Today people with disabilities face numerous barriers when it comes to air travel, particularly when aboard an aircraft. The design of an airliner hasn’t drastically changed since the 1940’s when people with disabilities were confined to their homes and rarely travelled. Given the time that has passed, accessibility is now difficult to design in.

Now, as new categories of aircraft are making their way from the drawing boards to the skies, the aviation and aerospace industries have the opportunity to design accessibility in from the very beginning. But only if the future flight sector acts now.

This paper highlights the need for accessibility to be considered in new designs and explores the opportunities for people with disabilities to work within the sector more readily then they would have been able to previously.

Credit: Apian Ltd