Media Baffled by Wheelchair 'Miracles' Because They Don't Understand Disability

Justine Barron

"There’s typically no request for proof of a disability" from people who request wheelchairs at an airport, the Wall Street Journal (12/18/25) complains—suggesting that in an ideal world, people would have their medical records scrutinized at the airport before getting help to the gate.

In keeping with the spirit of the holidays, the Wall Street Journal (12/18/25) punched down on mobility-impaired people. On December 18, the outlet published a story headlined “They Get Wheeled on Flights and Miraculously Walk Off. Praise ‘Jetway Jesus.'” The story claimed to expose a growing trend in airline travel: “wheelchair scammers,” who pretend to need wheelchairs so as to speed through the security gate and get early boarding. To support this allegation, the Journal noted that many people who use wheelchairs to board planes are “miraculously” able to walk once exiting the plane.

The story cited several TikTok users exposing the alleged practice. The Journal presented their version of events at face value, including trusting one passenger’s claim that a flight attendant referred to wheelchairs at airports as the “VIP experience” without confirmation.  The story was laden with snarky rhetoric that portrayed many wheelchair users as con artists, including sarcastic references to “divine intervention” and language like “scammers.” Versions of this story have popped up in the media increasingly over the last few years (New York Post, 6/28/23; Fox News, 1/25/25; MSN, 11/17/25).

The Journal seemed largely unaware of the common phenomenon of ambulatory wheelchair users—that is, people who are able to walk or stand, but benefit from a wheelchair in certain circumstances due to mobility limitations. The article included no quotes from relevant medical or disability experts on wheelchair usage suggesting that the journalist investigated different possibilities. It cited only one disabled passenger, who claimed to be able to tell who didn’t need a wheelchair on one of her flights.

Briefly, towards the end of the article, the Journal offered a flash of sensitivity, referring to a “variety of disabilities, such as autism and dementia, that aren’t immediately apparent but that make it difficult for passengers to navigate a busy airport without assistance.” Yet, one sentence later, the article was back to referring to how many wheelchair users “game the system” and the “miracle” of their ability to walk.

In its reporting, the Journal seemed to hunt down social media posts to confirm its bias. It cited a self-proclaimed scammer on TikTok who requested a wheelchair in order to not miss their flight. That person’s story was not questioned, even though waiting for a wheelchair at an airport is known to add time to one’s travel. The possibility that such posts may be rage-bait—deliberately obnoxious social media content designed to provoke engagement—was not entertained.

The Journal’s story was picked up by Fox News (12/21/25) and Entrepreneur (12/19/25), citing the same TikTok posts. Fox also cited an unnamed Reddit user who complained about the same issue. Both the Journal and Fox mentioned that there has been a reported increase in the use of wheelchairs at bigger airports, according to a trade association, but the journalists didn’t investigate why. They jumped to assume fraudulence.

No 'divine intervention' needed

Even if there are people who ask for wheelchairs at airports for some perceived benefit unrelated to disability, none of these articles offered evidence that this is a common problem. Meanwhile, the articles omitted one well-documented reason there might be more ambulatory wheelchair users in recent years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of the labor force with a disability has dramatically increased since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, by about 50%.

Studies estimate that from 10% to 30% of people who have had Covid experience Long Covid, or chronic conditions after infection. Of these, about half have been shown to have myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), an increasingly common energy-limiting condition that leaves individuals unable to exert without impairing baseline functioning. The distance from the entrance to the gate at larger airports is about a mile, an impossible distance for many with ME/CFS. The Journal article cites how ambulatory wheelchair users have no excuse at smaller airports, given the shorter distances to the gate, but people with severe ME/CFS often struggle to climb a flight of stairs.

Additionally, up to 79% of people with Long Covid have been shown to have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a circulatory condition. POTS primarily manifests in an inability to stand upright for any substantial period of time without symptoms such as nausea and fainting, due to blood pooling and significant heart rate increases. For people with conditions like POTS, being transported through the security gate to avoid standing in a long line is not the “VIP experience” but a necessity.

These are just two of the countless issues that can make airline travel challenging for otherwise ambulatory people with invisible conditions. Other such issues can range from chronic pain to neurological impairment to a high-risk pregnancy.

But what about people who used a wheelchair to board and then walk off the plane unassisted—the alleged “divine intervention”? None of these articles reflected any understanding of the dynamics of how wheelchairs are distributed at airports, which impacts their usage. Airports make wheelchairs available in a special location near the check-in counters before boarding, but it can take a while for a wheelchair to be available at a specific gate upon arrival.

In my experience, as someone who usually depends on wheelchair transport at the airport, ambulatory wheelchair users often walk off the plane and then wait in the boarding area for a wheelchair. The "gotcha" videos of people “miraculously” walking off the plane may not follow them to their seat near the gate. Other passengers may not have time to wait, and have no choice but to walk to a connecting flight. The distance from the gate to the exit is typically shorter than from the entrance to the gate, and there’s no long security line.

'Suspicious' accommodations

The Washington Post (1/2/26) calls for flagging the test scores of students with disabilities because the worry "that schools might discriminate against" disabled students "kept non-disabled students from gaming the system."

The Wall Street Journal might have told a more complete story if it had interviewed ambulatory wheelchair users. But then it wouldn’t have been able to portray disability as a scam, a popular theme in the media. FAIR (e.g., 6/1/13, 10/7/13) has covered this trend in the past. This past year, following the lead of right-wing politicians, the British press has been accusing motorists of lying about disability in order to get upscale car benefits (Sun, 3/16/25; Daily Mail, 3/17/25). These stories are also often sourced to TikTok creators.

The Washington Post (1/2/26) recently joined in the holiday spirit with its own New Year’s editorial questioning whether disabilities are real. The editorial called it “suspicious” that there are more disability accommodation requests, including for mental health issues, than ever before at elite universities. It claimed that, since rates at community colleges aren't likewise going up, the cause of the increase is

quite clear: Affluent students are registering disability designations that entitle them to significant advantages, from single dorm rooms and deadline extensions to laptops in no-laptop classes and extra time on tests.

The Post wrote, condescendingly: "Coursework is supposed to be challenging." The article identified some accommodations, like “wheelchair ramps and braille books,” as more valid than the provisions offered to people with invisible or less well-understood disabilities.

Like the Journal, the Post committed a logical fallacy, assuming one specific cause for a documented phenomenon. There are many possible causes for the rise in accommodation requests among wealthier students besides just deceit or exaggeration. For one, Covid has increased the rate of all kinds of disabilities, including mental and cognitive health issues.

There is also greater disability awareness, leading to more diagnoses among those who can afford them. It can cost up to thousands of dollars for an ADHD or dyslexia diagnosis, for instance. Media give the impression that students are getting away with deceit en masse, but social media and independent media are filled with stories of students’ disability needs being left unmet, due to cost and prejudice.

Social acceptance, not performance

Left-handedness did not quadruple from 1900 to 1960 because of special perks given to lefties (Washington Post, 9/22/15).

There’s a popular meme on social media that circulates whenever people express skepticism or panic around the increasing diagnosis of neurodivergence (or gender difference): It’s a graph showing the massive increase in left-handedness over time, a product of social acceptance, not people performing left-handedness. That meme could also apply to people becoming more aware that they can request accommodations at school, or a wheelchair at the airport, to ease their challenges.

It is well-documented that the disabled population is exploding. More people need benefits and accommodations at school, work and airports, and such support is not as easily obtained as the media might suggest. Reporting on that story would require a deeper skepticism of the status quo, and discussion of the role of powerful interests in further disabling the population and stigmatizing disability.

Instead, media amplify the biased hot takes of random individuals on social media who push the age-old narrative that disability is dubious. Unfortunately, articles like the Journal’s contribute to the hate that ambulatory wheelchair users face in the real world once people see that they can walk.