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A new $2.5 million, five-year grant will enhance accessible and inclusive airline travel for people with physical disabilities from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Investigators from the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab will partner with principal investigator Shu Cole, PhD, professor of Health and Wellness Design in the Indiana University School of Public Health – Bloomington, to conduct the research. The grant is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.
“People with disabilities face significant barriers to air travel every step of the way,” says Cole. “From booking a trip online, to getting to the airport, using the restrooms, getting on the plane and getting to their ultimate destination. There are physical barriers and psychological barriers, and some people just refuse to even consider air travel at all because of their past experiences. Our goal is to examine these barriers and develop ways to improve the air travel experience of people with disabilities from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as people aging into physical disability.”
The researchers will conduct a literature review on barriers and facilitators to air travel for people with disabilities, including policies, regulations and practices. They will also conduct a participatory research project and use surveys to learn more about the air travel experiences of people with disabilities. The findings will help enhance an accessibility training program for aviation employees in collaboration with the Open Doors Organization to help improve air travel for people with disabilities. The findings will also be disseminated through newsletters, social media, infographics, podcasts and an online clearinghouse of resources.
Common barriers to travel for people with disabilities include high rates of damage to wheelchairs during air travel, inaccessibility of facilities on board planes and in airports, and concern over traveling significant distances within airports. Psychological barriers include fears of experiencing pain, concerns about managing bladder and bowel functions and the need to depend on others for assistance in public airports and on planes.
According to the Open Doors Organization, between 2018 and 2019, fifteen million people with disabilities took an estimated 29.6 million trips by air, accounting for less than 2% of all 1,800 million trips during the same period, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“While flying is expensive, it is more affordable than it’s ever been, but people with disabilities use air transportation far less than people without disabilities, and so we need to focus on how to drive equity in this space,” says Jacqueline Kish, PhD, OT, a post-doctoral fellow in CROR and a co-investigator on the grant together with CROR Director, Allen Heinemann, PhD.
In addition to organizing local and national focus groups of people with disabilities to share their experiences of air travel, Kish will recruit air travelers with disabilities to record their trips using accessible visual media.
“The purpose of using accessible visual media is so participants will be able to control the narrative around what happened and directly share their experiences, both expected and unexpected,” Kish says. “With this participatory research piece, we hear about air travel in people’s own voices instead of researchers making assumptions about what air travel is like for people with disabilities.”
The researchers will work with the Open Doors Organization (ODO), a leading provider of accessibility training in the aviation industry, to streamline and standardize training material. “It takes a lot of resources for airlines and airports to invest in accessibility training, which can take several days, so what we do is condense ODO’s program to make it more accessible to employees by developing what we call ‘micro-learning’ opportunities where information is provided in bite-sized chunks,” Cole says. The training program will include content on disability awareness and sensitivity training, assisting passengers with disabilities and transfer skills training.
“I look forward to discovering new insights that help people enjoy travel whether it is to explore a new city, for work or to connect with family members or friends,” says Heinemann.