TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Airlines

TravelAbility Insiders Making Big News This Month

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Abilitrek employee seated screaming doing a Tedx talk people laughing
Daman Wandke, Abilitrek

  • Expedia, a longtime partner of NAJ, has signed the Valuable 500 Inclusion Pledge first presented at Davos in 2019. Toby Willis of Expedia is a new member of TravelAbility Summit’s Advisory Board.
  • Peter Slatin of The Slatin Group wrote a strong piece this month in Forbes.com on The Trouble With Accessibility, which you can read here.
  • Geriatrician Leah Witt, M.D., who also recently joined the TravelAbility Summit Advisory Board, was interviewed about age-friendly airports of the future.
  • Daman Wandke of Abilitrek was inducted into the Class of 2019  Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame for his mentoring excellence and impact regarding disability inclusion. 

Why a Dress Rehearsal for a Child with Autism Makes All the Difference Before Flying

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child hugging a flight attendant captain and mom are also in the photo

For the next few months, we’re offering a free download of the highest-rated presentations from TravelAbility Summit.

Read the summary, below or see the entire “Wings for Autism Dress Rehearsal” presented here.

Wings for Autism Dress Rehearsal Presentation in a Nutshell

  • The best way for people with autism to adapt to new and changing environments such as air travel is to give them a preview of what they will experience. Wings for Autism makes airplane travel safer and more comfortable for children on the spectrum by providing airport/air travel rehearsal programs at airports in North America.

Key Learnings

  • Rehearsals started in 2014. Since then…
    • 165+ events
    • 23000 individual rehearsed
    • 67 airports
    • 16 airlines
  • The Arc also holds disability training for aviation and TSA personnel.
  • Starts with classroom training and moves to real-life scenario training at a Wings event.

    For destinations interested in hosting their own Wings for Autism event, contact Kerry Mauger at mauger@thearc.org

In case you missed it: Last month featured TravelAbility presenting was an overview of Baby Boomer Travel Trends from AARP’s director of consumer insights, Patty David.

Airport Aids Passengers with Hidden Disabilities (But Not Everyone Wants the Help, Thankyouverymuch)

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lanyard with a sunflower tag on it

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport appears to be the first in the nation to offer green Lanyards printed with yellow sunflowers that symbolize a “hidden disability” such as dementia, hearing loss, post-traumatic stress disorder or autism. It is part of a new pilot program at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, reports USnews.com. The easy-to-spot sunflower lanyards are meant to assist workers in identifying people with invisible disabilities. Help could be in the form of an agent coming around a high counter to be closer to someone with hearing loss. Or in the case of autism, the lanyard could alert a worker that a child might be highly sensitive to crowds or touch.

OUR TAKE: While reviews of the lanyard program have been sunny in the U.K., the forecast is a little stormy in the case of the Seattle lanyard pilot program. Critics argue that being tagged as different is exactly what some people don’t want, which seems somewhat petty given that the ID’s are free to those who want them and can be quite useful for families with young children who want to pre-board their flights to avoid possible anxiety incidents.

How Simulating Real-time Flying with a Guide Dog Helps Passengers

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DOg at her feet, a passenger tests putting on an oxygen mask in a simulation. Everyone smiling and of course the dog is very cute.
Photo Courtesy Guide Dogs for the Blind/Alaska Airlines

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

6 Ways Forward-thinking Airports Use Tech to Accommodate Travelers with Disabilities

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Room is set up with soft padding low light screens and cubes for sitting on and napping. It is blue and red.
A sensory room at Gatwick Airport. Photo courtesy Gatwick Airport

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