Thank you for the question.
Yes, I have heard the testimonies.
As a person who has been on the receiving end of one of "the few" that were suggested to have experienced the difficulty, I can tell you that the data—which we don't even have on record because there is no documentation of every single incident—is not fulsome. We don't have the proper mechanisms to hold all parties accountable in the experiences in which people with disabilities are being failed.
For whatever data they are choosing to present, those are the cases that are requiring disabled people to advocate for themselves from a position that is often a very difficult one to be in.
I have a few other points on this question, if I may.
If we were not talking about disability and any person was permitted to say that for the majority of flights, all passengers travel just fine and once in awhile—excuse my language—we decapitate their legs, but it's only once in awhile, what type of sacrifice would we be accepting?
Yet, that is the statement being made. The fact that the airlines feel comfortable making that statement in itself is very telling.
For passengers that experience hardship, even the smallest percent is too great a percent. There are no incidents that are acceptable.
Therefore, we need proper accountability to demonstrate exactly how many times and how often this is happening. This is happening every single day, often in silence.
We need to ensure that there is strong regulation so that it is not a suggestion that airlines respond, but so that they have to, every single time. It's not a courtesy; it is a right that they need to respond to.