Interactive Kiosks with real time Sign Language Interpretation launched for Deaf & Hearing Impaired Customers in Brazil

Dear colleagues,

GOL, Delta’s partner in Brazil, has launched interactive kiosks for deaf customers at Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont and Rio Galeão airports.

This device connects customers to sign language interpreters via a real-time video conferencing system. These translators provide information about any aspect of the travel experience, including flight and gate information.

“We are very proud to offer this exclusive service to help our deaf and hard-of-hearing customers,” said Camila Bisinoto, GOL's Airport Manager. “It is very important to us that we provide the tools necessary to help all of our travelers enjoy their flights.”

The service has been available in Sao Paulo's Congonhas and Guarulhos airports since 2014, and the number of users has been growing steadily.

This device also provides more information about the assistance GOL provides to passengers with a physical, visual, hearing or mental disability.

Delta also remains committed to making travel more accessible, by providing closed-captioning on its in-flight entertainment systems, updating lavatories and enhancing the user experience at delta.com and kiosks.

Source: Delta 

Accessible Airport Award- Larnaca Airport, Cyprus adjudged Best European Airport providing services for persons with Disabilities

'Accessible Airport' honour for Larnaca Airport, Cyprus.

FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE • Sunday, 26 June, 2016

LARNACA AIRPORT has been highly commended as the Best European airport in providing services for people with disabilities, during the 12th General Assembly of the Airports Council International (ACI) – Europe, hosted in Athens on June 22.

The General Assembly was attended by various agencies and services from European airports.

As stated in the ACI’s press release Larnaca International Airport is “the highly commended airport for the Accessible Airport Award”.

Larnaca Airport is also honoured for “the positive travelling experience it gives to people with disabilities as well as for its great efforts to comply with accessibility standards”.

In a statement, Eleni Kaloyirou, Chief Executive Officer of Hermes Airports, said that “we are delighted with this honoring distinction obtained by Larnaca International Airport” and congratulated Sophie Christofides, Terminal Services Manager of Hermes Airports, also responsible for facilities and services for people with reduced mobility, as well and the company S & L Airport Services Ltd, who are responsible for the delivery of the services for people with disabilities at Larnaca Airport.

In addition, Kaloyirou highlighted the strong commitment of Hermes Airports to remain dedicated to the efforts for continuous improvement of this sector in providing high quality services to people with mobility problems or disabilities.

Source: Famagusta Gazette 

Comments invited on DGCA's CAR on carriage by Air of Persons with Disabilities. Closing date- 27 June 2016

Dear friends,

This is in continuation to my earlier post [hyperlinked title] SC slaps Rs.10 lakhs fine on Spice Jet for discriminating with a flier with disability dated 08 June 2016.

The Directorate of Civil Aviation has, after Jeeja Ghosh's Supreme Court ruling, has  issued yet another draft Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on Carriage by Air of Persons with Disabilities and Persons with reduced mobility. The Hon'ble Supreme Court had directed the DGCA to revise the CAR after consulting with civil society to ensure that air travel was non discriminatory and safe for every one. 

Brief Background

After the 2008 CAR, when cases of discrimination related to persons with disabilities did not stop, the  DGCA  set up a Committee under the chairmanship of Shri Asok Kumar, with several representatives from Private and Public Airliners, BCAS, DGCA and the disability sector. The report of Asok Kumar Committee (Oct 2012)  can be found (hyperlink opens).

In response to the Asok Kumar Committee's report,  the DGCA issued a draft CAR in 2013, which was published, after comments from the sector as the DGCA CAR 28 Feb 2014 (hyperlink opens). 

In Jeeja Ghosh's case, the deficiencies between the CAR and the Committee Report were highlighted before the Supreme Court with the efforts of HRLN and thus the Supreme Court directed in the judgement that the CAR be revised. 

The DGCA had made some changes in the CAR such as removing the category of 'incapacitated persons', adding 'Autism' as one of the impairments etc. but there are many issues that are still a major concern for the sector. 

The draft CAR for public comments with a closing date of 27th June 2016 is uploaded on the DGCA's Website (draft opens in hyperlink). You may like to send your comments directly to Shri. Lalit Gupta,  Deputy Director General,  Office of the Director General of Civil Aviation,   Opp. Safdarjung Airport, Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi – 110 003 

Swiss International Airlines website to comply WCAG 2.0 AA Level by end of 2016

Dear Colleagues,

The SWISS International Airlines has announced that while core functions of swiss.com have been accessible since December 2015 and at the moment, the functions such as booking flights and checking in online are accessible, and comply with level AA of the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The entire website will comply with this standard by the end of 2016.

The SWISS wants to comply with the requirements of the World Wide Web to ensure that the airline can serve anyone who uses the website regardless of what their impairments or disabilities might be. 

Source: Swiss [dot] com

SC slaps Rs.10 lakhs fine on Spice Jet for discriminating with a flier with disability [Judgement Included]

Dear Colleagues,

This is in continuation to my earlier two posts titled Jeeja Ghosh, a prominent Indian disability right activist discriminated by Spicejet Pilot dated 19 Feb 2012 and; Supreme Court of India issues notice to SpiceJet for deplaning disabled woman dated 05 April 2012.

In a remarkable judgement in a clear case of disability discrimination, a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal of Hon'ble Supreme Court has directed the budget airline Spicejet to pay a sum of Rs 10 Lakh (One Million Indian Rupees) as damages to a flyer living with cerebral palsy, who was forcibly offloaded in 2012, saying the manner in which she was de-boarded depicts "total lack of sensitivity".

The apex court noted that the flier with disability Ms. Jeeja Ghosh was not given "appropriate, fair and caring treatment" which she required with "due sensitivity" and the decision to de-board her was "uncalled for".

"On our finding that SpiceJet acted in a callous manner, and in the process violated Rules, 1937 and Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), 2008 guidelines resulting in mental and physical suffering experienced by Ghosh and also unreasonable discrimination against her, we award a sum of Rs 10,00,000 as damages to be payable to her," observed the Bench.

Ms. Ghosh was offloaded from a SpiceJet flight on February 19, 2012 from Kolkata when she was going to attend a conference in Goa hosted by NGO ADAPT (Able Disable All People Together), the second petitioner in the case.

The bench said the decision to offload Ghosh was taken by the airlines without any medical advise or consideration and her condition was not such which required any assistive devices or aids.

"Even if we assume that there was some blood or froth that was noticed to be oozing out from the sides of her mouth when she was seated in the aircraft (though vehemently denied by petitioner), nobody even cared to interact with her and asked her the reason for the same. No doctor was summoned to examine her condition. Abruptly and without any justification, a decision was taken to de-board her without ascertaining as to whether her condition was such which prevented her from flying. This clearly amounts to violation of Rule 133-A of Rules, 1937 and the CAR, 2008 guidelines," the bench said.

Click here for the Judgement WP(C) No. 98/2012 Titled Jeeja Ghosh and Anr Versus Union of India and Others 

Union Road Transport Ministry proposes toll waiver to vehicles driven by Persons with Disabilities

The Road Transport Ministry of Government of India proposes to extend exemption to adapted motor vehicles driven by persons with disabilities. Look likes a good move based on a long pending demand. However, there are many grey areas. The Motor Vehicle Act 1988 still poses a barrier with some of its provisions explicitly not friendly to drivers with disabilities. So much so that persons with hearing impairments had to fight a long battle of even applying and being tested for a Driving Licence. (Refer to my posts "Deaf can now legally drive in India" and "Disabled and Driving- Can both co-exist together or at the cost of each other")

Section 52 continues to be vague about whether a person with disability can adapt his vehicle to suit his needs. There are not many manufacturers who come up with adapted vehicles. There are no sufficient authorized workshops that can undertake the adaptation, and even after the adaptation the individual with a disability is unsure of whether the adaptation is safe, legal in terms of law! A lot needs to done by the concerned Ministries else this will just remain another cosmetic action!

Here is the news story from Hindustan Times titled "Highways to be toll-free for vehicles driven by physically challenged" appearing in HT Delhi Edition May 07,2016.

Physically challenged people driving vehicles specially designed for them may soon be able to drive on national highways without paying toll.

The central government has decided to give toll exemption to “motor vehicle specially designed and constructed, and not merely adapted, for the use of a person suffering from some physical defect or disability, and used solely by or for such a person” on all national highways. Section 2(18) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, defines such vehicles as “invalid carriage”.

The Union road transport and highways ministry, which is piloting the proposal, will notify the changes soon. The law ministry cleared the proposal last week.

“We thought that asking for a disability certificate would further hassle the person. Instead we decided to give exemption to persons with disability driving specially designed vehicles as defined under the MV Act,” said a senior road ministry official.

Certain automobile manufacturers, including Maruti, make cars with special features like hand-operated or automatic clutch and gear for the physically challenged.

Disability rights activists, however, are not impressed and term the move as “cosmetic”. “How many of the 26 million disabled people in India drive automated vehicles, maybe just 1%. It’s mere tokenism. Giving toll exemption has nothing to do with accessibility. Has the road ministry ever engaged with us to address transportation issues of persons with disability? How many public transport buses are accessible for the disabled, how many toilets on highways are disabled friendly?” said Javed Abidi, director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.

Internationally, many cities give toll exemption to persons with disability. In Florida, a handicapped person with a valid driver’s licence and operating a vehicle equipped for such persons gets a toll waiver. In UK, disabled persons are given a “blue badge” and get a toll exemption on showing the card.

Source: Hindustan Times

For failing to respond to disability complaints adequately DOT, USA fines Air France, Lufthansa & British Airways

Taking stringent enforcement action against some major airliners for consistently failing to provide dispositive responses to the complaints of passengers with disabilities, the Department of Transportation (DOT) on 14 April 2016 fined Air France, Lufthansa, and British Airways among others.

Air France and Lufthansa were each fined $200,000 and British Airways was fined $150,000.  The airlines were also ordered to cease and desist from future similar violations.

The US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said, “When air travelers file complaints with airlines, they deserve prompt and complete responses that appropriately answer their specific concerns. We will continue to take enforcement action when airlines violate our rules protecting the rights of passengers”.

It may be pertinent to note that the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) prohibits airlines from discriminating against individuals with disabilities.  Under DOT rules, airlines are required to provide a written dispositive response to a written complaint alleging a violation of the ACAA within 30 days of receipt of the complaint. 

These consent orders are the results of several on-site regulatory compliance inspections conducted by the Department’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings.  During these inspections, the Department reviewed a number of disability-related complaint files and found that, in many occasions, Air France, Lufthansa, and British Airways failed to provide dispositive responses to passenger complaints.  

Access the Consent Orders on website www.regulations.gov, with Docket number DOT-OST-2016-0002. 

Source: Department of Transportation, USA