Huge news!
The Federal Aviation Administration have said they are on track to approve wheelchair spaces on planes in 2025!
Disabled Advocates around the world, including @RightsOnFlights, are making an impact...
I recently wrote about how barriers with air travel contribute to the staggering unemployment rates of Disabled people.
"...air travel isn’t a luxury for many disabled professionals—it’s a necessity. Conferences, client meetings, networking events, and the job itself may require us to be mobile. This year alone I have needed to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and more. Yet, the risks associated with flying often force us to make an impossible choice: Do we put our safety and dignity on the line, or do we miss out on career opportunities?
Keep in mind, this is a conundrum only afforded to us who can physically and mentally endure a flight. What about the disabled individuals who can’t? If we can’t travel, we’re effectively shut out of entire career paths.
The inaccessibility of air travel is a barrier to employment and recruitment, retention, and performance for disabled employees. In an era of growing labor shortages, overlooking the disabled workforce is more than a failure of diversity and inclusion; it’s a strategic failure, too.
Safe and dignified travel for Disabled people will increase the employment, career advancement and mobility of our community"
Full article here:
https://lnkd.in/ekHD2RiW
This article is part of a series for National Disability Employment Awareness Month produced in collaboration with Making Space. These pieces examine the barriers that disabled people face to participating fully and thriving in the workforce, as well as potential structural solutions. The illustrations for this series were created by Dana Chan, an artist discovered through the Making Space platform.
Keely Cat-Wells Roberto Castiglioni MBE Christopher Wood MBE Jet Gates Rights on Flights Channel 4 Fast Company TIME
#DisabilityRights
Image description:
The image shows a stylized illustration of several pink, humanoid figures encountering digital and physical accessibility barriers. One figure uses a cane, another is in a wheelchair, and a small white service dog. They face a "404" error on a digital screen. There are also warning symbols, including an exclamation point and a stop sign. This visual emphasizes both digital and physical accessibility challenges that Disabled people face. By Dana Chan.
