So. Special Assistance at the airport.
From the view of a visually impaired couple. One using a white cane.
We took this last year so we were able to not be so worried having to check ourselves in, trying to deal with small print and the added pressure of people behind us, whilst we find reading difficult and not wanting to hold people up. It’s very nerve-wracking trying to do that when there’s a queue and you can’t rush. So Special Assistance sorts all this for you.
This is how we arranged special Assistance for both countries. Manchester Airport and Rhodes Airport for our holiday to Tilos in Greece.
When you book your flights either online or by phone, you can can request Special Assistance.
They will ask you some brief general questions about what assistance you’ll require. If you need to change or add to Special Assistance after you’ve booked, if you Google the company you’re flying with for the Special Assistance contact details, you can then add or change.
The information asked maybe do you need a wheelchair or a guide. Do you need help through security and checking luggage. Which was the main reason why we wanted assistance.
Do you need help to get onto the plane? Do you need help for the steps to the plane?
So then you’ve given the information to them and they will tell you how long to arrive before your flight. They will also tell you to go to the Special Assistance area in the airport, which is well signposted when you get there or there will be someone around to ask.
When you get to that at the day of your flight. You’ll need to confirm your booking with the reception desk. They will confirm your needs in more detail. Then you wait there until someone comes to assist you through the airport, through security, to your gate number and to the plane door.
Once you’re on the plane, the stewards and stewardesses will take over and probably offer to show you the safety procedure and let you examine the seatbelts and life jackets so you know what to do. They were very good with us offering to explain one to one and showing us all the apparatus prior to the flight.
When you initially get to Special Assistance, just explain that you will need same in your holiday destination airport as well.
VD scenes in Manchester Airport of the Special Assistance area. Luggage and coffee cups. At the bottom of Easy Jet plane. View out of the window. Being guided at Rhodes Airport. Food on the plane and video of plane up in the air.
Category: Useful Information
Sight loss groups and making friends
I attended the monthly sight loss group on Thursday this week.
Meeting up with visually impaired people and their families and friends helps probably all of us get a better understanding of blindness as a spectrum and all it’s different forms.
Somebody new attended with their family this week.
It’s a lovely welcoming group and getting quite a large one!
There’s different age ranges of the people who attend the groups I’m in. From mid 20s to people in their 70s. We did have people come at one point in their 80s and even 90 odd years of age!
It’s lovely talking to different age groups. You can learn alot and it’s so interesting. I don’t really know many older people anymore, so I love chatting with those old enough to be my parents age as it brings them back in a way hearing their similar stories I used to hear and I love their company. I’m somewhere in the middle age range and like to help welcome and support new people and also make sure they are comfortable and having a good time so they come again.
A sight loss diagnosis can be a devastating, most likely, life changing, news to deal with. Making you feel isolated, losing or leaving your job because of it, not being able to drive anymore, not able to make friends easily or even losing friends because of it.
Having a group that understands, even though your condition might be different to someone else’s, makes all the difference.
I’ve made some amazing friends through them.
There is also a the bi-weekly group in the centre of Wakefield, you can have a cuppa and a natter if you don’t drink or if you do there is plenty of choice to have a bevvy.
The group I attended on Thursday is once a month. It’s abit more raucous ☺️ with a fair few drinks and we all look after each other getting around between 2 of the pubs in Pontefract.
If you are around the Wakefield area and are visually impaired and feel you’d like to meet up with us or know someone who could be interested. Please get in touch with me by my messenger button and I’ll forward you onto my good mate Ross who organises this or my other half Richard to give you a bell with the details.
There are 2 groups I attend at the moment. And they have helped me come to terms with my diagnosis immensely.
We do chat about our blindness at times if someone needs support, it’s always there. Funny stories, frustrations etc. We also just chit chat about other stuff. They are all an incredible lovely and funny bunch.
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Special Assistance with Visually impaired Travellers
A new blog is coming up about the Special Assistance service we used on our holiday to Tilos, Greece recently.
Myself. My other half Richard and his lovely Mum Pauline.
This was my first time using this service and my experience of it.
From Manchester Airport to Rhodes (Diagoras) Airport there, and back.
How to book it. Who can use this service. What this involves. Any hiccups. Ease of service. What to expect.
On one leg of the journey we were left to our own devices by the special Assistance member of staff. As he… “finished at 5pm”. We’ve made a complaint about this to Jet2.
This didn’t spoil the holiday it was just a very small incident among the amazing people that helped us make travelling alot easier. Other people in both countries couldn’t do enough for us and even went out of their way to help. From the staff in Special Assistance, to the cabin crew from both airlines we flew with.
We were 2 visually impaired travellers and one person needed a wheelchair for ease of getting around. 3 of us in total.
I will write about the additional help we received from the very kind and caring people we came across.
One Vision Blog 