The Intersection of Travel and Disability
Alaska Airlines has taken the lead in helping disabled passengers who use guide dogs to navigate air travel. For the sixth year, the airline partnered with Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) for an event in which guide dogs-in-training, their handlers and people with a range of disabilities explore and get comfortable traveling in mock airplanes, according to the Seattle PI.com READ MORE
While we’ve heard repeatedly that airlines are still struggling to develop systems for aiding travelers with disabilities, the good news is that airports have found greater success, according to Airport Technology. Using new technology, including virtual reality and automation as well as an understanding of sensory issues that affect many people on the autism spectrum, they’ve devised futuristic-looking solutions that honestly, many weary airport travelers would love to be happy to experience. READ MORE
OUR TAKE: We can never get enough of real stories about real people with lived experience—whether they’re testing a new itinerary, telling the tale of how their wheelchair was lost on a plane trip or explaining how the chairs in a restaurant can keep someone in a wheelchair from enjoying the place. Two of our favorites: Why Are Airline Bathrooms So Crappy? and How I Arrived In New York Without My Legs. These real voices give you a hint of how our work—at the intersection of disability and travel—has the possibility to be incredibly impactful thanks to you.
Delta Airlines released a promotional video on social media showing how it “makes the world smaller” for everyone, including children with disabilities. The disability community, however, swiftly called out how Delta and other airlines often make travel harder for people with disabilities, especially wheelchair users, an issue Delta said it is working to resolve. The response from the disability community was 180-degrees from what the company expected. They jumped in the comments section on the video and told their stories—of seeing their wheelchair treated like a sack of potatoes, traveling with a repair kit and being asked to crawl up a flight of stairs to the plane and other difficulties with airline staff. Read the full story here on Yahoo, here.
OUR TAKE: No good deed goes unpunished, even by the disability community. It’s certainly understandable why disabled travelers who’ve experienced first hand a ruined vacation due to wheelchair damage would jump at the chance to vent at Delta, but it doesn’t seem to be productive in the long run. Delta’s ad shows that they are trying to find accessible solutions that involve both design and awareness training among their hundreds of airport sub-contractors to improve conditions. Having to endure this torrent of excoriation may have an unintended effect: Brand risk. If the airlines do nothing, they risk nothing. It is with mixed emotion that we write this. It’s unclear whether marketing folks at Delta ran the ad by a focus group of disabled airplane travelers. If they had, they might have been able to hear their stories and work a note about their long-term approach to change into the messaging. To learn about some of the positive internal changes Delta has made in hiring and supporting people with disabilities, click here. “When we had our CEO transition, we really birthed an increased focus on diversity and inclusion,” said Keyra Johnson, Delta’s chief officer of diversity and inclusion (on their site). “We don’t think diversity just happens. We actually believe that you have to work for it and go after it.”
Pure joy is not something you come across often in an airport. Flights are delayed, security lines are long, and more often than not travelers are grumpy and stressed, writer Madeline Wells in SFGate. So why all the smiles at San Francisco International Airport? It’s the Wag Brigade, SFO’s very own fleet of volunteer therapy dogs—and one particularly adorable pig. Find a gallery of aww-worthy photos, here.
Our take: Fortunately, the recently issued new regulations clarifying which therapy animals are allowed on flights don’t apply to airports where the stress of delays and cancellations can be overwhelming.
photo courtesy SFGate.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.