traveling with disabilities Archives

Are airlines and airports getting better at welcoming travelers with disabilities?

(This is a slightly different version of a story we prepared first for The Points Guy site)

Over the past two years, 25.6 million travelers with disabilities have taken a total of 76.9 million trips and have spent almost $50 billion on travel per year. When you add their travel companions to the equation, this group spends over $100 billion per year on travel.

This data comes from a 2024 market study from the Open Doors Organization, a Chicago-based group that advocates for accessible services and goods.

Despite all that traveling and spending, ODO’s study found that in the past two years, more than 80% of travelers with disabilities have encountered obstacles when dealing with airlines and airports.

The problems include difficulty navigating narrow aircraft aisles, problems hearing announcements, long distances between gates, difficulty navigating terminals and lack of adequate seating areas.

And that doesn’t even address the jarring statistics of how often airlines lose or damage medical equipment and wheelchairs.

It wasn’t until December 2018 that the U.S. Department of Transportation began requiring airlines to report the total number of enplaned scooters and wheelchairs as well as the total number of scooters and wheelchairs mishandled.

Now, the DOT’s data shows that for every 100 wheelchairs or scooters transported on domestic flights, at least one is damaged, delayed or lost.

In October 2024, the DOT announced a $50 million fine against American Airlines for mishandling thousands of wheelchairs and failing to offer prompt wheelchair assistance — along with various other “serious violations” documented between 2019 and 2023.

“These problems are not unique to American Airlines,” the DOT said in a statement. It noted that it currently has “active investigations” into similar violations at other U.S. airlines.

New federal rules designed to help

New federal rules, evolving airline programs and innovative technology may bring improvements.

In 2024 federal rules were set to go into effect that offer new protections for air travelers who use wheelchairs, though the government may not follow through under the incoming Trump administration.

This change sets standards for assistance and requires hands-on training for airline employees as well as any contractors who physically assist passengers with disabilities and handle passengers’ wheelchairs.

For example, the rule requires that airlines provide “prompt enplaning, deplaning, and connecting assistance” and return all checked wheelchairs and other assistive devices to passengers “in the condition in which they are received.”

Airlines must also notify passengers — before they deplane — whether their wheelchair or scooter has been unloaded from the cargo compartment; they must provide appropriate loaner equipment if a wheelchair or scooter is mishandled.

Airport- and airline-specific changes

On their own, airlines and airports have been making progress in serving passengers with a wide range of disabilities.

Indiana’s Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA) is determined to become the most accessible airport.

It incorporates universally “rolled” curbs to floor-level baggage scales, couches without armrests to better accommodate travelers with mobility issues, and a tactile cane trail with ribbed tiles that runs from the check-in counters through the security checkpoint to the gates.

In France and 20 other countries, Air France offers a “bespoke” program called Saphir to provide assistance to travelers with disabilities.

In 2023, United Airlines became the first airline to add Braille markings on aircraft rows and inside lavatories. The full mainline fleet should have Braille signage by 2026.

More than three dozen domestic airports offer sensory rooms where neurodivergent travelers and their families will find furnishings, interactive activities and, in some cases, real airplane cabin seats that can help alleviate preflight anxiety.

And the list keeps growing. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston opened its second sensory area in early November 2024, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) opened its first sensory room in mid-December.

Airports are also adding hearing loops that allow travelers with hearing disabilities to connect their hearing aids to an airport public address system and improve access to announcements for gate changes, boarding and other flight information.

Many airports also offer access to Aira — an app that provides people who are blind or have low vision with a live visual interpreter to help them navigate their surroundings — for free.

Delta Air Lines’ Flight Product division is working on a prototype for seating that will allow passengers to use their own wheelchairs on a plane.

American Airlines and its subsidiary Envoy Air currently offer travelers the use of autonomous, self-driving wheelchairs from Whill at a growing list of international and domestic airports, The list includes Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND) and Narita International Airport (NRT), Miami International Airport (MIA), and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) is currently testing the wheelchairs, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is using them to supplement Alaska Airlines’ traditional, nonmotorized “pusher” wheelchair service.

Since August, more than 4,200 passengers at SEA have used autonomous wheelchairs, which drive themselves back to the base after delivering passengers to their gates.

Globally, air travel accessibility is getting attention as well. It was recently the topic of a symposium held by the International Civil Aviation Organization, Airports Council International and the International Air Transport Association.

“It is no secret that accessibility poses challenges for a significant number of our passengers who have disabilities,” IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said in a statement. “Linking disparate approaches into a practical global outcome that will deliver for travelers without disappointment is the goal.”

TSA offers medical notification cards

Travelers with medical conditions should check out a new TSA medical notification card that can be presented to airport security screeners.

The new cards do not exempt a passenger from screening, but they do provide a way to discreetly inform and alert a security officer about a health issue, disability or medical device that may affect screening.

“Travelers can write their disability information on the wallet-sized card and hand it to the security officer,” said TSA spokesperson Greg Soule. He said the agency worked with a coalition of about 70 representatives from disability and health organizations to develop the cards.

The TSA first released the cards in October to some disability rights groups and on disability.gov.

The wording on the front of the new TSA notification card says: “I have the following health condition, disability or medical device that may affect my screening” with a box marked “optional” for travelers to write in. Below that, the card reads, “I understand that presenting this card does not exempt me from screening.”

The reverse side of the card reiterates screening may still be necessary and says the “TSA respects the privacy concerns of all members of the traveling public” and that “alternate procedures which provide an equivalent level of security screening are available and can be done in private.”

Travelers can find more information about the cards on a link on the TSA’s website under “Travelers with Disabilities & Medical Conditions.”

‘Great first step’

“Wow! I love those cards,” said Kate Hanni of the airline consumer organization FlyersRights.org. “We receive complaints every day from folks with all types of disabilities who felt completely disregarded and/or violated during their security checks. These cards will be a great first step in alleviating the disabled flying public’s concerns about their medical devices and the ability to communicate with the TSA before there is another disaster like Tom Sawyer and so many others have encountered.”

If he’d known about the new TSA notification cards, Guenter Roesch, 71, and his wife might be packing for their vacation in Las Vegas.

The Roesches, of St. Marys, Ga., canceled their trip after they read about Thomas Sawyer, a bladder cancer survivor who was left covered in urine on November 7 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a security pat-down in which screeners refused to let him explain his medical condition. TSA Administrator John Pistole later called Sawyer to apologize.

“We’d finally saved enough frequent flier miles for the tickets,” said Roesch. “But I’m also a bladder cancer survivor who wears an ostomy pouch to collect my urine. And I just didn’t want to be put in the same situation as Mr. Sawyer.”

Some doctors, patient advocacy groups and medical-equipment suppliers created their own notification cards and letters long before the TSA’s new stricter security screening rules and enhanced pat-downs went into effect. But Linda Aukett of United Ostomy Associations of America said: “Some TSOs (transportation screening officers) responded with ‘Don’t bother showing me that paper. Everyone has a printer. You could have forged that letter.’ So that had a lot to do with the TSA coming up with its own card.”

News to TSOs

Because the cards are so new, many airport security screeners haven’t even seen them. Chris Soulia, president of AFGE 1234, a union representing TSA workers in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii, said officers at many West Coast airports he contacted on Monday weren’t yet aware of the cards.

But Soulia says he can’t wait to see the cards in action. “Any mechanism that helps facilitate better communications between the passengers and the federal security officer to address a passenger’s special needs is a great idea. This card is an idea long past due.”

“I think doctors, nursing homes, rehab facilities and organizations with websites that get millions of visitors, such as Susan B. Komen [a breast cancer site], should know about this card,” said Eric Lipp of Open Doors, a disability rights organization. He’d also like to see the card on airline websites.

In his phone call apologizing to Sawyer, Pistole asked for input on how the TSA can do a better job in its dealings with travelers with medical conditions. In response, last week a coalition of 24 patient advocacy groups sent the TSA a letter outlining suggestions that include better training for TSA employees, clear and uniformly applied policies “that reasonably limit the use and scope of pat-downs” and better publicity for the TSA’s notification card.

Digging deeper

For his part, Sawyer is planning to fly to Washington, D.C., in January to meet with TSA representatives and give them his own suggestions for improved service.

“I think the coalition nailed it with their ideas,” said Sawyer. “But I want TSA to dig deeper.

“I’m going to suggest that even without being handed a card, TSOs ask any passenger getting a pat-down if there’s a medical condition they should know about.”

Sawyer also plans to suggest that a nurse be available at all airports for travelers who’d like to request one during an enhanced pat-down, and that people with medical issues participate in TSA training.

“If TSOs knew the whole story, I can bet you a million dollars everyone would have a whole new understanding of why we’re so sensitive about this topic,” said Sawyer.

(A version of this story appeared on msnbc.com: TSA embraces new medical notification cards.)