CW: Ableism
The “Jetway Jesus” phenomenon has gained such traction on social media because it not only capitalizes on confusion and suspicion but also because airports are where frustration, stress, and anger multiply. The phenomenon itself refers to the viral videos of people in wheelchairs in airports standing up and walking when they board the plane. To some people, it seems like a miracle. To others, it seems like a person who is faking a disability to get “special” treatment. Reality is far more complex than either of these assumptions.
Many wheelchair users are ambulatory wheelchair users, including people who can walk but not necessarily long distances. Conditions such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and chronic pain, can make walking airport corridors, security checks, or connecting flights too physically demanding or dangerous. It can be much easier to walk a few feet off an airplane than it would be to walk the length of a large airport. Staff usually tell disabled people to ask for help if needed.
But social media is filled with quick judgments. A ten‑second clip of someone getting up from a wheelchair gets millions of views, devoid of context and framed as a “gotcha.” The “Jetway Jesus” nickname stuck because it’s relentlessly catchy and mocking, not because it has anything to do with how disability works.
Disability advocates push back, frustrated, pointing out that mobility needs fluctuate and that invisible disabilities are real. Someone who can stand for a moment may not be able to stand much longer. Someone who can walk a few steps may not be able to walk a few hundred yards. None of this is unusual within the disability community, but it’s unfamiliar to people who blithely assume that wheelchairs are all‑or‑nothing.
“Faking it” is exactly what has been happening in airports for years, and it has played out in a similar way on college campuses too. Colleges have noted a sharp increase in students requesting accommodations, particularly extra time on exams. Some have seen this uptick in requests as a sign of over-accommodating and a lack of standards.
However, disability services offices have reported that such increases represent better diagnostics, decreased stigma, and a generation of students coming forward to seek help rather than struggling in silence. Just as in the airport story, the discussion inevitably gets reduced to “faking it,” which is not what most students requesting such accommodations do.
In both contexts, the general public has the tendency to view disability as something visible and static. A person who can enroll in college must not require additional time to complete an exam. A person who can get up from a wheelchair must not require assistance when getting onto a plane.
Moments taken out of context often invite the harshest interpretations. Whether it’s someone standing from a wheelchair or someone asking for extra support in another setting, people tend to fill in the gaps with suspicion rather than curiosity.
But most needs aren’t dramatic, and many disabilities aren’t static or obvious. They shift, they fluctuate, and they don’t always look the way people expect. The real issue isn’t that some people ask for help; it’s how quickly we assume that people don’t need help . When we slow down and think about what others might be facing, we make room for a more accurate, and more humane understanding of one another.
Sources:
Dangoor, Natasha. “They Get Wheeled on Flights and Miraculously Walk Off. Praise ‘Jetway Jesus.’” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 18 Dec. 2025, https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/jetway-jesus-wheelchair-passengers-miracle-flights-0eaccfb3. .
Horowitch, Rose. “Accommodation Nation.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 Dec. 2025, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-university-student-accommodation/684946/.