March 12, 2019
What are the policies needed to ensure that people with disabilities are able
to enjoy air travel with dignity?
A response to this important question has been sought by the Supreme
Court from the central government as well as Air
India within eight weeks’ time.
This was during a hearing into a petition filed by Kaushik Kumar
Majumdar, who has an 85% orthopaedic disability. Majumdar has
alleged that in December 2017 he was refused to board an Air India flight and
that he was criticised by the airline staff when he refused to remove the
batteries from his wheelchair.
The court has asked the Department of Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities (DEPwD), Directorate General of Civil Aviation
(DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air
India and all state governments and Union Territories to respond to
the petition within the given time.
Majumdar has sought directions to DGCA to frame guidelines regarding
sensitization and training programmes for authorities, airlines staff and
airports with respect to the needs of disabled people.
So, what are the kind of policies that the community feels would enable
dignified air travel? NewzHook decided to ask people across
disability types and with different travel needs this million dollar
question.
An accessible travel specialist for Enable Travels,
Shama Noorani Choudhary travels for a living. “There needs
to be some dignity in the way the entire scanning is done. I am not saying
that as a wheelchair user, I should not be scanned, but it can be done in a
nicer way using the machines you see in airports in western countries”.
The other sticking point for Choudhary is the airline staff. “There needs
to be proper training done of porters. I came back from Goa the other day and
I nearly hurt my foot because of the way I was handled. I need three porters
to carry me and this is very important”.
For Mumbai-based lawyer Amar Jain, the accessibility blocks
come up at the first step. “The DGCA talks about the need to make the
websites and apps of all airlines accessible, but that is missing across all
airlines”, says Jain, who happens to be visually impaired. “None of them
have addressed this”. The other issue, says Jain, starts when you reach the
airport.
“Take Mumbai airport. There is a long walk from the point where the cab
drops you to the counter inside where you find your special assistant. You
have to walk quite a distance when there should be a facility such that the
assistant comes up to the cab when you get off outside the airport”.
Some other helpful suggestions by Jain are to make the boarding pass sequence
number and the baggage tag number digitally available to reduce dependence on
assistants and avoid baggage confusion, which has happened to him on
occasion.
One feedback that was unanimously offered by everyone we spoke to was on the
need for greater sensitization among airlines and airport staff.
“Queues can be tough especially for children with certain disabilities like
autism, says Akila Padmanabhan, parent to a child with
autism and founder of Amaze Charitable Trust. “Children
cannot wait for long periods of time and that can be hard”.
Padmanabhan says she has had a good experience with international and local
airlines when it comes to matters like seat preferences or negotiating
queues. “I would request an airline staff to walk him to the security check
as he has a tendency to walk away. I have always been accommodated but if
there was a rule setting this down, that would be easier”.
Padmanabhan suggests that the staff at various stages like security, baggage
check and seating be sensitized so they are aware of the various protocols to
be followed. “The staff should be there ready to support when they know a
disabled person is coming. We should be able to mention this when we book our
tickets, so they are ready with various protocols”.
Jasmina Khanna, a Mumbai based working professional and
wheelchair user, most problems that disabled passengers faced during air
travel stem from lack of awareness. “Airlines usually they allow power
wheelchair to be taken. In Majumdar’s case it might have been lack of
awareness”. Khanna believes that presence of mind is critical, and that the
onus also lies on people with disabilities to sensitize others. She suggests
that Majumdar could have requested for the airline staff to call a technical
person with better understanding of how an automatic wheelchair works, who
could then have intervened with the non-technical staff.
Jain believes that many of the solutions to these problems are addressed well
at the policy level. “The policy parameters are already there, but
implementation is slow. For instance, most third-party aggregators like Make
My Trip or Yatra do not have the facility to inform the airline in advance
that a passenger needs an assistant when this is a DGCA requirement”, he
says.
Across India, in many major airports, facilities for passengers with
disabilities is better than before. Yet, this is a process that needs to be
constantly worked on to ensure that it becomes deeply entrenched.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21645
