Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, uhm…
Notice anything different?
I’m standing now because I have a tripod that’s bigger than this.
Or taller.
The only downside is I don’t have anything for my mirror that I put behind this camera
to stand on, so I don’t know what the battery dies.
So, as you can see, I am officially back from Toronto. Am I happy about that? No.
But such is life and all I have to do now is keep working my *** off to get back there.
I’m sure my boyfriend would appreciate it.
So, as you know, I’ve had the privilege to be able to travel a lot this year and I’ve
still got a couple more of those privileges left to go.
January, I got to go to Los Angeles for IMATS thanks to January being right after Christmas.
March, I got to go to Los Angeles again because I was in a movie.
And thanks to being paid for that, I got to go to Toronto to visit my now boyfriend.
And then in July, I will be at VidCon which will have its own announcement video probably
after this one’s uploaded.
And then assuming everything goes well, I can go to Buffer Festival in October.
Now, as much as I love airports and airplanes (as long as they’re safe, obviously), I
don’t like the employees. At all.
So far this year, I’ve flown with United, Southwest, and Air Canada, and I’ve had
issues with almost every single one of them.
Southwest, you’re safe right now.
Let’s start with United, shall we?
Every time I’ve flown from Charlotte, I go with United. It’s just the way it is.
And I go to check in and - this happens with every single airline -
Actually, let’s just group all the airlines into one.
When I check in for my very first flight and my dad has been with me for the last two times
because he’s driven me to the airport -
I go up to the check in desk. I tell the people, “Hi, I’m Deaf, so I’m probably not going
to be able to understand you, so if you could write what you’re saying down or type it
somewhere, that’d be awesome.” Very simple.
But instead of listening to me, doing what I’m asking and telling them to do, they
pay attention to my hearing father and every time they want to ask me something or tell
me something, they actually look at my hearing father and then just, you know, pay attention
to him.
It’s like I’m not even there even though it’s under my name, my passport, my ID,
whatever.
There were times when I would look at him and be like, “Okay, so what did this person
say because it’s not working,” but uh, let me do that.
You look at me because I am your client right now and ignore the hearing dude, my father,
right beside of me. He’s just decoration, pointless decoration right now. You gotta
face me.
I had the same issue when I’d be flying back.
When I was flying back from Los Angeles the second time, I even had everything written
down on my phone. Explanation. “Hi, I’m Deaf. Here’s what you need to do.”
And instead of doing what I’m asking you to do because this is the only way I can get
information, it’s just blahblahblahblahblahblahblah.
STOP!
But at least nobody’s given me a wheelchair yet.
On the 20th of this month when I flew back, that was just an absolute disaster.
I was supposed to go from YTZ Toronto to Montreal, then Montreal to Newark, then Newark to Charlotte.
Oh, the joy of having the cheapest flight.
But as I was going to board my first flight, the woman at the desk waves me over and says,
“Your flight from Newark to Charlotte has been canceled because Newark has been shut
down due to severe weather.”
“So instead of having you be stuck in Montreal, I’m just gonna put you on this direct flight
from Toronto to Charlotte.”
“However, it’s not going to be flown from here. You have to go to YYZ so here’s a
taxi pass and, you know, you’ll be on your way.”
That woman was the best employee at Air Canada.
Probably the best employee I’ve ever come across in an airport.
After she told me everything, she wrote it down just to make sure I would know everything
that I needed to know and I wouldn’t be confused.
I get off the ferry at YTZ and then I go find a taxi. And the woman told me “just hand
them the taxi pass. it’s paid for by us” or “it’s going to be paid for by us. just
give ‘em the taxi pass and they’ll know what to do.”
No, no, no, no. Wrong.
I go over there, find a security guard, and they know nothing.
And then I finally track down a taxi that goes with the taxi pass that I have and I
tell them the same thing right off the bat.
“I’m Deaf. I’m not gonna be able to understand you.” And I definitely did not
understand a single word that he said because he had an accent that was difficult for me
to understand.
“And, you know, write it down or, you know, type it.” I see your Samsung Galaxy. I know
you have it. It’s right there in your hand. You can type it.
What did he do? Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
And I just kept telling him, “23 years and 30 seconds later, I’m still Deaf and I have
no idea what you’re saying.”
He’s so confused. He’s looking at the taxi pass and from what I gathered, nobody
knew what the hell was going on and they kept telling me, “We can’t take you to the
airport because who’s paying for it?” and I’m thinking, like -
“All I know is the lady told me to give you this pass and that they’re paying for
it and I don’t know what else to say to you because I don’t know what the hell you’re
telling me.”
Because no matter how many times I’m telling you and two other people standing there that
I’m Deaf and I need you to type what you’re saying down with the phone that you’re holding
in your hand -
So, finally, that got situated when another taxi person from the same company told him
to call the company and they will verify it.
So I’m on my way to YYZ after he’s still continuing to just blabber on to me with his
mouth.
So I get to the airport and it doesn’t get any easier and the fact that this is a much
bigger airport just makes it that much more complicated.
So I ran into about three employees at the airport that did the same thing even after
I say, “I’m Deaf. Please write or type what you’re saying and I know you can because
there’s paper on your desk.”
One of the most annoying employees was actually at my gate.
I did not have a seat even after I checked in. I was flying on standby.
And then when I go to the person that finally shows up at the gate about 45 minutes before
the flight is supposed to leave,
Tell her the same thing: “I’m Deaf. I’m not gonna understand what you’re saying
so can you please write it down somewhere on that big stack of paper with the pencil
on top what you’re saying.”
And she just keeps asking me questions and I’m like, “I don’t know what you’re
saying. This is a very important matter because we are supposed to be leaving soon and I don’t
have the information that I need.”
And she just keeps on talking and I lose it at this point because after you’ve explained
yourself to about nine or ten different people over and over again, and nobody does what
they’re supposed to do, you kind of lose your patience.
So I say, “23 years and 30 seconds later, I’m still Deaf, believe it or not!”
And she gives me this look that’s like [gives face]
And then just doesn’t talk to me at all anymore and then she just, you know, starts
doing what she needs to do with my ticket and my seat. But she doesn’t talk to me
at all.
So when she finally gets everything situated, I’m just like, “Thank you,” and I sit
down.
This entire time, I’m fighting a viral infection that I somehow picked up over the weekend
so I’m running on a 103 degree fever.
Which doesn’t help anything.
About three days after I get back here, when I’m finally feeling well to actually sit
on the computer for longer than 15 minutes -
I start tweeting Air Canada and Beck Taxi and I’m like, “Can you please teach your
employees to do what they’re asked or told?”
“Otherwise, you wanna bring me over and then I’ll teach them myself.”
And nothing’s been situated. I couldn’t remember the name of the taxi driver so they
can’t single out the taxi driver and talk to him, but Beck Taxi said that they would
remind all of their employees that they need to accommodate their passengers.
And Air Canada e-mailed me back and said, “There’s no evidence that we screwed up,
but here’s a $100CAD gift card to Air Canada so please give us another chance.”
I’ll probably end up using it because it saves me about $82USD.
Which is always helpful.
It’s not hard. I know that you are more than capable of writing stuff down or typing
stuff down. Like the taxi driver. He was literally typing the phone number to call the company,
but you can’t turn on your Notepad and then type to me.
Everything would have just, you know, finished a lot faster if I would have just been listened
to.
I know you don’t have a hearing problem. I have a hearing problem, but I know you don’t
have a hearing problem.
People, just listen to your clients. Listen to your passengers.
Stop trying to make things more difficult than they have to be.
I don’t want to waste your time and I know you don’t want to waste my time. You don’t
want to waste your own time.
Just… listen!
You just refuse to listen to me.
And, unfortunately, this is a very, very common problem.
People will give us wheelchairs when we don’t need them or they give us the Braille menu
which still does not make sense to me.
If somebody says they do need a wheelchair, you go get them a wheelchair.
If somebody says they can’t walk very fast or well at all and they need to get to the
gate very, very, very quickly because their flight’s gonna leave soon, then they get
one of those car things and they get them to their gate.
But when a deaf person says, “Hey, I need you to write information down for me so that
I can, you know, go on about my day” - Apparently, that is the most complicated thing in the
world and it really shouldn’t be because it’s not the most complicated thing in the
world. It’s very, very simple. It’s a very simple task.
I love airports and traveling, but employees need a lot of work.
Hearing employees need a lot, a lot of work.
So, yeah. That one woman at Air Canada customer service that actually listened to me and helped
me out - Thank you. I appreciate you. And I still thank you for giving me a bandaid
when I banged up my pinky closing my laptop before boarding.
To the rest of you - [ eye roll and sigh ]
So to those of you that have made it to the end of this video, thank you for watching
and let me know how you like this new setup.
I’m actually liking this whole standing thing. I’m actually standing on my tip-toes.
I feel like I can move a lot more freely now now that I’m standing up and it’s actually
a lot more comfortable.
I actually feel like I can let more of my personality come through when I’m standing
‘cos I can walk around a little bit.
So, fellow d/Deaf and hard of hearing people that have had issues with, uh, flight attendants
and airport employees or what have you, write your stories in the comments.
And anybody else who needs special assistance in the airport and have had issues because
I’m sure you’ve had some, write ‘em in the comments and uh -
I will see you in my next video. Bye.