An Update on Carly

Earlier in the week I posted about Carly Fleischmann, someone who I consider to be a pioneer in the Autism-Technology movement. While searching for updates on Carly, I found an article from this past August that detailed a recent struggle Carly had when attempting to travel by plane. Carly was traveling to her home from Los Angeles. As is typical during air travel, Carly was asked to turn off her electronic device (in this case an iPad) during takeoff. The difference here is, Carly uses her iPad as her primary means of communication. By being asked to turn off the iPad, she was essentially asked to turn off her voice. Carly couldn't ask questions of the flight attendants, voice her concerns, or express any discomfort or health needs during that time. For Carly, it was extremely uncomfortable and made her very anxious.

I understand that there is a long-standing rule that says one must turn off electronic devices during take-off and landing. I have always questioned this and wondered how my iPod could really cause enough interference to take down a plane. Still, I have never had an issue taking some time to pause my music and focus on take-off/landing. I don't need the music, but Carly clearly needs the iPad. Without claiming to know anything about the operation of airplanes, I will say that I doubt that making an exception to Carly's circumstance would cause the airline any real harm.

I wonder how the flight attendants would have felt if they were told that they were forbidden to speak during a good portion of the plane ride because it might interfere with operations. It seems like a silly comparison, but this iPad acts as Carly's connection to the outside world. I haven't exactly formed a complete opinion on it yet, but I wanted to present this as some food for though.

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