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Damaged, delayed and lost: Grant seeks to improve air travel for wheelchair users

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Damaged, delayed and lost: Grant seeks to improve air travel for wheelchair users

Grace Kestler, a Columbus city council member, considers herself a frequent flyer.

But for Kestler, flying isn’t often easy and sometimes it’s a nightmare.

Kestler’s muscular dystrophy means she needs a wheelchair to get around. Although she’s traveled to 13 countries and regularly jet sets across the U.S. for work and fun, she’s had her share of bad experiences.

Once, when returning from Berlin to Chicago, she learned her wheelchair had been left at a layover in Iceland. She had to take home a wheelchair from the airline, and waited two days for her chair to be sent back to her home. Other times, she’s waited 30 to 45 minutes to deplane because she needs crew members to assist her.

“I often board first and leave last,” Kestler said.

Wheelchair users often avoid air travel

Kestler’s experience is not unique. According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 11,000 wheelchairs were damaged or lost by airlines in 2023. For every 100 wheelchairs or scooters transported on domestic flights, at least one is damaged, delayed or lost. A survey from progressive think-tank The Century Foundation found that some 70% of disabled travelers had avoided air travel in the past three years due to accessibility concerns.

In recent years, campaigns to improve access and experiences for disabled air travelers have made significant strides. The “Rights on Flights” movement, which originated in the U.K., has advocated for improvements to the way airplanes are built to better accommodate wheelchair users. Last year, Delta Airlines unveiled an in-flight docking system prototype that allows wheelchair users to remain in their chairs, rather than using an aisle chair to get in and out of their airplane seats.

But disabled travelers like Kestler say that equally, if not more important than physical improvements to the travel experience, is having competent and attentive airline and airport staff.

“The most frustrating part for me is, as a wheelchair user, you feel like you’re holding up other passengers,” Kestler said. “And nobody wants to feel like that.”

This year, Kestler became a project manager for an Indiana University research project that seeks to understand and improve the air travel experience for disabled travelers. With a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the five-year project aims to change air travel by establishing industry-standard training and protocols for airline and airport staff.

“We’re looking to make sure training is being done, and being done well,” Kestler said.

What training could do to transform air travel

Shu Cole, a professor and director of graduate studies at the IU School of Public Health, has been studying the experiences of people with disabilities in air travel and hospitality for more than a decade. In her research, she’s interviewed wheelchair users who’ve spent hours waiting for wheelchair service to board and deplane. Cole even documented one person who spent their entire vacation in their hotel room because their chair was damaged in flight, with no replacement available.

Cole’s new research project seeks to improve the disabled air travel experience from the ground up by establishing hands-on training and protocols that she hopes will become industry-standard practices.

While airport and airline employees are required under the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act to receive training on serving and assisting people with mobility issues and other disabilities, Cole said the quality of training can vary greatly across airlines, leaving employees feeling underequipped.

“By law, they have to provide training. It’s just a matter of how the training is provided,” said Cole. “We’re trying to find a way for airlines to standardize their training.”

Kestler said in her own travels, she opts for and avoids certain airlines due to the experiences she’s had with each, underscoring the need for standardized training. Through research partners like Illinois-based disability solutions company Open Doors Organization (ODO), Kestler said the project hopes to develop, and encourage airlines to adopt, uniform training practices.

“ODO will help lead that, since they work really closely with a lot of airlines,” Kestler said. “We can’t know what needs to change until we know what the pitfalls are in the training that’s available.”

On Dec. 16, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a slew of new protections for disabled air travelers. Under new DOT policy, all airline employees who handle wheelchairs and scooters or physically assist passengers are required to receive annual, hands-on training that includes competency assessments or certification exams.

More: DOT finalizes rule for ‘dignified air travel’: What wheelchair users can expect

Cole said disability competency training can often be a lengthy, days-long process, which is hard on airline workers who have to travel to a new site and take time off work. By splitting up training into video “microlearning” and on-site training, Cole hopes to make training more accessible and impactful amidst the new annual requirements.

“We hope that we can help with that process by making training more accessible,” Cole said. “We want to provide an alternative format, to see what can best work for airlines and airports.”

Research comes as wheelchair use is growing more common

Cole notes the IU research project comes at a time when wheelchair use is becoming more common. As the baby boomer generation ages and requires more mobility aids, Cole says, the need for improving disabled air travel is more important than ever.

“As they get older, they might need mobility-assisted devices, but they still want to travel and keep up those social networks they have,” Cole said.

Lesley Davis, chair of the Bloomington Council for Community Accessibility, said while regular wheelchair users like her and Kestler have grown used to advocating for themselves, she worries about the difficulties new users face at airports.

“When it’s a sudden injury, or when they’re new wheelchair users, they have no idea what to expect, and they’re met with indifference or incompetence,” Davis said. “I’ve made it my mission to accept the fact that many moments are teachable moments. But I find that almost every interaction with airline staff is a teachable moment.”

As more people become wheelchair-bound, particularly wealthy baby boomers, Kestler believes airlines will be more willing to research and accommodate disability issues.

“We talk a lot about people who have acquired or had disabilities their whole life, but that’s also the reality of aging, and these people want to continue traveling, to visit their grandkids or family,” Kestler said. “Knowing that they can still do that, and be respected as they age as humans, I think that creates a better environment for everyone.”

Cole says within the five-year span of the project, she and her team hope not only to develop industry-standard protocols but create a “clearinghouse” website for disabled travelers to receive accessible information before they travel.

“One of the goals is to be a catalyst for awareness for these types of issues,” Cole said. 

As the DOT issues new regulations and research like Cole’s advocates for better-informed airline staff, Davis says she’s hopeful about the future of disabled travel in the airline industry.

“The bright spot in this is that things are changing,” Davis said.

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com. Follow him on Twitter/X at @brianwritesnews.

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