Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2025

Accessibility Beyond Compliance Technology, Community Engagement Help Create Robust Solutions

BY JOHN QUINNIES

As airports take new approaches to creating an accessible travel experience, passengers are seeing futuristic technology emerge: autonomous wheelchairs and “pods” navigating concourses, AI sign language interpretation, LiDAR-powered wayfinding, real-time announcements converted into text and others, but leaders say the real success hinges on background community-building.

These developments – which come as the World Health Organization estimates 1.3 billion people worldwide experience significant disabilities – represent evolving industry standards aligning with an increasingly recognized principle: the most meaningful change happens when airport operators build and plan directly alongside the communities they’re affecting, instead of ticking compliance boxes or assuming what people need.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025