“JetBlue turned away my flight because I’m deaf,” says Morgan Baker

A deaf gaming developer named Morgan Baker tweeted on Monday that she got turned away from a JetBlue flight because she is deaf.

[Full Screen Image showing tweet:
Morgan Baker/@momoxmia: “Just got turned away from a

@JetBlue flight because I’m deaf. Can’t even make this up, I’m so tired y’all. I’m humiliated and exhausted.”]

Baker uses ASL, has cochlear implants, and can speak with her voice. She said she was caught up in the massive flight cancellations over the weekend and was stuck in the Newark Airport for over 14 hours. When she finally got seats on a plane, they were on the emergency exit row.

Morgan said when she signed to her husband at the gate, agents said she couldn’t be on the plane because it did not meet JetBlue’s protocols for people who could be seated on the emergency exit row.

[Full screen image showing tweet:
Morgan Baker/@momoxmia: “The only seats left were emergency exit. I signed something to my husband in ASL, they asked if I was deaf… and that was that. Despite already demonstrating I can hear via cochlear implants, they decided I was no longer qualified to be seated in my spot. All because I signed.” ]

JetBlue (and many other airlines) have policies on emergency exit seating that requires people to “be able to hear well enough to understand instructions shouted by crewmembers without assistance; may wear hearing aids” and “Be able to speak English well enough to give information verbally to other customers.”

[Full-screen image showing JetBlue’s protocols on emergency exit rows:
*Be able to hear well enough to understand instructions shouted by crewmembers without assistance; may wear hearing aids.

*Be able to speak English well enough to give information verbally to other customers.]

Morgan said in a message to “The Daily Moth” that it made no sense that she would be denied a seat on the emergency exit row because with her hearing device, she can understand instructions in spoken English and can speak English. She said it was when she used ASL that agents assumed something about her abilities and removed her without any sort of interactive process.

Morgan said she did get on the plane because JetBlue agents managed to switch and shift around seats.

Morgan said JetBlue emailed her after the flight to explain that she was turned away because she didn’t provide verbal assurance fast enough (that she could hear and speak). Morgan said JetBlue is sending different messages and that it is an act of audism.

Morgan said she believes that all deaf people should be allowed to sit in emergency exit rows, or at the very least, deaf people who wear hearing devices and are able to speak.

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I emailed JetBlue’s corporate communications to ask about the emergency row policy and about whether people who wear cochlear implants are qualified.

A representative named Derek Dombrowski said, “Generally customers who are deaf… are not eligible to sit in emergency exit rows due to the responsibilities required in the event of an evacuation.”

He said a person who wears cochlear implants on its own does not make someone ineligible from sitting in an emergency row.

Dombrowski said, “When a customer is briefed on this important role, they are asked for a verbal “yes” indicating they understand the responsibilities and accept them. When a verbal response is not provided, this is an indication the customer will need to be reseated. Our crews ultimately make the final decision on who can be seated in the emergency row, and because of the importance of this role, our crewmembers will always err on the side of caution…”

So, JetBlue said they do allow people with hearing aids/cochlear implants to sit in the emergency row but there are several other factors and it is up to crewmembers to make the final decision.

I reached out to the NAD to ask what they know about emergency row seating.

NAD CEO Howard Rosenblum said based on requests from the community, NAD has “done a great deal of work on airline accessibility including making In-Flight Entertainment and crew announcements visible via captioning, but have not focused on exit row issues given the lack of demand in our intakes.”

Howard provided a link to federal regulations on exit seating, which is under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 121.585.

The law says that an airline can decide to decline a person a seat on the exit row if they “lack sufficient aural capacity to hear and understand instructions shouted by flight attendants, without assistance beyond a hearing aid” and if the “person lacks the ability adequately to impart information orally to other passengers.”

Howard said “these rules give flight crews a lot of authority and discretion to determine who is able to sit in exit rows and who is not.”

Howard explained that airlines must have a system in place for passengers to file complaints if they feel they were wrongfully moved from the exit row — they can file a complaint with the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), which is a part of the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Thank you, Howard, for explaining.

So, it’s obvious that deaf people who don’t wear any kind of hearing devices — people like me — cannot sit in the emergency rows. But what seems to be in a gray area is those who wear cochlear implants or hearing aids and can speak.

The emergency row rules have been in place for over 30 years. The New York Times reported on October 5, 1990 that “Federal rules taking effect on Friday will restrict airlines seats near exits to people in good physical condition who speak and read English and are otherwise able to help evacuate the plane in an emergency.” The article said when the FAA proposed the rules, it cited a number of studies of previous crashes in which some but not all passengers died during evacuation of the plane. The FAA said studies show that those who were elderly or very young or had physical limitations or were parents for minors could impede rapid evacuation. The NYT said, “That means, among other things, that the passengers are not blind, deaf, obese, pregnant, frail, or under 16 years old.”

But the NYT report said the National Transportation Safety Board said they do not have “‘conclusive evidence’ of any incidents in which handicapped passengers had impeded emergency evacuations of airplanes.’”

The NYT said when the rules were proposed in 1989, there was ‘considerable opposition from advocates for the blind” because they felt it was discriminatory to refuse to seat blind people near emergency exits.

So, this is the story of deaf people and emergency exit rows. Should the rule be changed? What do you think?

https://www.jetblue.com/help/emergency-exit-rows

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/121.585#

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/05/us/strict-rules-imposed-for-sitting-in-airline-exit-rows.html