All Wheels Up: Addressing Air Travel Accessibility

On today's episode we speak with Alexandra Bruce. Alexandra serves as the medical advisory board chair and advocacy committee chair for the non-profit organization All Wheels Up. We discuss the barriers and risks that people with disabilities face when participating in air travel, and proposed solutions to improve air travel accessibility including designated wheelchair zones on planes and standardized training for airport and airline employees. She shares recommendations to address accessibility and air travel performance for occupational therapy practitioners across settings and resources to support change and equity.   The 2024 AOTA Podcast episodes are sponsored by NYU Steinhardt’s top-ranked Department of Occupational Therapy. PVA Accessible Air travel page: pva.org MDA: www.mda.org AWU research page: www.allwheelsup.org Davies, A., & Christie, N. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iatssr.2017.05.003  Major, W. L., & Hubbard, S. M. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.04.006  Rossow, J., Starr, B., North, K., Stevenson, M., & Lampe, A. (2020). Occupational Therapy’s Role in Establishing Inclusive and Accessible Air Travel. OT Practice, 25(6), 27–29.  Wintersgill, J., & Wood, C. H disabilityhorizons.com