New Delhi:
For all sectors, accessible tourism is an evolving knowledge universe. Take for instance, airlines which are learning to meet the special needs of passengers.
Samuel Mani, who has cerebral palsy, is at the airport to experience the services extended by Indigo airlines to passengers with disability or a medical condition.
The airlines would like the passenger or his family to inform customer care in advance about the nature of the assistance required.
Mani is met by the ground airline crew.
"I am Japneet, Indigo Employee. I will be here to escort you till the airplane. Thank you."
A key question often is whether the passenger would like to be transferred to the airline wheelchair. But Mani, who uses a wheelchair customised for him, is most comfortable in his own wheelchair. For most people living with disabilities, the wheelchair is like an extension of their body.
After getting Mani through security, attendants take him towards the boarding area. The ramps at the airport seem steep and a wheelchair user would not have been able to negotiate them on their own.
The airline buses have ramps which not only help wheelchair users but all passengers with reduced mobility, like senior citizens.
Once he is taken off the bus, Mani is shifted to a narrow aisle wheelchair. His wheelchair will be folded and carried separately.
Perhaps the most innovative are the zigzag boarding ramps to the Indigo aircraft. They are the only airlines to have them, and the ramp allows wheelchairs and stretchers to be taken into the aircraft effortlessly.
Since the aerobridge is not always available on domestic flights, Mani tells us other airlines lift him up bodily along with the wheelchair which scares him.
Indigo Airlines is also the only one to have a braille menu.
Samuel Mani, CEO, Neutron Computers and Founder, Yes! We Can, says, "It was a very good experience; it was a positive change and being in India positive changes are very few."
Indigo Airlines follows a proactive policy to ensure better service and accessibility to people with disabilities who are also paying customers. At the training school, cabin attendants, pilots and other staff go through an eight hour training module.
In recent weeks there have been complaints against Air India for a faulty wheelchair and Indigo for deplaning a visually and hearing impaied passenger and there is learning for all concerned. Take into account the fact that there is a high turnover of airport attendants who are outsourced and there are diverse disabilities with diverse needs.
More detailed communication of the passengers' needs to the airlines by the family would also help.