A disability advocate has urged the aviation industry to lift accessibility standards after Jetstar apologised to the passenger for causing them to fall out of a wheelchair.
Akii Ngo said air travel for wheelchair users should not have to be “luck of the draw” after having troubling experiences with different airlines.
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Justice and Equity Centre senior solicitor Sheetal Balakrishnan, who represented Mx Ngo, said the complaint process “put the burden on people to have to bring to the attention of authorities that there’s discrimination happening”.
“We together with the disability community have been advocating strongly that there needs to be a standard for air travel that allows for people with disabilities to be included, for air travel services to be accessible and for them to have equal access to air travel,” Ms Balakrishnan said.
“Those standards also need to be enforceable so that if an airline or an airport doesn’t comply to the standards then action can be taken by a regulator to make sure that they comply.”
