Airline Disability Services Training

Objectives

“ACCESSIBLE AIR: Providing Services to Passengers with Disabilities” is a 2 1⁄2 hour online training program that teaches airline employees how to make the air travel experience fully inclusive for travelers of all abilities. The objectives for the program are 3-fold:

1. To empower airline employees to provide the best possible customer service for passengers with disabilities,
2. To ensure the inclusion and equal participation of people all abilities in the air travel experience, and
3. To provide a predictable and consistent level of access to accessibility accommodations across a barrier-free, transportation system.

Delivery & Structure

The training is facilitated by 2 characters – Katie, who is a Disability Inclusion Trainer with the airline – and Jacob, a frequent flyer and a power wheelchair user. Katie delivers the disability-based modules and Jacob and Katie tag team through the air travel experience from booking to deplaning and beyond, with Jacob sharing his personal travel insights along the way.

The program consists of 10 modules in total ranging from 8 to 35 minutes in length. 5 of those modules cover all aspects of accessible support services available to passengers with disabilities during the air travel experience. 4 modules are disability-related including, types of disabilities and recognizing barriers, key topics around communicating and interacting with, and best practices for providing customer service to passengers with disabilities. The first module is on the legislation.

Industry Regulations’ Compliance

ACCESSIBLE AIR was developed to fulfill the training requirements of the new Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR), finalized in July 2019 by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), as well as regulations provided in the US Department of Transportation’s DOT Title 14, Part 382. The program will be customized to include the client’s accessibility policies as well. A 30-question quiz is provided to test airline staff on their comprehension and retention of the course content.

Airline Staff Benefits

Upon completion of the course, airline staff will:

• Understand the full spectrum of disability services that are to be provided under the regulations, upon request, to passengers with disabilities,
• Be far more knowledgeable about the broad range of different types of visible and invisible disabilities there are, and how they can impact a person’s travel experience,
• Have much greater confidence around how to talk to and interact with passengers with disabilities in a manner that takes their disability into account, and
• Enjoy the certainty that they know how to handle any situation that may come along.

Deliverables & Timeline

Clients receive a complete set of 10 customized, branded PowerPoint modules, each in 4 different formats (i.e. with or without captions & with or without music) for uploading to their LMS. Depending on how diverse local regulations are from the base program, delivery will be completed within 8 to 12 weeks after a deposit payment is received.

Training Program – Trailer Video

The following 13-minute video includes 4 short segments from 4 different modules. The 4 segments have each been produced with or without music and with or without captions. These are the format choices, for each of the 10 modules, that will be provided to clients on delivery.

• Module 1 – no music with captions
• Module 2 – no music no captions
• Module 5 – music and captions
• Module 9 – music no captions