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Air travel can provide efficient access to experiences that offer a wide range of benefits, including broadening the opportunities to receive healthcare, education, professional and personal development. However, many people with disabilities have difficulty realizing these benefits because of a lack of accessibility in the air travel industry.
In this special session for National Accessibility Week, we will explore the range of barriers to accessibility in air travel and how older adults, people with disabilities and/or people living with dementia experience air travel.
Tilak Dutta will discuss how his team at the KITE Research Institute is working to identify and address the biggest challenges in air travel by pulling together a community of practice including people with lived experience, airlines, airports, wheelchair manufacturers, third party service providers and policy makers. In particular, attendees will learn about the team’s recommendations for preventing damage to mobility devices during air travel for key knowledge users in the industry.
Ali Chiarelli, drawing on existing evidence on older adults and air travel, will discuss key barriers and facilitators shaping experiences across the travel journey. She will also highlight the qualitative interviews with people living with dementia and their travel companions to explore emotional experiences during travel. Together, these insights underscore considerations for supporting more accessible and inclusive aviation environments.
Attendees of this session will:
- Understand of the range of barriers to accessibility in air travel and learn about approaches that are showing promise for removing some of these barriers.
- Discover the challenges and opportunities that shape air travel experiences older adults and for people living with disabilities, including dementia
Speakers:
Tilak Dutta is a Senior Scientist at KITE Research Institute and holds appointments as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto at both the Institute of Biomedical Engineering as well as at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. He leads the Engineering Health team, which is made up of 15 engineers, clinicians and social scientists who work together to give individuals with disabilities and their caregivers the tools they need to realize their full potential. His team’s ongoing projects include preventing falls on ice with advanced winter footwear and training, improving pedestrian safety at intersections and on sidewalks using computer vision, preventing back pain for caregivers in the home using wearable devices like PostureCoach, and removing stubborn barriers to accessibility.
Ali Chiarelli is a PhD candidate in Population Health and a member of the LIFE Research Institute at the University of Ottawa. She holds a Master of Science in Aging & Health from Queen’s University. Her doctoral research explores the air travel experiences of people living with dementia and their travel companions to inform practical recommendations that support quality of life and shift the focus from care to life. She is committed to fostering age- and dementia-inclusive communities and advocating for the needs of older adults.