A few months before his senior year in high school, McBride was at a terrain park at Whistler Blackcomb <\/a>resort. He was 17. He launched a maneuver he\u2019d completed many times before, a back flip off a steep jump. Only this time, he over-accelerated, over-rotated and came down on his neck. Right away he knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I landed,\u201d McBride recalled more than 25 years later, \u201cI lost all sensation in my legs and my lower back.\u201d<\/p>\n The prognosis was grim; doctors told McBride he probably would never walk again, and he hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s scarcely slowed him down.<\/p>\n Views of the 47th president, from the ground up<\/p>\n Before they had kids, McBride and his wife biked 6,500 miles \u2014 McBride using a special, hand-cranked cycle \u2014 from Portland, Ore., to the southern tip of Argentina. He\u2019s traveled the world as a wheelchair rugby player, winning gold, silver and bronze medals at Paralympic Games in Beijing<\/a>, Rio de Janeiro<\/a> and London<\/a>. <\/p>\n McBride \u2014 adventurer, daredevil \u2014 appears unflappable. Until it comes to air travel.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the hassles and aggravation that most people put up with. Every trip requires McBride, 43, to undergo a special regimen, dehydrating himself so he won\u2019t have to use the bathroom in flight. Every excursion includes the likelihood of being uncomfortably jostled or, worse, dropped as he\u2019s being transferred to his seat. He can never be certain his wheelchair, his lifeline, won\u2019t be damaged or missing once his plane lands.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very few places or in my life that I feel less independent\u201d than an airport, said McBride, who still plays competitive rugby at the club level. \u201cNone of the systems are set up for wheelchair users to be able to manage things on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n Wheelchairs at Portland International Airport. The all-purpose equipment can\u2019t serve the various needs of disabled travelers. <\/p>\n (Will Matsuda \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n For a time, as the Biden administration was winding down<\/a>, it looked as though that was about to change somewhat. The federal government issued a set of regulations that would require airlines, among other things, to assume liability for damaged and delayed wheelchairs and improve training for staff working with passengers facing mobility issues.<\/p>\n But the Trump administration, which has made deregulation one of its highest imperatives<\/a>, put those requirements on hold while a trade association and several major airlines sue to keep the changes from taking effect.<\/p>\n For McBride and others like him, it\u2019s a disappointing setback that follows years of pressing Washington to make air transit just a bit more decent and humane.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sucks,\u201d McBride said of the dignity-deflating status of a wheelchair traveler. \u201cI know quite a few people who simply won\u2019t fly anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n ::<\/p>\n When the Biden administration published new airline regulations<\/a> in the Federal Register, it spelled out its reasoning.<\/p>\n Passengers forced to surrender their wheelchairs \u201cmust rely on airline staff and contractors to properly handle a wheelchair or scooter and return it in a timely manner in the condition it was received. Advocates have stressed \u2026 that, when an individual\u2019s wheelchair or scooter is damaged by an airline, the individual\u2019s mobility, health and freedom are impacted until the device can be returned, repaired or replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, \u201cAdvocates note that wheelchairs are often custom fitted to meet the needs and shapes of each user. Spending time in an ill-fitting chair can cause serious injury, such as pressure sores, and even death because of a subsequent infection.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Transportation estimated that, in 2024, 1 of every 100 wheelchairs or scooters placed on a domestic flight was lost<\/a>, damaged or delayed. Which may not seem like a terribly large number, unless you\u2019re the person whose well-being, and even survival, depends on their wheelchair or scooter being at the ready and operational upon arrival.<\/p>\n Mia Ives-Rublee directs the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. She said airlines, which cater to luxury travelers and treat everyone else like sardines, have long put profit and expedience ahead of the needs of their disabled passengers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this tension continue to build as disabled people become more active and the world becomes more accessible. They want to travel, or have jobs that require travel,\u201d said Ives-Rublee. While discrimination is plainly illegal, \u201cAirlines aren\u2019t doing enough to protect our devices,\u201d which has the effect of making it \u201cvery difficult for disabled people to travel.\u201d<\/p>\n Ives-Rubles has had nearly a half dozen wheelchairs broken by airlines in the last 20 years, which can be costly as well as life-threatening. A manually operated wheelchair can run as much as $2,000, Ives-Rublee said. A mechanized wheelchair can cost as much as a used car.<\/p>\n McBride mainly travels from Portland\u2019s airport. \u201cThere are few places in my life\u201d he feels less independent.<\/p>\n (Will Matsuda \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n (McBride said he\u2019s suffered nicks and scrapes on his \u201ceveryday chair.\u201d Worse, was the damage done to wheelchairs he uses in rugby competition, which \u201cis obviously a big deal\u201d when he\u2019s traveling for a match.) <\/p>\n In their lawsuit opposing the rules change, airlines and their trade group said the Biden administration overstepped its authority and the new requirements were too burdensome. Strict liability for wheelchair damage also could expose air carriers to \u201cunreasonable financial risk,\u201d the suit claimed.<\/p>\n The wheelchair rules were supposed to take effect just before Biden left office. The Trump administration postponed them until March 2025, then pushed implementation to August 2025. Now, the Department of Transportation says it will issue a new rule this coming August, with a 60-day comment period to follow \u2014 meaning no change will come until at least 2027.<\/p>\n Ives-Rublee hasn\u2019t much hope for relief.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the nature of the administration<\/a> right now, I doubt they\u2019re putting much effort into protecting\u201d the Biden-era regulations, she said<\/p>\n ::<\/p>\n The last thing McBride wants is anyone feeling sorry for him. He\u2019s no victim.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was something s\u2014 that happened to me,\u201d he said of the accident that left him paralyzed. \u201cBut s\u2014 stuff happens to people all the time. What matters is how you move forward and what you can do with your life after that happens.\u201d <\/p>\n McBride was seated at the kitchen table of his custom-built home, two miles above the Columbia River in rural Washington state. The house \u2014 one level, bright and airy, with concrete floors to smooth the path of his wheelchair \u2014 perches at the end of a steep dirt road. A forest in the backyard gives his children, ages 4 and 8, the same freedom to romp through nature he enjoyed growing up in Alaska. There\u2019s also a climbing wall in his son\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n Working remotely, McBride writes for New Mobility, a magazine for wheelchair users, and heads communications and marketing for the United Spinal Assn., a nonprofit advocacy group. <\/p>\n His politics run to the left side of the spectrum. (On a cold, drizzly morning, McBride wore a black Oregon Ducks hoodie, honoring his alma mater, the University of Oregon, and its home in liberal Eugene.) Yet while he\u2019s no Trump fan, McBride doesn\u2019t consider making life easier for wheelchair users to be a partisan issue. After all, he pointed out, it was a Republican president, George H. W. Bush, who signed into law the landmark Americans <\/a> \u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of progress as a community working with Republicans, working with Democrats,\u201d he said, as the sun made a brief appearance, illuminating the Douglas firs outside his door. \u201cThe basic issues of people being able to access the same services and the same experiences as everyone else shouldn\u2019t be political. … It\u2019s a safety thing.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s not unalterably opposed to deregulation, per se.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a huge issue within systems when it\u2019s overly complex for companies or people to do anything,\u201d McBride said. \u201cBut lots of time regulations are there for a reason. It\u2019s when private companies aren\u2019t necessarily doing a good enough job protecting the safety or the rights of all people within a society.\u201d<\/p>\n Given a chance to address Trump or the head of his Transportation Department, Sean Duffy, McBride would say this: Come, let\u2019s take a plane ride.<\/p>\n \u201cGo on a trip with my rugby team and see what it\u2019s like when you have multiple wheelchair users on the same plane,\u201d he said, \u201cand how difficult it is and why we feel like regulations are needed so we can have a modicum of safety and dignity when we\u2019re flying.\u201d <\/p>\n The cost of accommodation might take away some from the airlines\u2019 bottom line. But certain things can\u2019t be priced in dollars and cents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHITE SALMON, Wash.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Seth McBride\u2019s life was forever changed on a snowy mountainside in British Columbia. McBride was \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17023,4023,6246,100980,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,100981,100983,32239,29328,100979,315,1519,6850,100982,54810],"class_list":["post-220709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-airline","tag-biden-administration","tag-department","tag-disabled-people","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-life","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mia-ives-rublee","tag-safety-thing","tag-scooter","tag-senior-year","tag-seth-mcbride","tag-time","tag-trump","tag-wheelchair","tag-wheelchair-user","tag-wheelchairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"logo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768138451_646_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Wheelchairs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773578229_864_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Travelers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773578229_158_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
With Disabilities Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n