Jono Bredin was born with cerebral palsy and currently lives in Melbourne. Recently, he faced significant challenges booking air travel that addressed his unique accessibility needs. He spent a million efforts trying to identify an airline that would accommodate him. Frustrated that he was being treated as lesser than, he didn’t see value as a human person. His experience points to a major barrier that people with disabilities face. It has sparked necessary and urgent dialogue about whether current accessibility standards are truly effective across the aviation industry.
Bredin’s struggles are not isolated. Chelsea Hopkins-Allan, who has experienced mobility challenges from the same litany of health conditions, shares like annoyance with airline atrocities. Together, her story and Bredin’s raise important questions that need to be asked. Are today’s accessibility requirements meeting their intended purpose? Do airlines really want to be there for their customers with disabilities?
On the federal level, initiatives are underway to improve accessibility standards in air travel. These moves are compounded by the commitments we saw during the publication of the Aviation White Paper back in August. Unfortunately, this absence of substantive change goes on to hurt those who need support most while air traveling.
Unmet Accessibility Needs
For Jono Bredin, air travel has become a discouraging quest for independence. He said during his last assignment, he failed to find all flights that met his needs. As a result, he’s had to pass up several promising job offers elsewhere in Canada. This is largely due to the fact that he was unable to find accessible flights.
Bredin continued, “I think airlines don’t really want people with disabilities flying… it just makes things so much more complicated for them.” Over his remarkable life, he shone a spotlight on the systemic barriers that people with disabilities experience. His frustration is compounded by the necessity of taking long train rides instead of short flights to visit family, illustrating how inadequate transportation options can affect personal and professional lives.
Sheetal Balakrishnan is a fierce disability rights activist. She regularly faces situations where airlines and airports give poor service to the disabled. I think for a number of people, they tell you that it’s the case every time they fly,” she added. This long-standing trend of neglect not only sparks concern, but raises questions about how airlines are rolling out new services for travelers with accessibility needs.
Harrowing Experiences at Airports
Chelsea Hopkins-Allan’s story is an extreme illustration of what can happen when airlines fail to provide enough assistance. Relying on a motorised scooter for her mobility, she discovered that she was unable to use it in-transit. She had a health emergency and she was in a bathroom stall. An hour later, she was vigorous enough to walk through the huge terminal.
I lost all sense of my worth as a person,” Hopkins-Allan said. She drew attention to the fact that Qantas failed her in every possible way throughout her travel journey. She wasn’t offered basic support like meal vouchers or a hotel stay while going through her experience. A relative had to make a nearly 10-hour drive to Perth and back to bring her home after her flight troubles.
Balakrishnan emphasized the central issue regarding Qantas’s failure to provide necessary assistance: “Qantas has to provide its services in an accessible way. At the heart of Chelsea’s complaint is that Qantas didn’t provide the assistance that she needed … and if a service is not accessible, we say it’s disability discrimination.”
A Call for Change
The urgent imperative for reform is palpable among advocates and practitioners to be sure. Bredin articulated his thoughts on the current state of airline accessibility: “They do the bare minimum to make it look like they care … but there is no intentional demonstration for inclusion.” His comments capture the level of frustration that is felt by the travel industry with how airlines carry out disability inclusion.
Ross Joyce, another advocate for change, stated, “We think that it’s about time things changed so the systems respect people with disability.” This sentiment emphasizes the urgency for airlines and government bodies to take significant steps toward creating an inclusive travel environment.
Despite some governmental pledges towards improving accessibility standards in air travel, many individuals feel that progress is slow and inadequate. The new standards are expected to be finalized by 2026. Until that day comes, disabled travelers such as Bredin and Hopkins-Allan are impacted every single day—a failure with devastating consequences on their quality of life.
