by Janis Aaron Moore, Copyright 2007
This web page contains my informal notes about my first air travel experience after 2001. If you are hard-of-hearing (HOH) and use assistive listening devices (ALDs), I hope you will find this helpful. You might want to do some research before you travel by air and decide whether to wear your ALDs through airport security devices.
~ Janis Aaron Moore ~
I was excited at the prospect of seeing my extended family in Florida for the first time in five or six years. I was also a bit concerned about airport security. I haven't flown anywhere since 9/11 and didn't know what to expect. I wasn't concerned about weapons or bombs or drugs. I was concerned about my keepsake Swiss Army knife I carry on my key chain. I'd heard those were confiscated. I was concerned about a digital camera, my hearing aids and my assistive listening device (ALD). Would any of these be damaged by X-rays? Would any set off the alarm?
I carefully searched online for information and found the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) web site. It had a section for persons with disabilities and medical conditions, which included a web page entitled "Hearing Disability". Since I wear two hearing aids and sometimes rely on a PockeTalker for communicating, I found the Hearing Disability page helpful and informative. For example, it talked about hearing aids, cochlear implants and related tidbits. Yet I failed to notice that it had no information on ALDs, and therefore no help regarding my PockeTalker.
At the airport, standing in a line of people waiting to be checked, I thought the worst that could happen would be that something would trip the alarm, I'd find the offending article which would be passed through X-ray ... and I would pass through the portal with flying colors. I walked through the portal in my bare feet. (Evidently my flat-soled sandals were not "safe".) I set off the alarm, and I was totally unprepared for the events which followed.
The person who screened me (a man as I recall) asked me to step "inside" and have a seat. He went away and a few moments later a woman approached me. She asked me to stand on a mat with my feet over footprints painted on it. She then passed a wand over the front, back and sides of my body. (I still don't have my shoes, which leaves me feeling at a loss of personal dignity. I'm placed in a subservient position.)
She then asks me to move one foot to a forward position, whereupon she passed the want between my legs. There was actual contact with my body because I was wearing an ankle-length peasant dress. She had no idea where my legs were. I immediately felt violated. No stranger has ever touched my inner legs, either with a wand or a body part, clothed or unclothed.
As she asked me to move my feet back and forward, and "wanded" me, I began to look around me, wondering who was watching. I was in a fishbowl of glass cubicles, in full view of half a dozen other screening lines full of screeners and potential travelers. I felt humiliated.
The woman asked me to take a seat again, and she went away. I was alone in the cubicle, waiting and wondering what would happen next.
She came back in a few moments with a tissue in her hand. She said she had to test my PockTalker for "residue". When I asked what residue she was seeking, she answered "from plastic bombs".
I was too upset to really be able to recite a verbatim account of thise whole incident. I'm sure it only took a few minutes. But to me, it lasted forever. I do remember asking her several times "Why don't you just run the PockeTalker through the X-ray and let me go through the portal without it? I'm sure I would "pass". (I'd forgotten I was wearing a dress with brass buttons, a heavy metal necklace, metal earrings and an "I Read Lips" button – and two hearing aids and my PockeTalker -- all with metal.)
Finally, after asking several times, she explained she didn't want to run the PockeTalker through the X-ray – she didn't know if the device would be damaged.
She finally "passed" me and hugged me (I had broken into tears). She even got a tissue. I just wanted to get away.
I don't know all the reasons or exactly why I became so upset. I had spent "sleeping time" preparing for my trip. Perhaps I was overtired. I suspect as I became more distressed, I missed important cues she may have tried to give me. I know I was surprised that she didn't try my suggestion immediately and had no expectation or experience to anticipate the extent of the search.
Meanwhile I have reservations to fly home in two weeks. What will happen?
I'm now prepared for the "worst", and the search, if the alarm is sounded, won't be quite so distressing. I will take the second pass over my wardrobe and accessories to minimize the risk of setting off the alarm.
But I could really use some authoritative, technical advice:
I intend to contact the TSA and ask them to add this information to their web page. Organizations like Hearing Loss Association of America (formerly SHHH) need to alert their members. If I could feel that one fewer person would be subjected to a wand search, I would find some meaning to my experience.
Have any other HOH folks had similar experiences?
Some "expert" needs to tell me AND TSA staff:
Also, the TSA web page needs to be enhanced with information about traveling with ALDs. [Web reference: www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1380.shtm Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions]