Flying can be an ordeal for people with disabilities,
writes Danielle Teutsch.
Plane travel can be frustrating for anyone, with the inevitable delays and cramped conditions. For anyone with a disability, you can double that frustration and times it by 10. The full extent of disabled passengers’ frustration with airline services was revealed in a report last month released by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre.
Of 110 disabled people and carers surveyed about domestic air travel, only 14 found their experience positive. One man had his wheelchair badly damaged by baggage handlers, another wheelchair-bound passenger was forced to pay for a carer and then questioned extensively by staff about toilet needs - even though it was only a one-hour flight. Another passenger was refused boarding because his wheelchair was too large. No wonder that one woman, whose husband is a quadriplegic, simply described flying as an “ordeal”.
Many of the complaints stemmed from lack of staff, or inadequately trained staff, as well as restrictive policies about mobility aids such as wheelchairs. Although there are national disability standards to make public transport accessible, the report found transport inadequately regulated and called for a code of practice specifically for airlines, developed in consultation with disabled people. The report - appropriately called Flight Closed - has been submitted to the Federal Government as part of its review of national standards.
Jo Shulman, principal solicitor at the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre, said the report came about because of the number of complaints the centre had received of discriminatory treatment in relation to airline travel. A finding of the report was that air travel had got harder for disabled people over the past five years - and the main reason for that was cost cutting and the introduction of budget airlines, Shulman said.
Also, Australia has no independent watchdog monitoring airline compliance with national standards for accessible travel, unlike North America and Europe. Virgin Blue’s independent travel criteria have been the subject of much criticism. The policy is that anyone who is unable to reach the oxygen mask, put on a life jacket, fasten a seatbelt and understand instructions must travel with a carer. “It’s caused a great deal of upset and is being applied inconsistently,” Shulman said.
The policy is currently the subject of a federal court challenge by three complainants.
Regional Express airlines is planning to introduce a similar policy to that of Virgin Blue, and has applied to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for a temporary exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act that would allow it to do so.
Simon Darcy is associate professor in the school of leisure, sport and tourism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and a power wheelchair user. Despite having travelled extensively - most recently to the US with United Airlines last year, he would not be able to travel independently under Virgin Blue’s criteria. He said Qantas domestic has made more of an effort to be inclusive, and has taken more time in consulting people with a disability.
Darcy said much of the difficulty in plane travel comes at the time of transferring from the passenger’s wheelchair to the airline’s aisle chair, which tends to be narrow and allows little independent mobility. (Darcy says people liken it to the chair that Hannibal Lecter was strapped into in the film The Silence Of The Lambs.)
Another problem is being “manhandled” by untrained porters, or
even worse, having to wait in the plane because there are insufficient porters to meet demand.
“I once waited on a plane for an hour before I was transferred, which caused me to miss my connections,” he says. “Sometimes, you’re just seen as a piece of luggage.”
Darcy said disabled passengers just want to be as independent as possible, maintain their dignity and be treated equitably.
The trend towards budget airlines, cost-cutting and declining customer service is set to continue. But he points out that it is a false economy, as airlines are missing out on the growing market in accessible tourism.
The Bureau of Statistics says 20per cent of Australians have a disability of some kind, which is similar to our major overseas tourism markets. It quotes recent market estimates that tourists with disabilities already account for $3.4 billion of the domestic tourism market.
Barbara Worley is a special-needs consultant to Adelaide-based travel company Travelaffare. Whereas most of her disabled clients were once content to go to Disneyland or the UK, she is now getting requests for wheelchair-accessible villas in Tuscany, or tours of Egypt.
“It’s interesting to see how people are getting far more adventurous,” she says. She recommends the airlines Cathay Pacific, Qantas and British Airways to her clients - as well as airlines such as Malaysian, which is catching up, having recently installed wheelchair accessible toilets on its aircraft.
Worley has travelled the world, since an accident 40 years ago left her a paraplegic. Even though she is aware airlines have recently tightened up rules for disabled passengers, she says facilities have no doubt improved from those early days when there were no accessible toilets and she had to be carried on and off the plane. “Things are better, but there’s still a long way to go.”
RESOURCES
Source: The Sun-Herald