Today, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued new protections for people with disabilities in commercial air travel. The final rule helps ensure that disabled people can fly safely and with dignity, requires annual training for airline employees and contractors who assist passengers with mobility disabilities and handle passengers’ wheelchairs, requires prompt enplaning, deplaning, and connecting assistance from airlines to disabled passengers, clarifies that airlines must return all check wheelchairs and other assistive devices to the condition in which they are received, and more.
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) applauds these protections, and commends Secretary Buttigieg and the DOT for establishing a new standard for air travel. Additionally, DREDF would like to thank Kelly Buckland, DOT’s Disability Advisor, for his contributions and advocacy that have undoubtedly improved the experience of travelers with disabilities.
Today, we remember advocate Engacia Figuroa. In 2021, due to the horrific destruction done to her chair during air travel, she was forced to use a loaner chair that was not properly fitted to her body. Without her chair, Engracia’s pressure sore exacerbated, which led to hospitalizations and surgeries that resulted in her death.
DREDF also remembers Judy Heumann, who advocated tirelessly for equal access to air travel and shared her personal experiences. DREDF supported and referenced comments from Judy on air travel for persons who use wheelchairs in our response to DOT’s full day meeting on March 24, 2022 following Engracia Figuroa’s death.
DREDF is committed to ensuring the new protections are followed and encourages disabled people to continue to share their stories on the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s air-access.org page.