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PRESENTATION OF KATHLEEN BLANK before the Airports Council International Good morning, and thank you to the ACI Pacific Regional Assembly for the opportunity to address you today. It is an honor and a pleasure to be here in this beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur. My name is Kathleen Blank, attorney program specialist at the National Council on Disability in Washington DC. The Council is an independent federal agency whose mission, by law, is to advise the U.S. President and Congress on national disability policy. The fifteen members of the Council are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. All of them are persons with disabilities or parents of children with disabilities. In 1997, the Council undertook the Disability Civil Rights Monitoring Project in which we conducted in depth studies on federal enforcement of disability civil rights laws defining the civil rights of people with disabilities in the areas of education, employment, access to public accommodations, housing and air travel. The first study, released in March of this year, was on enforcement of the Air Carrier Access Act. This law was passed in 1986 and is enforced by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The ACAA, as it is known, prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in the provision of air transportation services. Its scope extends to most domestic U.S. carriers and airports, as well as the contractors they employ who serve the public. I was the primary author of this report, and at the time was new to the disability policy arena. The experience of researching and writing this report opened my eyes to the situation of air travelers with disabilities, and to the many changes that still must occur to achieve an acceptable level of quality service. As a person with several hidden functional impairments, I would like to tell you something about the experience of disability, of the paradigm shift occurring today in society's views and responses to disability, and how this is affecting the lives of people with disability and society overall. From this context, I will share with you what persons with disabilities often encounter when traveling by air, and why an inclusive air transportation system is practical, achievable and necessary. Disability affects up to 20% of the U.S. population, and more than likely, an even higher percentage of the world's population overall. Disability limits people's functional capabilities in areas such as mobility, sensory perception, cognition, and mental or emotional capacities and abilities. Disability can occur at any stage in one's life cycle, and the chances of mobility or sensory impairments, as you know, increase as we age. The stark reality is that each and everyone of us is one accident or one devastating illness away from temporary or permanent disability. Unless we manage to beat the odds, most of us at some time will experience disability ourselves or in the life of someone we love. But the most devastating impact of disability is more than the loss or limitation of functional capabilities; it is also the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in community life on an equal level with others who are not disabled. Whatever their interests, abilities and desire to participate in the world around them, people with disabilities encounter many barriers in the environment to even the most commonplace activities. Access to transportation, education, employment and even social interaction represent major challenges, because of inaccessible programs, equipment, and buildings, not to mention the prejudice and fear of others. These barriers magnify the burdens of people with disabilities who want to live full lives. People with disabilities cannot remove the barriers to their full participation alone. It requires commitment at every level of society to do what is necessary to include them. People with disabilities have been isolated for centuries, but this has begun to change. The United Nations General Assembly has played an important role in giving voice to the vision and principles of inclusion in society of people with disabilities. The principle of the right to equal participation emerged explicitly in resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly during the 1970's and 80's. In 1982, with the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, the GA affirmed and promoted the right of people with disabilities to full participation in society, to enjoy living conditions equal to those of other citizens, and to share equally in the improvements to living conditions resulting from social and economic development. In 1993, the GA took a step further by adopting a resolution containing the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. This resolution explained the concept of equal rights in concrete terms: first - that the needs of each and every individual are of equal importance; second - that these needs must be made the basis for the planning of societies; and third - that all resources must be employed in such a way as to ensure that every person has equal opportunity for participation. It defined "equalization of opportunities" as changing the systems of the society and environment, including services, activities, information and documentation, so that they are available to everybody, particularly persons with disabilities. The 1993 resolution consists of twenty-two rules describing what equal participation means and what must happen to achieve it. As written and adopted, the rules imply a strong moral and political commitment on the part of the signatory nations to take action for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities living in their countries. Most of the nations represented at this assembly were signatories of this resolution. The GA intended that these rules would gain recognition as principles of customary international law, as more and more nations act to implement equal participation over time. How does all this about equalization of opportunities relate to you in the air transportation industry? In the next millennium, people with disabilities will make up an ever-increasing share of your customer base. As the population ages and lives longer, more people who now travel frequently will acquire functional limitations and need more accommodations. It's not only a matter of making services accessible to a specialized niche market. It is also a matter of maintaining quality service for an already existing market with changing needs. For this reason, an inclusive air transportation system is practical and makes good business sense. While my colleagues Linda Magher and Brad McCannick can attest to the significant changes that have already occurred in the last two decades, the reality for most people with disabilities today is that traveling by air is a decidedly mixed experience. Without exception, the many people with disabilities with whom I've spoken said that though air transportation services have come a long way, they must always be prepared for problems to arise. People with mobility impairments tell stories of being dropped or mishandled to the point of injury by personnel who apparently have not been trained in lifting techniques. When they call ahead to reserve, for instance, a bulkhead seat, they are told there is no way to determine whether those seats will be available until the day of departure. What is worse, no matter how diligent they are in calling ahead to request special accommodations, they can't rely on there being any record of their request when they arrive at the airport. And of course, if they have multiple connections, the personnel on the connecting flights often are not at all aware of their requests. When they fly on small aircraft, people with mobility impairments must sometimes endure the indignity of being physically carried onto the plane either in someone's arms or in a wheelchair, because there are no mechanical lifts available. They may be left for long periods of time waiting for assistance to deplane or to get their wheelchairs so they can make their connecting flights. Sometimes they are forced to wait so long they miss their connections. Sometimes they are forgotten altogether, as was Marca Bristo, chairperson of the National Council on Disability. Marca is quadriplegic, and was left on an airplane after everyone else had deplaned, with lights turned out, until the cleaning crew arrived. People with mobility impairments complain that even if an airline has a policy to provide aisle chairs onboard, sometimes there are none on their flights. More than one person in these circumstances has crawled up the aisle to the restroom rather than soil themselves on board. Many people have had wheelchairs returned to them damaged, sometimes beyond repair, only to be told that the airline was not obliged to pay more than $US 2,500 - in some cases, only a fraction of the replacement cost. People who are blind or have low vision very often have difficulty obtaining any of the information made available to the public because there are no copies in Braille or audio format. Sometimes they are hassled by flight attendants who are reluctant to let their service animals onboard, or who do not know to seat them where there is room for the service animal. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may miss their planes when last minute changes in flight numbers or gates are announced over the public address system. As a person with a moderately severe hearing loss, this has happened to me. Airports typically are not equipped with silent video pagers that would make the information available to us. It can also happen that a deaf person has no means to communicate with the outside world directly at an airport, because there is no TTY, or if there is, it is not working. People with cognitive impairments may not understand what they are being told by service personnel, who do not seem to understand the need to speak to them slowly, clearly and simply. Senior adults, who are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, sometimes may be treated condescendingly by service personnel who address their younger companions as though they were not present. There are many, many more difficulties faced by people with disabilities when they travel by air, but I think you have the picture. Anyone who had to anticipate dealing with problems like these each time they traveled would dread traveling. Anyone who paid good money to put up with problems like these would be frustrated and angry. Please do not imagine that these problems rarely occur. Somewhere in the world these problems still occur everyday, even in the most developed countries. Despite a nine-year old regulation prohibiting discrimination and spelling out the basic requirements for serving air travelers with disabilities, many U.S. commercial airlines still do not follow through consistently. Canadian air travelers with disabilities report that while domestic air travel is better than in the U.S., there are gaps, especially in the knowledge and training of service personnel. Perhaps the best way to describe what it is like for people with disabilities who travel by air is that they never know what to expect from one flight to the next, even on the same airline. Will there be an aisle chair onboard? Will someone help me in time to make my connection? Will they seat me where my dog can fit under the seat? The standards of service are so lacking in consistency, that persons with disabilities must always be prepared to continually assert themselves to get the service they deserve. Please imagine for a moment what would happen if the executives of your commercial airlines or airport authorities had to put up with these kinds of inconveniences when they traveled. Would company resources by mobilized to do whatever was necessary to correct the problems? Or what would happen to business if every customer had these kinds of experiences regularly? Profits would plummet, and the airlines that consistently provided good service would get your business. If this was the only kind of service customers could get anywhere, you would see heavy government regulation to ensure an acceptable standard of service. Air travelers with disabilities want the services they are purchasing to meet the same standards of quality, convenience, timely and courteous delivery as for everyone else. It's that simple. As long as service delivery to people with disabilities is looked upon as an extra (i.e., a distraction from the business of serving your "real" customers), it will be substandard. To argue that equal treatment means that all customers get the same services delivered in the same way does not make sense - not even economic sense. Service that does not meet the needs of the customer is not good service. So the question becomes, how do you go about incorporating appropriate accommodations into your service operations, so that people with disabilities have equal access to the services they are paying for? Equal access is achievable using the principles of good business management and customer service. All the standard precepts apply: first - know your customer. Consult with disability advocacy groups in your communities. Ask them what accommodations they need to travel by air comfortably. Don't rely solely on the advice of design experts. Establish direct communication with your current customers with disabilities by asking for their feedback. Implement their suggestions in your service programs and facility improvement projects. Second, consult with air transportation regulatory authorities and work with them to identify and implement the accommodations necessary to ensure a minimally adequate standard of service. In the U.S. and Canada, regulations spell out the basic accommodations airlines and airports are required to meet to avoid placing undue burdens on their customers. Third, plan for inclusion: when building new or remodeling older facilities, incorporate universal access design concepts that accommodate customers with special needs, including people with disabilities. The needs of able-bodied and special needs customers should be planned for at the same time, so that resources can be fairly allocated to meet the needs of all. Fourth, spread the cost of accommodation improvements: utilize whatever subsidies and tax breaks are available in your countries for facilities improvements to help defray costs, and let all customers share in the cost of accommodating special needs as an investment that they too can benefit from. Able-bodied customers have family members and friends with disabilities whom they also want to be able to travel in comfort and security. Fifth, learn to identify and eliminate stereotypes and prejudice in serving people with disabilities. Stereotypes are barriers to good communication and good service. Train yourselves and your personnel to see the person first, not the disability. The efforts you make to implement an inclusive air transportation system will yield many short and long term benefits. The benefits will extend beyond the customer satisfaction of persons with disabilities and the repeat business to the airlines and airports serving them to the economies of the countries and regions where these inclusive systems exist. An inclusive air transportation system not only attracts more customers. It creates new economic opportunities by generating service jobs and by giving people with disabilities greater mobility in their professional and personal lives. The costs of an inclusive system can and will be mitigated through a variety of measures, until they are offset altogether by the benefit of a larger customer base. As people with disabilities continue to take their rightful place as full participants in society, their air travel needs will increase. Viewed from this perspective, the benefits of an inclusive air transportation system are not only desirable, they are necessary to furthering the growth, development and prosperity of countries around the world. The challenge of building inclusive air transportation systems is an enormously important one. Successfully meeting that challenge will have a transforming effect on individual lives and communities by removing barriers to job mobility, travel for pleasure and social exchange for people with disabilities and by creating an air transportation infrastructure that is flexible and responsive to the changing needs of all your customers. All of us here have a role to play in realizing the vision of full and equal access to air transportation services. Let us accept the challenge and work together to make it happen. Thank you. This presentation can be downloaded in electronic format from the NCD Web site: http://www.ncd.gov. 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