Air travel for passengers with disabilities still stressful - Times of India
MUMBAI: Not being assured of airline assistance for boarding and deboarding at airports, especially foreign ones, can make air travel quite stressful for visually impaired solo travellers. A professor from Pune had a difficult time early this month after his request for assistance at Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi airport was accepted by the airlines only after several protests. Last week, Sanjay Jain, associate professor at ILS Law College, travelled solo to Johannesburg to attend a disabilities conference. He was booked to fly Air Tanzania and return on Etihad via Abu Dhabi. He called up the airlines for assistance a week before his flight. "I'm visually impaired, I cannot board without help," said Jain. "Air Tanzania promptly responded to my request for assistance with boarding." With Etihad, it was first a no, then a yes on day two, provided he produced a medical certificate. "Then they agreed to assist, but refused to send a mail or a screenshot or some kind of documentation that I could rely on as proof, if they eventually denied help at the airport. It was quite stressful," he said. TOI sent a query to Etihad on September 27. The airline did not respond. But on October 3, it did provide assistance to Jain in Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi airports. "Why haven't airlines yet adopted common practices that makes travel easier for people with disabilities. Why should we go through such stress before a flight?" asked Jain. Airlines global trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in its annual general meeting held this year, had unanimously approved a resolution to improve the air travel experience for the estimated one billion people living with disabilities worldwide. But it seems, there are miles to go before it becomes a reality. On domestic air travel front though, much has improved, especially after the 2016 Jeeja Gosh Supreme Court judgment, said solicitor Kanchan Pamnani, who has boarded a number of domestic flights solo in the past four decades. The Supreme Court Jeeja Ghosh 2016 judgement has brought much attention to problems faced by passengers with disabilities. Disabilities rights activist Ghosh had moved the court after a 2012 incident, wherein she was offloaded from a SpiceJet Kolkata-Goa flight on instructions of the commander. "Even after four years of the said incident whenever she has a flashback, she feels haunted with that scene when she was pulled out of the plane, like a criminal. She continues to have nightmares," read her petition. The petition sought a system under which differently abled persons do not suffer this kind of agony, humiliation and emotional trauma which amount to doing violence to their human dignity and infringes, to the hilt, their fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. "Despite that, sometimes I come across staff who aren't well-trained," said Pamnani, who is visually impaired. Recently, she was led to wrong end of the parking lot as the airline attendant wasn't familiar with the layout of Mumbai airport. "There are about one crore visually impaired persons in India," said Suhas Karnik, honorary secretary of National Association for the Blind. Karnik, who also travels frequently on domestic routes, has largely had good experience with airlines. However, airlines could bring about a few changes to make air travel easier for these passengers, he said. "Airline crew/staff training needs to include a module on how to handle disabled passengers. NAB can help with it. We can work with airlines and conduct training for crew," said Karnik. -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
