This Case Study contains graphic displays and commentary written and compiled by Jennifer Coutts Clay for a live seminar presentation given at the Aircraft Interiors EXPO in Los Angeles, CA, in September 2019.
Attached to Chapter 8/Accessibility: Special Needs
FLYING FOR ALL
CREATING AN ACCESSIBLE CABIN
Welcome to this Cabin Space Live Seminar, organized by Gillian Jenner, Editorial Director, Seminars & Conferences, at Reed Exhibitions. Our topic today is Flying for All, creating an accessible cabin for airline passengers with special needs. These issues are of particular importance to me because, for many years, I helped look after a wheelchair-bound member of my own family. In my presentation on Accessibility: Special Needs, I am going to show how the Accessibility customer universe can be classed as an operational Market Segment (alongside the traditional airline Market Segments, for example, First Class, Business, Premium Leisure, Economy etc.). We shall then move on to an in-depth discussion with our very distinguished Panellists.
In June 2019, at its 75th annual meeting, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) unanimously approved a resolution to improve the air travel experience for the estimated one BILLION people living with disabilities, visible or non-visible. IATA called on governments and airlines to harmonize national legislation and regulations, to ensure dignified, respectful treatment for disabled passengers.
See text on Slide. WHO Reports. Many Passengers with Reduced or Restricted Mobility (PRMs) suffer from physical disabilities that are visible.
There are other PRMs whose mobility is restricted for disability reasons that are not visible, for example, visual or hearing impairments, autism, and intellectual and language difficulties. As we grow older, we all need special assistance. So, at the human level, accessibility is a moral imperative.
This Sunflower image is a globally recognized symbol for hidden disabilities. The Sunflower Lanyard Scheme was originally pioneered at British railway stations and subsequently launched at London Gatwick Airport in 2016. Since then, the scheme has been implemented progressively across an international network of hundreds of airports.
Globally, 1 in 7 people live with a disability, and of those disabilities, 80% are non-visible, according to www.hiddendisabilitiesstore.com. Wearing a Sunflower lanyard enables a passenger to signal to airport staff that he or she has a hidden disability.
We should add families to the Accessibility Market Segment because children have Special Needs. And we should add seniors: this particular customer group is increasing at an enormous rate. Worldwide, according to United Nations, more than one million people turn 60 every month. And in USA, the world’s largest aviation market, 10,000 people turn 65 every day of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal. What other airline Market Segment has a guaranteed, potential customer universe of this magnitude?
When they travel, many PRMs are often accompanied by helpers, healthcare employees, family members, friends or qualified medical assistants. Passengers with Special Needs are usually grateful for specialist care and attention, and they are prepared to pay full market rate for professional services.
For travel organizations that develop programs to successfully accommodate PRMs and their accompanying personnel, there is great potential for airline ticket sales and future Return Business—this is a core, central feature of a buoyant Market Segment.
So what does all this mean for cabin designers? Well, it means there are MAJOR opportunities to develop creative cabin-design concepts that will accommodate PRMs. This is a new market perspective. Just look at this ingenious seat-row installation: congratulations to Priestmangoode!
Question: How soon will we see this kind of seating arrangement FAA-certified and flying on launch customer airlines? PRMs would most certainly pay extra to make reservations for this seat position.
When families travel, all children have to be carefully supervised. And, for safety reasons, Unaccompanied Minors (UMs) always need specially designated seating arrangements.
See text on Slide.
Market Segment Action (A)
KLM. Boeing B747
Some airlines issue printed, pre-flight information documents for passengers with Special Needs. And airlines normally display their Accessibility policies on their websites. Contact details are of great importance, for example, emergency telephone or text numbers or email addresses.
However, many seniors do not use the Internet, and in the emerging markets, PRMs might not even have internet access. So, print versions of helpful documents are often cherished by handicapped passengers (these brochures were carefully stored by my own family members).
Look at this advertising on wheelchairs at airports. The advertising space could be used to generate ancillary revenue.
Changi Airport
PRM Information Documents can be helpful and practical. But frequently they stress product details rather than customer benefits. PRM documents offer practical opportunities for adding marketing messages, for example, ‘Welcome to XYZ ... etc.’ or ‘We hope you will enjoy your flight today ... etc.’ or ‘Here’s how to contact us … etc.’ And airlines can use internet communications, pre-and post-flight, to develop PRM loyalty and ensure follow-up return customers.
A major question, however, relates to what happens at destination airports. After PRMs disembark from their aircraft, at many airports, ground-handling companies take over responsibility for airline passengers. Sometimes, there are serious problems because care standards can vary from A to Z, outside the control of the airlines on which the PRMs travelled.
Because the PRMs paid money to the airlines for their air tickets, they regard the airlines as being at fault if they encounter difficulties at the airports. Singapore Changi Airport (the winner of Skytrax’s annual ‘World’s Best Airport’ award every year since 2013!) has a top-level reputation for its training standards and care of PRMs. At Swiss airports there are sign-posted wheelchair drop-off points.
But in many countries airport ground-handling standards can vary dramatically, unfortunately.
Reports from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) describe damage to PRMs’ own wheelchairs.
Think of the recurring nightmare scenarios and press-report horror stories, for example, PRMs being forced to crawl on hands and knees through immigration and customs because their wheelchairs were missing (short-shipped by the airline) or smashed during the flight (incorrectly stowed by baggage loaders). For a wheelchair-user this is the equivalent of the ‘end-of-the-world.’ It can take days for wheelchairs to be repaired. How easy is it to organize a replacement? Some airlines provide reassurances that they will provide substitute wheelchairs for PRMs whose own wheelchairs have been damaged in transit. But what about typical problems such as store closures, national holidays, remote locations that do not have repair facilities, and lack of suitable replacement parts? Professional training for airport employees is absolutely essential.
There are frequent press reports about PRMs stranded at airport assembly/pick-up/put-down points. PRMs have been left helpless and abandoned, locked inside air-terminal buildings overnight! Airlines should make sure that PRMs with cell phones have emergency contact numbers to call when they experience transit problems.
At huge new airports like Istanbul (the largest single-roof airport building in the world), there are designated pathways for Buggy transfers(notice the green designator labels in the photos), and the wheelchair-collection points and Buggy parking spaces are located alongside. By contrast, at many old-style airports, these collection points and parking spaces are often tucked away in distant corners or behind pillars, following no logical pattern and sometimes almost invisible.
Some wheelchair passengers cannot walk up and down aircraft steps (IATA code: WHCS) or they might be totally immobile. So, if an aircraft is at a Remote Parking location, out on the tarmac (i.e. it is not parked at a Jetway corridor connected to the airport building), airlines often use Scissors-Lift High-Level Loader vehicles. These vehicles can transport wheelchair passengers from the airport-concourse building to Door R1, on the starboard side of the aircraft. (Employees of Flight Kitchens will recognize these vehicles because this is the normal way to deliver catering supplies to parked aircraft.) Wheelchair users will tell you that being bodily carried up and down a flight of steps, particularly an exterior stair-case where there might be wind-gusts or rain-fall, can be a truly terrifying experience.
See text on Slide.
Market Segment Action (B)
McDonnell Douglas. MD95 (now Boeing B717)
The first illuminated handrail at shoulder level, running from the front to the back of the cabin, appeared on the MD-95, launched by McDonnell Douglas in 1995. This product upgrade is of great benefit to PRMs—and to everyone during periods of air turbulence. The MD-95 was re-named the Boeing B717 after the merger of the two companies in 1997. Subsequent aircraft roll-outs at both Airbus and Boeing have included shoulder-height handrails. But when the handrails are not illuminated, passengers often do not know that they exist—and ditto for flight attendants.
Air New Zealand (ANZ) launched Skycouch in 2012. This could offer attractive ancillary-revenue potential. Underneath the cushions of these ANZ seats there are pull-out horizontal panels that fill the space between the seat rows. These Skycouch installations, with flip-up armrests, are positioned at certain points on the outboard seat rows of the Economy Class cabin. When seated on the horizontal panels, passengers can lean back against the cabin sidewalls. Or they can stretch out across the row of three seats. Joon/Air France launched Cosyjoon Child Beds in 2018. Located near the front of the centre-line area of the Economy Class cabin, these seats feature a special headrest-fitting at the top of the seat back. This headrest-fitting assembly can be detached by flight attendants and used to fill the space between the seat rows. Again, ancillary revenue potential.
See text on Slide.
Market Segment Action (C)
IATA recently promoted a training guide for travel sellers, focusing on service standards and procedures to assist handicapped passengers, covering all disabilities, visible and non-visible. The aim is to develop a consistent delivery of care for all Special Needs passengers. Perhaps the Alliances, such as Oneworld, Sky Team, and Star Alliance, could set an example and develop joint standards for their own participating airlines?
And when Passenger Name Records (PNRs) are entered in airline reservations computers using the SSR code (for a Special Service Request), IATA is calling for more specific use of the various categories to clarify individual problems, for example, relating not just to mobility but also to vision, hearing, speech impairment and so on. Perhaps, in the future, Special Needs passengers could be provided with personal wearable electronic communications devices linked to ground-based medical facilities. This product development (already in use in the corporate-aviation sector) would ensure professional medical monitoring of the health and well-being of PRMs throughout their journey time. And it would verify the exact location of PRMs (when the Istanbul New Airport is completed it will be larger than the island of Manhattan). This could present even more ancillary revenue opportunities.
Onboard stowage of a typical elbow crutch is near-impossible when overhead bins are small. Crutches and walking-frames can usually be stowed in the larger stowage bins.
Problems can occur when (well-meaning) flight attendants take away passengers’ mobility devices for storage in a distant closet. When passengers who can walk a few steps inside the aircraft cabin (IATA code: WCHS) do not have their devices close at hand, they cannot access them rapidly and might need to ask for personal assistance, for example, if they wish to use the lavatory. When coping with this difficult situation, flight attendant B might not even know which closet flight attendant A originally selected for storage.
Continental. Boeing B757
These aisle-size, Crystal Cabin Award-winning folding wheelchairs (slim but strongly built) are used to bring PRMs who are unable to walk from the aircraft door to their seats and later back to the aircraft door for disembarkation (IATA code: WCHC). Flight attendants are trained to push these wheelchairs to enable PRMs to reach the lavatory.
In the early 2000s, Continental was a launch customer airline for these onboard FAA-approved wheelchairs. As you can see, this was a major Cabin Accessibility advance.
Curtains that can be pulled in front of lavatory doors provide privacy for PRMs and their helpers. Flip-up armrests ensure ease-of-movement for PRMs when transferring between the wheelchair and the seat row.
Flip-up armrests were first introduced by Pan Am in 1970 at the time of the launch of the Boeing B747.
Lavatory interiors need strong grab bars. Many major airlines fly one larger-size lavatory suitable for wheelchair access. And there is a recent development whereby folding divider-partitions can be used to convert two, adjacent, small-size lavatories into one larger-size lavatory, suitable for wheelchair access.
This Crystal Cabin Award-winning design concept from Hamburg Technical University is really brilliant! Let’s hope the Smart Onboard Wheelchair for PRMs can be developed and implemented by major airlines.
JETLINER CABINS is a proud Founding and Online Sponsor of the Crystal Cabin Award programme.
See text on Slide.
Market Segment Action (D)
Virgin Atlantic. Delivery of Airbus A350-1000, August 2019
In 2017, Virgin Atlantic developed inflight literature in Braille, for example, Safety Cards. With Bluebox, Virgin Atlantic developed ‘Accessible IFE,’ a portable screen display to help vision-impaired passengers to access seat-back IFE. Pedro, the gorgeous Service Dog, attended special training courses to accompany blind air travelers onboard.
Sadly, in 2018, there was a serious case of Denied Boarding at Newark Liberty Airport: Dexter the Peacock, a passenger’s Emotional Support Animal, was not permitted to board the aircraft even though Dexter certainly knows a lot about flying — he has his wings, yes?
And concerning the carriage of Emotional Support Animals, DOT recently issued new guidelines. Regulators and airlines need to clarify and harmonize terms and conditions relating to carriage of animals inside the aircraft. This is a very difficult subject for everyone.
Many airlines carry doctor-prescribed ‘medical equipment’ free of charge to passengers; the weight of this medical equipment is not counted as part of the passengers’ personal baggage allowance.
Airlines provide robust ‘Bicycle Flight Boxes’ for placement in the cargo hold. Are we going see robust ‘Wheelchair Flight Boxes’?
This ‘Luggie’-type Scooter provides space for the passenger’s suitcase on the horizontal foot-panel at the front of his 4-wheeled Scooter. This Scooter was used by the PRM at both the origin and destination airports (witnessed by me). For the flight, this Scooter was folded into a solid, compact, box-type shape, and it travelled in the cargo hold of the aircraft from JFK to LHR.
The owner told me his Scooter has never been damaged while travelling. Battery-powered Scooters sell for a few thousand dollars.
See text on Slide.
Market Segment Action (E)
And in 2020, the USA will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This legislative milestone will provide an all-important opportunity for the aviation sector to signal its key advances in the transportation of passengers with disabilities.
Delta Air Lines
For many years, Mr. Chris Wood, MBE, founder of Flying Disabled, has lobbied for the development of a wheelchair that can be brought onboard aircraft.
As of 2023, the Delta Flight Products subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, in partnership with the UK-based consortium Air4All (formed of Flying Disabled, Priestman Goode, SWS Certification, and Sunrise Medical), has developed a prototype aircraft seat which can function as a standard passenger seat but which can also be converted to accommodate and secure a wheelchair during flight.
The design involves removing the back seat cushion and flipping up the seat to accommodate a powered wheelchair. This innovative product can be adjusted to provide access to the headrest area, the cocktail table, and the centre-console tray-tables for passengers who are seated in their own wheelchairs that have been rolled into the designated seat position and secured in place.
The ongoing testing and FAA certification programmes are certain to be extremely rigorous and they are likely to take some time, but this new design offers exciting new options for PRMs.
For all passengers with disabilities, and for their caregivers, it is inspiring to see a major international operator such as Delta Air Lines taking up the challenge to provide safe, comfortable and dignified air travel for PRMs.
To close my presentation, here is President Roosevelt's wheelchair cabin access. A customized elevator was installed on the Presidential aircraft, Air Force One, a Douglas V-54C Skymaster (these days Air Force One is a Boeing B747). Seated securely in his wheelchair, the President entered the aircraft via the cargo bay. The wheelchair was then rolled into this special elevator. The elevator moved up, within the cargo hold, to reach the aircraft cabin. In this way, the President was able to enter, and leave, the aircraft cabin in full safety and comfort (instead of having to be bodily carried up and down the exterior steps of the aircraft). This US Air Force initiative is an inspiration for everyone in the aviation business.
Well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining our Cabin Space Live Seminar today. I hope I have convinced you — and our Panellists — that the Special Needs customer universe warrants full attention from everyone. I hope you will agree there is a long-term, potential, major-money-making revenue stream in the Accessibility Market Segment.
And it’s time for us all to move on, to hear from our distinguished Panellists, on the subject of FLYING FOR ALL – CREATING AN ACCESSIBLE CABIN.
Gina Emrich, Senior Manager of Customer Accessibility, American Airlines
Michele Erwin, President, All Wheels Up
Tom Lipscomb, Head of Project Management, PriestmanGoode
Hank Scott, Chief Executive Officer, Molon Labe Seating
I had the pleasure of giving this presentation in the CabinSpace Live Seminar Theatre during the 2019 Aircraft Interiors EXPO. Special thanks to the distinguished Panellists and to all other aviation executives who have devoted time and effort toward developing products and programmes to provide care for airline passengers with disabilities.
- Jennifer Coutts Clay
Podcast about Accessibility: Special Needs featuring Jennifer Coutts Clay
Episode 5: Jennifer Coutts Clay, Consultant and Author of JETLINER CABINS,
and Christopher Wood, Founder of Flying Disabled from Passenger Experience Week,
PAX Week Views Podcast, 02 January 2020
Addressing the expanding ageing population and the increasing needs for accessibility onboard
Listen to the podcast
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Published Articles about Accessibility: Special Needs
written by Jennifer Coutts Clay
A History of Accessibility by Jennifer Coutts Clay,
Aircraft Interiors International magazine, September 2019
An outline of the airline industry’s approach to accessibility over the years
Read the article
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Published Articles about Accessibility: Special Needs featuring comments
from Jennifer Coutts Clay
Touchless Technology Improved Safety During COVID-19, But Is It Accessible? by Stephanie Taylor,
APEX.aero, 25 October 2021
The impact of digitalization on accessibility both on the ground and in the air
Read the article
Industry Reviews Creative Air Travel Accessibility Solutions by Marisa Garcia,
Runway Girl Network, 21 August 2019
Descriptions of devices for providing assistance to passengers with restricted mobility (PRMs)
Read the article
(Listed Alphabetically)
Aircraft Interiors International magazine
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Presidential Library & Museum
Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
Heathrow Access Advisory Group
Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme
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Collection of J. Clay Consulting |
| www.jetlinercabins.com |