Airlines Are (Slowly) Embracing Inclusivity and Accessibility. Here’s How.

26.06.2024 - 21:23 / afar.com

Flying can be anxiety-inducing for anyone, but for certain travelers, the in-flight experience can be downright demeaning or traumatizing. For passengers who identify as neurodivergent, disabled, or gender nonconforming, air travel can be a minefield of microaggressions and mishaps—whether that means not being able to bring your wheelchair or mobility device onboard, being addressed by a birth name you no longer use, or not being able to find your way around the cabin.

Luckily, the past few years have seen airlines gradually rising to the occasion, implementing new policies that have made flying just a little bit friendlier and more efficient. Here are five promising developments.

A pioneer in the in-flight entertainment space, JetBlue rolled out new seatback screens called Blueprint by JetBlue this spring, which will offer more personalized programming for fliers. Among the flashier amenities (which include a “watch party” feature and saving preferred settings), JetBlue will allow fliers to customize their welcome message on their seatback screens. Previously, fliers were greeted by their legal first name, but in the future, they’ll be able to set the moniker of their choosing. It’s a small but potentially meaningful gesture for travelers who don’t go by their legal name—for example, if they’re transgender or nonbinary.

The patented design converts a standard passenger seat into one that can accommodate a wheelchair restraint.

Courtesy of Delta Flight Products

Delta Flight Products, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, recently debuted a new airplane seat design that will allow travelers who use a wheelchair to bring their wheelchair onto the aircraft and remain seated in it for the duration of the flight. The prototype for the revolutionary new seat design was created in partnership with U.K.-based Air4All, which develops accessible aircraft seating, and was unveiled last year at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany.

The patented design enables airlines to retain the seat layout of their aircraft cabins by converting a standard passenger seat into one that can accommodate a wheelchair restraint. It also provides wheelchair-using passengers access to a headrest and a center console tray table that can adjust into position once the wheelchair is in place.

At present, wheelchair users are required to go through an intense juggling act to get through the airport and into their airplane seat. After checking in their wheelchair, they are then taken to the gate via an airline-provided wheelchair service. And then they are transferred to their seat where, for those who are fully reliant on their wheelchairs, they will remain for the duration of the flight. The product is still in its early