Wheelchair user at airport departure terminal
Even in 2023, air travel remains stubbornly difficult to solve when it comes to providing disabled passengers with an equitable and independent travel experience.
This is very unfortunate. Because air travel has the potential to be a very accessible mode of transportation, with high levels of staff oversight and the ready availability of human touchpoints both at the airport and on the plane itself.
Yet today, U.S. citizens with disabilities face a complete storm of outdated laws, a complex and unyielding physical infrastructure that is not particularly cheap to make fully accessible.
The latter has been seriously exacerbated by post-pandemic staff shortages as the airline industry tries to bounce back from partial Covid-era shutdowns.
About 15 million people with disabilities took 29.6 million flights during this period, spending about $11 billion, according to pre-pandemic data from 2018-2019 by the Open Doors Organization.
Paralyzed Veterans of America is a philanthropic and lobbying organization that will push Congress to ratify a stronger legal framework outlining clear and transparent obligations of airlines regarding passengers with disabilities. We are promoting.
The Airline Access Amendment, first introduced by Rep. Jim Langevin in 2021, as it could be incorporated into the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization blanket bill that needs to be passed by Sept. 30. By law, this is supposed to be a key moment. 2023.
The Air Carrier Access Amendments Act provides for safe and effective boarding and disembarking of passengers with reduced mobility, visually accessible announcements, proper stowage of assistive devices such as wheelchairs and scooters, and improved accessibility in the cabin itself. , addresses aircraft accessibility standards related to critical areas. practical place.
In addition, the ACAA requires the referral of certain complaints filed by passengers from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Justice, thereby establishing private action rights for disabled passengers under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General.
legal loophole
Although it predates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by about four years (it was enacted in 1986), it cuts directly into one of the major flaws in existing legislation. The original Airline Access Act was largely administrative law and lacked bite. Nor does it allow a discriminated party to seek damages in federal court.
This gaping injustice is the result of Heather Ansley Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Deputy Executive Director for Government Relations declaring late last year to the Committee on Aviation of the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure: became.
“Unlike other forms of mass transport, private air travel has been granted special permits for too long that it has become inaccessible. Safe and dignified air travel for all passengers with disabilities. People with disabilities will not be able to compete for jobs, spend vacations with their families or seek the medical care they need until their travel is guaranteed.”
Ansley later reiterated, “This is one of the few areas of sanctioned discrimination against minority groups in transportation.”
Dealing with deliverables
Regarding the access barriers that passengers with disabilities encounter on a daily basis, these can be divided into two different categories.
Some can be addressed in a relatively short period of time just by insisting that airlines invest in higher levels of customer service and staff training, while others will take significantly longer to implement.
For example, a common cause of complaints is that flight attendants and ground staff often appear unclear about certain rules related to assisting passengers with disabilities and employ inconsistent practices. .
Confusion about passenger disembarkation rules and failure to respect their right to be repatriated in a wheelchair as soon as they leave the aircraft seems commonplace.
One such story that made headlines last year was that of wheelchair user and travel blogger Corey Lee. He was threatened by a Delta flight attendant who told him TSA staff would be after him “with all the guns” after he refused to disembark a flight from Santiago. To Atlanta – Claimed a legal right to wait on the plane until the wheelchair was brought to the gate.
Another major concern is the inadvertent and inappropriate stowage of equipment and manual handling of both assistive devices and the passengers themselves when moving passengers from very narrow dedicated aisle chairs to aircraft seats. Associated with physical damage.
Mandatory data from 2018 reports that around 29 wheelchairs are damaged by airlines every day.
For passengers with disabilities, the line between equipment damage and physical damage is naturally blurred. For many wheelchair users they are one and the same.
One man who has experienced both of these traumas is Charles Brown, president of Paralyzed Veterans.
Brown broke his tailbone in 2019 after being dropped by an assistant staff member when he was moved to an aisle chair before boarding a flight.
Nonetheless, he’s just as vivid when depicting what it’s like for a highly customized wheelchair to be severely damaged in transit.
“This wheelchair is my legs. It’s my life,” says Brown.
“Without it, I’m literally like a helpless baby left in bed. My normal standard of living has been removed and people say I don’t have to fly, but it’s an important part of my job.
Ultimately, the long-term solution to alleviating much of this anxiety is to have fully accessible aircraft. This includes designated wheelchair spaces with secure restraints and accessible restrooms so that wheelchair users do not have to leave their dedicated device.
Such changes to the physical cabin infrastructure will not be mandated overnight, but the Airline Access Amendment Act at least lays the groundwork for research and investment in such capabilities.
But what the aviation industry really needs is someone with integrity and a tail to keep these important evolutionary steps from simply going astray.
With a paralyzed American veteran in the cockpit, surveying the wider landscape and planning the journey ahead, Americans with disabilities can justifiably expect to reach their desired destination a little sooner. .
