cAirlines Are Letting Old Technology Abuse Their Customers – Backchannel

John Stanton, an attorney for the US Department of Justice, travels often for work. Hes deaf, which he notes in his profile whenever he buys a plane ticket.

Last year, when traveling to San Francisco via United Airlines, Stanton disembarked from his flight to find an attendant waiting with a wheelchair. He looked up, to see the aide was carrying his name on a sign. Stanton, who played football in college and has run seven marathons, was confused. I told him, Thanks, buddy, but I dont need that, he recalls.

Talk to a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, and youll hear a litany of travel horror stories. Take Laura Gold, who once found herself on the wrong airplane because the ticket counter didnt tell her that her flight had changed gates. Or Carly Armour, who missed a flight that would reunite her with a long-lost older brother when she couldnt hear the announcer calling her name.

These kinds of mishaps arent limited to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and they happen all the time. The millions of Americans with disabilities, who require accommodations when they travel, are dealt slipshod fixes when they travel by air. Often this happens because passengers are classified under the broad umbrella of disabled, as if someone who is paraplegic requires the same accommodations as someone who is deaf. But the system also fails because the technology it relies on is just plain outdated.

There are few recourses. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed by Congress in 1990 to ensure equal access for people with disabilities, only partially addresses air travel under its broad umbrella of mandates. Thats because the Air Carrier Access Act, an earlier bill passed in 1986, covers accessibility issues in airline travel. The ACAA is enforced by the Department of Transit, while the ADA is usually covered by the Department of Justice. The split responsibilities make the ACAA difficult to enforce.

That means that airlines have less of an incentive than other companies and public agencies to alter their typical user experiences. So as terrible as airline travel is, if you have any kind of unusual need, its invariably worse.

Most of the problems encountered by passengers are technologicaltied to arcane classification systems that enhance the confusion of traveling-while-disabled. Airlines classify passenger information through Special Service Request (SSR) codes: four-letter acronyms that alert staff to a passengers needs. (The code for someone who is deaf or hard of hearing is DEAF.)

But these codes are often misused, according to Eric Lipp, the executive director of the Open Doors Organization, a nonprofit that aims to improve travel and tourism accessibility. Airlines often just plug in the code MAAS, which stands for Meet and Assist, for passengers who are blind or deafwhich leads to the automatic wheelchair meet-and-greet.

These codes are often the only information airport staff and other customer service representatives receive, because airlines withhold personal passenger information from contractors. Depending on the city and service provider, software often doesnt recognize the SSR codes, Lipp says, or airlines use the wrong code, which gets misconstrued as it makes its way through the chain. Thats why Lipp, who travels with his own scooter, inevitably finds a wheelchair waiting when he deplanes.

United Airlinesa company where many of my sources experienced problems while travelingtold me they use the SSR code HI for Hearing Impaired. But according to Lipp, all codes are four letters, and this code doesnt exist. And changing a code isnt easy, says Lipp, because the codes are used internationally. Many underdeveloped countries would have to change their processes, which could be a financial burden to some, he adds. Its easier for service providers to join the software systems used by airlines, allowing for a continuous thread of information.

And despite upgrades to airline comfort, in-flight entertainment still doesnt include captions, aural action descriptions, or other ways of letting deaf and blind people participate. For the first time last fall, the US Department of Transportation drafted regulations related to captions for in-flight entertainment. The final agreement mandates that the same in-flight entertainment thats available to all passengers also be accessible to passengers who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired.

Delta now provides captioning on in-flight entertainment on both seat-back displays and personal wifi devices, but only 20 percent of its airplanes have upgraded. Captioning is also available on JetBlue through its DirectTV service on all Airbus A321 aircraft, and will eventually expand to the rest of its fleet.

Its difficult for anyone to hear airline announcements, but for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, its decidedly harder. Airlines are becoming more tech savvy, but Lipp says the industry is concentrating on mobile apps and devices. Mobile apps often include push alerts covering major announcements, such as gate changes or flight delays. Yet these alerts are often delayed compared to the immediacy of an announcement, and smaller announcements, such as an overbooked flight or a standby notification, arent included. Visual pagingwhen an audio page is posted in text form on screensis becoming very easy, but its not yet ubiquitous.

And what happens when a deaf person tries to complain? When I tried to contact Delta Airlines using the Relay, a calling system used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing, I received several hang-ups and long hold times. Corporate Care transferred me to the reservation desk; the reservation desk transferred me back to Corporate Care. Theres no email address for media relations or customer service. And Delta is supposedly one of the most accessible airlines.

In 1986, as a result of the ACAA, airlines launched a system of complaints resolution officialsstaff who are specially trained to handle disability-related issues for airlines. The CRO can handle all situations on behalf of the carrier, and all carriers have a central CRO at corporate.

But that doesnt solve all of the problems. Lynn Rousseau, a member of the United Airlines Accessibility Board, agrees that the lack of accessibility at airports is frustrating. Travel has become accessible to so many more people, Rousseau tells me, but it still hasnt adapted to meet the needs of every customer. Those customers are already advocating for themselvestheyre just waiting for the industry to catch up.

Important information for deaf/HOH flyers:

A Complaints Resolution Official (CRO) should be available to help people with disabilities. If the airline doesnt comply with your request for a CRO, they will receive a hefty fine.

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cAirlines Are Letting Old Technology Abuse Their Customers - Backchannel