Tips For Going Through The Airport With Disabled Children
If you are a parent or guardian and have a child with a disability there are a couple things that you should know prior to starting your traveling. In this brief article, we’re going to go over five tips that will help you relax and have more fun while traveling with your child that has a disability.
If you take your child to the airport and have to go through the screening process you know it can be a arduous task to go through everything without your child pitching a fit. After you have received your travel tickets, you should contact the travel agent or airport and let them know in advance that you will have a child traveling with a disability and they will let you know how to plan accordingly. When you arrive at the airport and start heading towards the screening process, the best thing to do would be to let the screening guard know that you have a child with a disability and that you will need a little more attention. Also, depending on your child, you should let them know of how you would like your child treated during this time if you know that they will be getting upset. Obviously, you don’t want to be separated during this time so you may want to let them know that as well if they are wanting to do a private screening.
For the most part, screening officers are really gracious to assist in comforting the child during this time, but they also need to do their job with making sure everything is safe. So that everybody is on the same page, let the officer know what your child’s disabilities are and explain how that affects your child. This will help the officer to still do their job, but also not force your child into something that may be appositionally uncomfortable.
Because of some disabilities you should let the officer know if your child cannot be removed from their wheelchair or scooter. They will do their best to work around everything and still test everything they need to. At the same time, if your child is unable to stand just let the officer know so that they can do their pad-down search while they are still seated.
Most airlines allow one carry on bag during your travel, but ask your travel agent or the airline themselves how they handle medical pouches, supplies, equipment or other devices. Make sure that all medical containers are clearly identified and let offers know if there is anything that you don’t want X-rayed.
As long as you can be open and honest about everything, you should be able to get through with everything hassle free. The more that you know, the more fun and relaxing it will be.