Able 2 UK

Mary Hare Grammer School is situated in Newbury and educates deaf students. After finishing their A-Level exams a group of the school's pupils decided to do what most young adults do after a tortures period of months revising; find the first flight out of the UK and escape on holiday. So they decided to head to the Canary Islands.

It wasn't so much of a 'lasminute' holiday as to more of a 'lastminute' disasater As just before the plane was about to take off the students were asked to leave because they didn't have an adult with them. All 23 pupils were told that they couldn't fly without a hearing person with them. The incident happened on an Iberia flight at Heathrow.

It's important to remember that these kids were all in their late teens and if they didn't have a hearing impediment there wouldn't had been any hassle.

It wasn't even a shock to the airline as they were informed that the party of students would be flying with no parental or guardian advisor at the time of booking. Although when it was found that they were deaf things changed!

The students were taken to a local hotel until an adult was found and had to endure the sheer embarrassment of traveling with them to Madrid the following morning. Which lets face, doesn't conjure up the ideal setting for a young persons holiday!

The ordeal pissed the parents off and expressed their opinion,

"They boarded the plane at Heathrow after asking if they could sit together. Their baggage was loaded but someone decided to throw them off," one of the parents said.

"The airline wanted them to have a hearing person with them. These young people have the courage to travel despite their disability, but they have been embarrassed. A lot of them were crying and they have been made a spectacle just because of their disability."

Even though the airline apologized for the way things were handled they still wont allow a large group of deaf people to fly without assistant from an hearing aid person. A spokesperson for Iberia airlines backed the decision,

"If something happens on a flight with 23 unaccompanied deaf people, it could be a very difficult situation, It is against international transport rules for that many deaf people to fly unaccompanied. The rules say four deaf people can travel unaccompanied, or 10 deaf people as long as they are accompanied."

There is however a twist in this story, according to the Disability Rights Commission there has never been such a rule.