AIBU to question sunflower lanyards for adults at airports?

If your son needs a 1-1 he is quite clearly impaired. That is not the same as someone who’s labelled themselves, and bought a 5 pounds sunflower lanyard from Amazon. You should be realising that this sort of behaviour is not beneficial to someone like your son who has genuine needs.

That's simply not true. It often takes longer to get through with special assistance than without,the others in my group will be there waiting for me to catch up, why would you choose to take longer if you didn't have to?

But a lanyard isn’t about getting on in front of other people. It’s about people who may need to go through security quickly, or have a quieter place to wait for their flight, or who may need instructions to be broken down so they understand what’s being asked of them, or need to board the plane last, or need help finding their gate or any one of a hundred things that don’t happen as a matter of course, but that they need.

The problem is that you can buy one off Amazon for about a tenner. If they were regulated like blue badges then they would carry much more significance imo.

How can you tell someone with a lanyard is entitled or not?
It is really not up to a member of the public to be deciding that. It is none of their business.

The lanyard identifies you as a disabled passenger.

in your home country then it’s likely that you as a disabled passenger speak the same language as most of the airline staff and the assistance people.
(obviously some disabilities mean people cannot speak or hear and most people in this situation have large badges that have symbols on to represent this)

I’m physically disabled and have travelled all over the world and it’s very common for the assistance staff not to speak English. In Europe you are probably ok but once you start going into Asia (Hong Kong, Bangkok) or mena (Dubai, Morocco) etc the assistance staff don’t speak English and the lanyard is a very visible sign that does not require multiple languages.

also, just because you’ve booked assistance doesn’t mean it turns up. The aircrew generally contact the receiving airport and double check but it doesn’t stop fuckups happening.

I have several stories.

What does it take away from her son’s needs? Only to ableist twats who think disabled people should conform to their stereotypes in some way.

No one else’s lanyard takes away from my dd at all. Even if 20 people wear them it doesn’t make her needs any less valid.

So if she coped then, why can't she cope now?

Why should she, if help is available? People can ‘cope’ in lots of situations, but what sort of life is that if you are merely coping?

Blind
Cancer treatment
Neurological illnesses
Chemotherapy
Parkinson's
MS
Huntington's
Arthritis
Recovery from serious surgery
Drug-resistant epilepsy
Mental health conditions

These are literally just some of the reasons I thought of in a second, why airports might be trickier if you're disabled

Booking assistance doesn't guarantee assistance all the way through the airport, I've found - it very much depends on the airport, as I realised when I had to organise travel which accommodated my late husband's hemiparesis and other medical problems.

We didn't have the sunflower lanyard available at that time. It would at least have allowed staff scattered across the airport to know that DH needed a bit more time and patience.

You’re right we should have a list of all e titled disabled people. Maybe you should have to re-register every year. Disabled people don’t have enough paperwork to do as it is

They’re a dream, i love them.

coming back from our holiday recently the priority queue with sunflower lanyards was amazingly long.

that long in fact that it was bigger than the none lanyard wearers - it’s bloody brilliant.

Everyone is special these days and now nobody is.

Not the point of the thread but why are these lanyards so expensive!?! They’re £10 on Amazon!

I'm increasingly thinking it's about overhead space. I've taken some flights lately where they ran out of room and people with carry on bags ended up having to put them in the hold.

Blue badges are abused enough as it is even though they are "regulated". FIL got one for basically being lazy.

The impact of disability can differ but it's not based on the type if disability. I know someone with cerebral palsy who is minimally impacted with just some difficulty using her left arm, I know someone autistic who is non-verbal and gets very overwhelmed in crowded spaces and has limited sense of danger so needs 24/7 support and struggles to access activities, the autistic person there is more impacted than the one with cerebral palsy. On the other hand, I know someone with cerebral palsy who is one of the most pleasant and polite men you could meet with a busy social life, he is also a full time wheelchair user and needs assistance with evert aspect of daily living from taking a drink to transferring to bed, I know an autistic person who has no friendships because of their difficulty in social communication but is independent in all other areas so comparing the two of them it is the cerebral palsy that is the most debilitating. The severity of disability is nothing to do with their diagnosis.

You can get them for free if you ask in some places (off the top of my head, Sainsburys is one such place).

Airport assistance desks have them to give out.

in the uk anyway.

i have my own because I lose them on a regular basis and they do actually cut down n the abuse you get as a disabled person.

i travel by train a lot and you’d be amazed what people say when you get on in a wheelchair and they realise they’ve got to move their suitcases out of the disabled space.

seriously, people are horrible to disabled people.

I wear one because I have cptsd and panic attacks as a result of a violent rape and I get overwhelmed. It lets me go through the assistance area which is quieter and means that staff are more patient.

I also suffer from moderate hearing loss and tinnitus and I can’t always hear people.

I didn’t have one, despite some physical disabilities, until I needed it.

why do you care?

I disagree entirely. I was stunned at the amount of people I saw wearing these lanyards during my recent airport trip. It will just become the norm and no one will actually care about anyone’s “individual needs” and it will water down the help and treatment that your daughter receives. It will just result in disability fatigue. It’s nothing to do with being an “ableist twat”. Do better. People with genuine needs are just going to be engulfed by the sunflower brigade. If you can’t see that, or its trajectory then more fool you.

It’s not about being special, it’s about being able to manage doing something that most people take for granted.

How?

How do you think it ‘detracts from those who need it’?
Can you some examples?

Or anywhere for that matter.

Tbh I don't really believe there's a huge problem with people wearing them for shits and giggles.

If someone goes to the trouble of getting one and wearing one I think the chances are they genuinely feel they need it and the tiny bit of understanding and consideration that may come with it.

What did I do pre-lanyard? What did my now adult son do pre-lanyard? We didn't travel, certainly not alone. The ability to have something visual that lets people know there is something they cannot see which may be impacting my behaviour, that allows me to feel I can try to have the experiences that others don't have to question they just do it.
Your issue doesn't appear to be the lanyard anyway, you don't have to get special assistance, fast track, or any service others don't get. That's the thing you're pissed off about if you're honest, the queue jumping. Many of us simply wear them in case we have an issue and need some help at that time, we don't bypass any queues because as I've said elsewhere, it often actually takes longer than without it!