Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2025

Beyond Compliance The accessibility movement has gained formal structure in-part through ACI’s Accessibility Enhancement Accreditation program. In a report by Accessible Travel and Tourism International Conference, Jean-Sebastien Pard, senior manager of facilitation, passenger services and operations at ACI World, writes the program “is designed to help airports measure, evaluate, and improve their accessibility management and culture.” For participating airports, the accreditation process serves as both validation and strategic planning tool. SEA officials found the rigorous application process helped formalize accessibility as an organizational priority. “It really did help us gather a lot of materials and we had to reach out to many colleagues to get information,” Rodriguez says. “It helped us then formalize accessibility as a priority for the Port of Seattle – it already was, but by putting it into the century agenda, it really formalized that.” Several airport officials say they’re looking to exceed the accessibility they’re legally required to provide. “We’re not competing with each other. We want to lift each other up,” Field says. “And if we all have the same information and we can work with the same knowledge and feedback and ideas, innovation that comes up in different airports, then we’re going to make a better experience for travelers.” Rodriguez emphasizes that accessibility improvements often benefit broader passenger populations beyond their primary targets. Burke offered an example: MSP’s talk-to-text system addresses not just hearing accessibility but also helps passengers who prefer written information or need clarity in noisy environments. The advancement could reduce “gate hugging” behavior by giving all passengers confidence they won’t miss important announcements. Burke frames the decision-making around two simple arguments. “It’s the right thing to do,” he says. “We’re all humans, and we have varying abilities. And isn’t it just the right thing to do, to make it as good of an experience for everybody as you can?”

Left; Halifax-Stanfield International is one of dozens of North American airports to adopt the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Program, which enables individuals to discreetly indicate they have a non-visible disability and may need additional assistance.

concourse’s priorities. During a public accessibility advisory committee design session, participants emphasized the critical importance of redundant vertical transportation options. “That had a lot of weight making sure that it didn’t get compacted and moved out of the main path of travel and making sure that it is front and center and has the capacity to help with our travelers,” SEA’s Field says. Sensory rooms have become another fairly common accessibility offering across airports. GRR, for example, opened a sensory room in September 2024, developed in partnership with Disability Advocates of Kent County. The space features four distinct zones: transition, active, respite and airplane simulation areas designed to help travelers practice for the flight experience. Community-Driven Innovation Emerging amid the tech, several airport accessibility leaders describe engagement with disability communities as a critical factor for effective design. SEA officials and others call it “nothing about us, without us.” For Burke, community has been pivotal. He helped establish MSP’s Travelers with Disabilities Advisory Committee, which provides input across airport improvement projects, in 2014 after a colleague learned about Mayo Clinic’s patient advisory committee structure. Since then, it’s grown into a 50-60-member organization with national participation. “We don’t take enhancement steps or make assumptions about accessibility without bringing it to that group,” Burke says. “They’re the foundation of our accessibility program.”

The committee reviews everything from technology implementations to concession design, such as a recent proposal to change product display orientation in gift shops from horizontal to vertical arrangements, which could impact how passengers of different heights can access products. “I just asked our concessions team, this sounds like a decent step forward, but I would love to get this in front of our TDAC members, because they’re the ones with the lived experience, and what do they think of this proposal?” Burke says. YHZ discovered the practical value of community testing when implementing wayfinding tech. “When we engaged local community members to test the Aira app before launch, we discovered a few gaps in our wayfinding that could have led travelers down the wrong path, quite literally,” says YHZ’s Chase. On top of technology and infrastructure planning, some have advocated for community-led staff training. Rather than relying solely on internal instruction, many airports bring disability experts and people with disabilities to lead training sessions. “Perhaps Candace and I could do these trainings, but they’re not going to be as effective, really, as hearing from an actual expert or a person with disabilities talking about their own experience,” Rodriguez says of SEA’s approach. SEA recently conducted three training sessions with the Alzheimer’s Association to help frontline staff serve customers displaying dementia-like symptoms, typically drawing participation from Pathfinders, volunteers, TSA staff, and airline employees, officials say.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025