Flying with our disabled daughter...
Mr S and I, were lucky enough to escape for a few days at the end of November, just the two of us. We were in need of some time to relax and were dying for a bit of sunshine and warm weather. Mr S had visited Dubai in the past and we had a great trip to Abu Dhabi together, when Master S was little. Having lived out in the Middle East for 18 months, we had always planned to go to Dubai but the trip we had planned as a family of 3, was cancelled last minute due to Miss S’s very premature arrival. Obviously she didn’t want to miss out on the fun! So Dubai has always been a destination high on my list to visit.
We knew Dubai was a fairly long way to travel for just a few nights but we decided to go for it. Surely we’d be able to sleep on the flight when we were child-free?! That part of the plan didn’t quite work out as we’d hoped (bright, noisy cabin on an overnight flight!) but the lazy lie-ins and relaxing on the beach that followed, more than made up for a restless night flight!
We stayed at the Amwaj Rotana at the Jumeriah Beach Residence (JBR), and not long after flying in, we enjoyed a leisurely Friday Brunch. If you’ve not come across Friday Brunches before, they are something of an institution in Dubai. We’d tried one out at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain a few years back, but Dubai’s offerings are at a whole other level. Each hotel and many local restaurants, compete with each other to tempt you to stump up the cash (in some cases A LOT of cash) to try out their food offerings, along with soft or alcoholic drinks packages. At the Amwaj there was so much on offer and we had a good go at sampling it all over the course of the four hours! Indian, Japanese, Italian, barbeque grill, seafood, a huge array of cheeses, salads and even a ‘chocolate library’ (as delicious as it sounds!) All along with live entertainment…those four hours were pretty relaxing!
The rest of our stay was full of wandering around and shopping at the Dubai Marina, The Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world), marvelling at the Burj Khalifa (currently the world’s tallest building), being entertained by the dancing fountains and dining on our Chinese food just beside them! We tested out the monorail and the metro system ticking off lots of the sights I had heard about over the years, finally setting my eyes on them myself.
Throughout our stay we talked about how much we would love to bring the children back and how actually, Dubai could be pretty accessible for Miss S. Dubai is so new in so many ways with building projects popping up everywhere. The city has developed so much in recent years and with that has come greater accessibility. Accessible hotel rooms, nice smooth walkways, lifts, ramps on to the beach in places and an amazing (and accessible) monorail and metro. Buses are all wheelchair friendly and wheelchair taxis are becoming more commonplace. We were dreaming of a return trip, thinking about where we might stay and what we might do with the kids. We were quite excited by the end of our trip, that Dubai could be a possibility for us as a family, over the next couple of years.
Deep down we knew the flight could be the stumbling block so decided to investigate this fully on our return flight. Sadly, as we suspected, our return flight was not as positive as our experience of Dubai itself had been.
We travelled on an Emirates A380 aircraft, the largest of all of the Emirates fleet and we hoped therefore, the most potential for adequate facilities for their disabled passengers. Frustratingly this was not the case. I managed to catch a group of cabin crew in the galley and took the chance to quiz them about what support they can offer their disabled passengers. It was clear quite quickly that they didn't know much more than the fact they had an onboard wheelchair that could fit down the aisles. One crew member suggested Miss S would need to be laid down along a row of seats for the duration of the flight, which I quickly dismissed as being completely impractical. Who wants to lie down to eat for a start!?! I explained that actually we were quite happy that there were seating options for Miss S (we had looked in to this in the past) and we have actually flown using her GoTo seat previously (Review: Flying with the Firefly GoTo seat). Again, they didn’t seem to know a great deal about these options either.
One of the crew directed me to the ‘disabled toilet’ on-board which I instantly advised was not fit for purpose. Our experience is limited to our own daughter, but I don’t know how a disabled person would physically fit in what is currently available, and no one can be expected to hold on for a 7-8 hour flight! I have attached photos of the ‘disabled toilet’ which would not fit a wheelchair in, let alone give a disabled person the chance to transfer to the toilet or have a carer/companion assist them. In Miss S’s case, she requires a large changing table and some kind of hoist as she grows and is too heavy to be lifted. 
Following our experience, Emirates were in contact and we have made suggestions to them on how they could improve their facilities on-board and make appropriate adaptations. We have not heard anymore since. The same suggestions were made to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. We may not be health professionals or therapists to advise based on anything other than our experience and observations, but we have asked these airlines to seriously look in to whether our suggestions could become a reality. Despite some contact from BA’s Accessibility Manager back in June promising us a chat to discuss BA’s current accessibility procedures as well as future plans, I have not heard any more from them. Nor have I had any response from Virgin.
At present, it feels very much like the rest of the world is closed off to our very bright, very congnitively able daughter, and us as a family. In 2020, you would expect disabled people to be able to travel freely and enjoy life as any other able bodied person, but this just isn’t the case. It is in the hands of these hugely successful, multi-million pound companies to DO something about it. We are just parents trying to fight for what is right for our daughter, willing these airlines / companies / local councils to listen to them, to allow our children and the other quarter of a million families like us in the UK, the freedom that everyone else enjoys.
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