option was to wait till boarding. I said I wanted to complaint against this behavior. And she said that I could do that on my way to boarding not before.

I was forced to endure being locked up in a disability assistance lounge till the assisting staff came to me at the time of boarding. It is against dignity and rights to treat a disabled person like this. I have never been humiliated like this and I demand prompt action- a formal apology, compensation for the trauma I faced, and concrete action plan for change.

Also the new Lufthansa flights are against universal design. The individual call buttons are integrated now on the touch screen instead of being a separate tactile button. Which is completely not accessible to visually impaired persons like me. I had to then endure this flight where I couldn't’t call for help at all. The worst travel experience that I have ever had- at the airport and then during the flight.

Look forward to your response at the earliest.

Nidhi Goyal

Founder and director: Rising Flame

Meanwhile, the gender activist while taking to Twitter sought support from mainstream media to ensure this discrimination doesn’t happen with any other disabled person.

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