The Hypocrisy of Airline Access

Published March 31, 2009 @ 10:01AM PT

American Airlines is in disability news for teaming up with AAPD to honor television advertisements that portray disabled people in a positive way. But the airlines are not so friendly to people with invisible disabilities.

From the AAPD article,

"American Airlines has a long history of diversity and inclusion and is proud to partner with the AAPD to establish this award in honor of all of our employees, customers and partners with disabilities," said Will Ris, American's Senior Vice President - Government Affairs and member of the AAPD's Board of Directors. "We want to acknowledge creative companies who are supporting people with disabilities and understand the business value of inclusive advertising."

American Airlines may have made some headway into supporting diversity and inclusion for some, but definitely not for all. Airports, airlines, air travel in general has become increasingly less accessible. The barriers start before even reaching the gate, security requires increasingly intensive social interaction, communication, and executive function skills. Stewardesses refuse to read written communications. Stewards refuse to allow ear plugs during take off and landing. Passengers talk about how terrible it is to be seated next to an autistic person within the person's hearing range. Airport assistance is denied if someone can walk, or the person is required to sit in a wheelchair in order to be assisted.

Rettdevil blogged about (safety threatening) incompetence on the part of airline staff,

"but we DID disability training"

Yes, they actually said that to me, after I had a seizure after I had a meltdown because my stupid airline made me miss my flight-I suggested, via someone reading what I was typing (I am always nonverbal post seizure. ALWAYS) that perhaps their front desk people needed some training re: invisible disabilities.

Yes. They do. Why haven't they?

Airline access is something that is in people's consciousness. The Oregon Institute on Disability and Development partners with airlines on access issues, and even did a huge study and intervention on airline passenger training.

Excited about this, I approached my contacts and the OIDD, only to find that while originally the accessible airline project was supposed to cover invisible disabilities such as autism, it ended up explicitly excluding them. Specifically, the director of the National Center on Accessible Transportation (NCAT) Dr. Kate Hunter-Zaworski, asked the OIDD to remove from the project anything not related to physically lifting people.

Why?

Accessible transportation doesn't end at installing a wheelchair ramp. The ADA protects us all. What's to be done about this?

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Comments (1)

It's ridiculous that they wouldn't do such little, easy things to help their customers be comfortable. Isn't that what they're there for? What's so hard about reading written communication, or helping someone without making them sit in a wheelchair?

Posted by Lianne Lavoie on 03/31/2009 @ 12:06PM PT
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Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum--including herself! She is Co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education and a member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Board of Directors.