We do not live in a fully accessible world. 

My brother was born with a neuromuscular disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He never walked, and was dependent on his electric wheelchair, which served as his legs.

He used to say, “My disease doesn’t make me disabled, the world does. Everyone can take a ramp; not everyone can take the stairs.” 

Whilst trains and buses provide a place for wheelchairs to park onboard, we make no such accommodation in aircraft cabins. As a result, many disabled passengers are excluded from air travel or denied a dignified flying experience.

My brother was no different. He was fitted for his first chair when he was just two-and-a-half years old. Like many other people with his disorder and other forms of Muscular Dystrophy, he required a custom full-body seating system called Matrix Seating. It clipped and unclipped from his wheelchairs and could be used on the floor and elsewhere. He could not sit up in any chair that did not have this Matrix Seat.

The Matrix Seat was formed and designed for his body to accommodate all its twists and turns. And, as his disease progressed, the Matrix Seat and his electric chair evolved as well. Indeed, when he could no longer sit upright for long periods, his chair was then designed to recline. He basically lived in the recline position for most of the remainder of his life.

He passed away 20 years ago this coming February. He was 19 years old.

Why am I sharing his story with Runway Girl Network readers?

Well, in truth, it baffles me that in the last two decades, nothing has changed in aviation, despite the fact that other forms of transportation have made accommodations for powered wheelchair users.

Two unique circumstances in my brother’s short life enabled him to experience flight. In 1991, when he was six years old, a charitable organization facilitated a trip to Disney World. Because my family is based in the Toronto area, flying was the only reasonable way to safely and quickly transport my brother to Florida.

He was transferred to an aircraft seat and propped up against my father, his seatmate. The US Airways flight attendants tried their best to create a sort of support structure for him, using pillows and rolled up blankets. This position was not sustainable, however, and once the aircraft reached altitude, and the seat belt sign was turned off, my brother was laid across his family members in the seat triple. Six years later, we again attempted the trip to Florida, and nothing had changed.

Fast forward to 2004. My brother got married and was eager to honeymoon in the sunshine state with his new bride. But he was older and bigger and his disease had progressed to the point where DIY onboard accommodations were not possible. And so, flying was simply not an option. This time, a lengthy multi-train journey was required.

Sometimes we need a visual representation to understand the plight of others. Social media influencer Shane of “Squirmy and Grubs” fame has Spinal Muscular Atrophy; like my brother, he requires a custom seat.

“You know what would be a really, really simple solution” to inaccessible air travel, asks Shane in one of his videos? “If I could sit in the chair that is perfectly fitted for my body by doctors and seating specialists.”

On trains and buses simple tie-downs ensure that a wheelchair remains in place for the duration of the journey. This technology, if you want to even call it that, isn’t complex. It mostly requires space. 

So why has it not been adopted in commercial aviation? 

I posit that disability discrimination is real and even prevalent. Indeed, it might be the last tacitly accepted form of discrimination in our world. 

Why else do we ignore the pleas of wheelchair users, who tell us time and again that their costly mobility devices — i.e. their “legs” — are being damaged and destroyed in aircraft cargo holds?

The good news is that movement is afoot to change the narrative, and the lives of wheelchair users.

All Wheels Up, which has been crash testing wheelchair tie-downs and wheelchairs for commercial flight, has found that existing wheelchair restraints from Q’Straint can exceed the Federal Aviation Administration’s 16G impact specification.

Now, the FAA has promised to outline the safety criteria needed to facilitate a wheelchair tie-down onboard aircraft.

In lock step with this effort, Delta Flight Products is presently working to bring an ‘Air4All’ system to market that would enable powered wheelchair users to travel safely whilst seated in their own chair onboard aircraft. It expects to receive supplemental type certification, likely for a narrowbody aircraft, in the “very near term”.

Other stakeholders including Collins Aerospace are advancing concepts to accommodate wheelchair users in-flight.

Once these and other solutions are certified and available, the onus will be on airlines to adopt them, and indeed for other governments to follow suit with their own regulatory action.

It’s time to make space onboard aircraft for wheelchair users. In doing so, we will finally right a serious wrong in our industry.

Related Articles:

• Delta Flight Products eyes near-term certification of Air4All
• FAA to define safety criteria for wheelchairs in the cabin
• First look at Air4All economy wheelchair system, recliner model update
• Accessibility improvements proposed by Delta, Collins and Boeing
• Ideas abound as US DOT eyes wheelchairs in cabin

Featured image credited to istock.com/FatCamera