21–30 of 78 posts
I'm curious if things like Google Glass or any kind of AR device will help with people like this in the future. For example, if the store is a Dixon's.. modifying the signage before he walks in as to make him believe it's the HMV?
Little things like this restore my faith in humanity :D
I'm all for being good to fellow humans, but as Spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Always understaffed, bad organization (e.g. gates announced late), too small for the number of people it serves, particularly rude staff a lot of whom are on a power trip... I've seriously never had a bad experience that comes close to the average day in Heathrow.
What do you intend to get from the "particularly rude staff"? It's likely there is nothing they can help you with: you get a seat on the flight you paid for, and a voucher for future travel if they can't provide that seat. They have no other obligations and I'm not really sure what people demand. I'll agree on the gate thing, though. They really want you to sit around in that god damned shopping mall for as long as p…
On the other hand, the Heathrow staff (many of them of Indian origin themselves) treat every brown international traveler like a probable terrorist.
Heathrow could and should do a lot more to make travel a better experience for the many, rather than (only) for the special one.
Who paid for this? I frequently fly from Heathrow and it's a horrible airport, run into service problems almost every time. Yet they can do all this for one person.
So unfair isn't it? Clearly disabled children and their parents have had it too good for too long.
The security "might" be impressive, but often there's no real coordination so I've felt this is largely theater. I was wandering around while looking for the security office and not once was I stopped and asked where I was going.
No one knew where the security office was. One of my travel companions got lost and wound up there and I had to ask 6 different people (I don't know if they were security, but had uniforms and radios) and all of them gave me the "try over there" treatment.
Gate announcements are invariably late so you either make it barely on time or not at all. I know this is something we have to keep an eye on, but tired people tend to fall asleep.
It also doesn't help that it's one of the most confusing airports I've ever been through. Probably only second to Charles De Gaulle. The language used on most sign posts is English, allegedly, but of no dialect I'm familiar with and with no obviousness at a distance.
I don't know if they've changed these things since the last time (it's been a couple of years), but it was really quite terrible.
Logistically, this is a pretty big expense; there must be a significant number of people involved to make this happen, considering the likely FAA regulations concerning flight numbers. Hats off to both the airport staff for being willing and able to make this as seamless as it sounds like it is, and to the parents who realized the importance of making this a priority for their child.
Hats off to the airport staff for being so accommodating, definitely. But I wonder about the parents. They've gone to great lengths to ensure their son is able to travel and their heart is in the right place. But what happens when the airport can no longer facilitate these conditions? The shit storm that will be unleashed will be ferocious since his expectations have been set in stone over time.
I understand that routine is very important to a number of autistic people. But not everything can be controlled. Staff move on, different passengers travel on different days and the weather changes. There are infinite variables.
My particular strategy would be to control the things that can be controlled. Introduce artificial events that you can keep constant. Perhaps a set of clothes designed only for flights. A trip to a fast food outlet on the way to the airport. A particular toy or electronic device (radio?) for the trip. This all sets up an expectation for what is about to happen, hopefully reducing the need for specific events - like the same airport staff being in a particular place, or the same seats on a flight.
And maybe the parents have tried all of this before or know it just won't work with their son. Everybody is different, and not all strategies work with the same people. But I think they're setting themselves up big time if they don't start slowly removing the 'constants' that can't be indefinitely controlled.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Always understaffed, bad organization (e.g. gates announced late), too small for the number of people it serves, particularly rude staff a lot of whom are on a power trip... I've seriously never had a bad experience that comes close to the average day in Heathrow.
What do you intend to get from the "particularly rude staff"? It's likely there is nothing they can help you with: you get a seat on the flight you paid for, and a voucher for future travel if they can't provide that seat. They have no other obligations and I'm not really sure what people demand. I'll agree on the gate thing, though. They really want you to sit around in that god damned shopping mall for as long as p…
Little things like this restore my faith in humanity :D
not mine. This is a big waste, what about all the other people in the world that LHR could go to a little extra trouble to help instead. The cost would pay for more ground crew, or maybe even train baggage handlers to not lose luggage quite so often. I'm all for being good to fellow humans, but as Spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
I'm genuinely curious and it wasn't addressed at all in the post - how did he make his first trip? Wasn't ALL of it novel the first time? Yet subsequent trips ALL of it has to be same or his stress level goes up? I have a friend whose son is mildly autistic, and each new thing in his life has to be introduced in a specific way. For example, a new shirt will be brought into his room for several days for him to look at…
1. You explain over a long period of time (weeks/months?) that you'll be travelling and what you'll be doing. The person is able to slowly come to terms with a change in routine before it happens. You set up a "new routine" for that particular day. Curiosity is engaged, and you have a relatively painless experience.
2. All of the above, but you do it really tough, with lots of screaming and distress.
Once a routine is learnt, it's really difficult to break. But you can create new routines for different environments. Preparation is generally key.
On the one hand, this is a wonderful and heartwarming tale. On the other hand, the Heathrow staff (many of them of Indian origin themselves) treat every brown international traveler like a probable terrorist. Heathrow could and should do a lot more to make travel a better experience for the many, rather than (only) for the special one.
My daughter is "on the spectrum" and we try very hard to not create situations that require us to jump through hoops to avoid her autistic meltdowns. If she makes unreasonable requests, we have to say no and steer her away.
For instance, at one point she asked us to remove the tags from her stuffed animal. Then it became a requirement to remove all tags. It's taken a while to cure her if that trigger.
On the other hand, if we ever need to know the name of a particular dinosaur, she has us covered.