Creating a fairer Britain
Jeanette Richardson’s home is in a village on the borders of Scotland. A fire burns in her grate and a computer twinkles in her corner. There are images of Old English sheepdogs everywhere, because she trains them as a hobby – paintings of sheepdogs, models of sheepdogs, and a cuddly sheepdog that says, 'I love you'. Next door, a two-year-old sheepdog called McKenzie barks happily.
Two years ago, Jeanette decided to book a holiday with two friends. The same group goes on holiday every year, and this time it was to Mexico for her birthday. ‘I wanted to swim with the dolphins,’ she says, ‘I heard they aren’t slimy at all. They feel like velvet’. She saved for two years, putting a little in the kitty each week, by working in a walk-in service station on the M6 motorway.
But three months before she was due to fly, she injured her leg. She was walking round the ring at a dog show and she stepped into a pothole. ‘I missed it completely and went down on it,’ she says. She damaged her knee and her ankle, and in the end she ended up on crutches. But the doctor told her that she could still go to Mexico.
Jeanette telephoned the travel company. She could fly, she explained, but she couldn’t bend her knee. Could she be guaranteed a seat in which she could stretch out her leg? She had seen the seat plans on the internet and she knew there were seats with extra legroom in economy class. Could she have one?
At first the travel company said they couldn’t deal with her, because she hadn’t made the booking herself; her friend had done it. ‘It was quite odd,’ she says. So her friend called the travel company, and having still not got anywhere, they both visited the travel agent shop in person. But the request was refused. The travel company didn’t say why. It merely suggested they upgrade to premium economy. And even then, they said, there might not be a suitable seat. And, if Jeanette did upgrade, she couldn’t do so alone. The three friends would all have to upgrade, at a total cost of £4500.
‘We never expected that,’ she says, ‘I thought they would just give me the seat. I wasn’t asking for anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t know I was going to have an accident. It was like bashing your head against a brick wall. You are on the phone saying, “Listen to me! I’m not asking for the moon or anything gold-plated” '.
She adds that her husband David is partially paralysed. So she has been here before. She has endured years of unhelpfulness and indifference. To face it again this time, felt like a final straw. ‘It [discrimination] has been a big part of our lives and a big thorn in our sides,’ she says. ‘We have had years of it. I thought they would see it as common courtesy, to make sure I was comfortable. At that point she was unaware of the law.
She tried to sell the holiday to other friends but it was either inconvenient timing or too expensive. So she asked the travel company for a refund. The answer was no again. ‘They never told me why they didn’t have a seat for me. I still don’t know. There was no reason for it.’
So Jeanette rang the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She found the helpline number quite by chance, surfing on the internet. ‘I telephoned them and they were absolutely excellent,’ she says. She described the situation and how the Commission ‘promised to look further into my complaint. They kept in contact with me so I knew what was happening’.
The Commission contacted the travel company, to explain that, under new European law, if you are disabled or have difficulty moving, you have improved rights to assistance when you fly. ‘It was nice to know there was someone who would fight my corner,’ she says. ‘It wasn’t about what the travel company or the airline wanted. It was what the law said. I was thrilled when I was told the airline had guaranteed a seat on economy class with the required legroom.
On the day, everything went like clockwork for Jeanette. ‘When I arrived at the airport, I was given assistance at check-in and offered priority boarding so I could settle into my seat on the plane – with the space I needed to keep my leg outstretched.’ And Jeanette finally swam with the dolphins.
Thanks to writer Tanya Gold