Jetstar – A Deaf and Blind passenger situation

A deaf and blind girl was upset with the Jetstar situation. She had informed Jetstar call centre twice to make sure that call centre staff could understand her special needs. Unfortunately, Jetstar had a glitch with the reservation system: that is only one of her disabilities was recorded. Jetstar cabin crew had no idea how to deal with a deaf and blind passenger as she was flying alone.

I can feel her frustration at the airport because I know that was supposed to be her first flight alone!! I think airlines may need to work harder to find out how to cater for the needs of multiple-disabled passengers who want to be independent in travelling the world. I know most airlines have assistance service at check-in counters to look after their disabled passengers; however, this incident shows that a lot more needs to be done by airlines for travellers with multiple-disabilities.

ABC News

Disabled people love travel show

I went to Sydney travel show and saw many people with different kinds of disabilities ask exhibitors for information about major airlines, tour, cruise, rail specialists, destinations expert, government, travel doctor and foreign currency providers. Exhibitors can usually provide these people with lots of information about their trip plans and what to expect. I enjoyed walking around the exhibitors and wanted to see what information they were providing for their client’s trip expectations. For example, I wanted to travel to Antarctic from Australia not from South America. A lady from the tour company told me that it would take one week to get there by ship. Wow! It took so long to get there by ship. Therefore, the travellers have to fly to South America to get there in order to save long-distance time.

Finally, I was so excited to see Singapore airlines’ seats on display – a new Premium Economy and a fully flat Business class seat. Singapore airlines wanted the public to test out the seats. We had to queue first and then waited for others to move from Premium Economy Class seats to the Business class seat. There were two or three flight attendants who helped the public to find the features such as where the tray is and where the lamp is. I noticed that a blind woman was trying to sit on both new seats. She had no problem with the Premium economy class seat. It is the basic amenities seat design but the business class seat is the advanced amenities seat design. She was totally confused with the business class seat’s multi-features such as storage rooms, a lamp near the headrest, legrest, many buttons, etc. Of course, there is no braille on the seat. When she lied on the fully flat seats, the flight attendant helped and moved her legs to the other side where the legrest room is. It looked like she lied down in an angle direction not in the horizon direction. It was too awkward for her.

SQ business class

See red circle – this is where you put your legs into the storage room. (Photo: Singapore airlines)

After I had tried on both seats, they knew that there was no problem for me as a deaf person. I said, “I have no problem with the seats but wish there is close-captions in all the movies shown on your airlines!”

Then I was surprised to see that a deaf couple brought along a sign language interpreter to one of the exhibitors. I had never thought of that but I didn’t think that it was necessary because it was just short questions and answers. I could just write questions on a piece of paper and show to it to the exhibitors if they could not understand me.

I was so impressed that so many people with disabilities are interested in travelling around the world in the Sydney travel show.

Introduction

Hello World!

I’m Dave. I hope you can understand my writing as I am completely deaf. I have been travelling around the world and have seen lots of disabled passengers that need help around the airports and on the planes.

The aim of this blog is to research on how the airports and airlines can provide for the various special needs of their disabled passengers. I know that there are not much information from the airlines and civil aviation authority websites. I mean some airlines do have some information while some airlines do not have much/any information at all. Maybe they do not want to put too much information that could make disabled people even more confused. However, disabled people have not had too much experiences in travelling alone or have not heard of services provided by airlines/airports to help them. Moreover, as a disabled person myself, I know most of them do not want to read the instruction from the aviation websites or complain to the service providers that are not helpful. It would be better if I could help and share my aviation experience with all the disabled people who have not been on the plane before or did not know that there is assistance service available at the airport and on the inflight services.

Please note that if you think that my story and information is not complete or conclusive, this is because I have not been to that airport or have not flown with those airlines. Besides, different airlines have different priorities re: treatment/services provided to travellers with disabilities, usually based on their knowledge or ability to cater for the needs of different disabilities. Please feel free to message me or email me so that I can change or update this blog. I hope with your support, we can update the information to help other disabled travellers. This blog is not about my story but for helping others to find more information about assistance service in the aviation industry. Thank you.

Again, may I remind you that some information may not be updated frequently as I don’t think that assistance services have changed much.

Have a great trip!
Dave