Screeners retraining to search disabled

The Transportation Security Administration is retraining its airport screeners to search disabled passengers after a series of complaints about indignities suffered by the disabled.

Screeners have been accused of forcing passengers to remove prosthetic limbs, lifting them out of wheelchairs or separating blind travelers from their guide dogs.

In the early days after the September 11 attacks, “I was not treated with dignity and respect,” said Ruth Ann Miller, who is wheelchair-bound from multiple sclerosis. She did not offer specifics.

New screening procedures use different techniques for searching disabled passengers that vary with each disability.

“Our highest goal is to seek to prevent security incidents,” Sandra Cammaroto, the TSA’s program manager for disability training, said yesterday at a press conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The TSA is a federal agency created by Congress after the September 11 attacks to ensure security on airlines and other transportation modes.

The TSA started training airport screeners about unique needs of disabled passengers more than a year ago, when passengers complained to Congress.

The training program announced yesterday is the most elaborate upgrade to screening techniques to date, Miss Cammaroto said. The program was developed after consulting with groups such as the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the National Council on Disability.

The techniques are supposed to enforce security but “not cause a scene at the checkpoint,” Miss Cammaroto said.

Screeners are being taught about the kinds of prosthetic equipment used for different disabilities, as well as alterations that could indicate a hidden weapon.

Alterations could include unusual attachments to the steel tubing of wheelchairs or hidden compartments in electronic devices.

If the program is successful, it will be used on passenger railroads, buses and other common carriers.

“We will be taking this program, as a model program, into other modes of transportation,” Miss Cammaroto said.

Screeners are being taught to search wheelchair-bound travelers without unnecessary groping.

Story Continues →