Mobility Feature
Flying can be a daunting prospect for disabled people . Kate El Bizanti and Lynne Hills share how Queen Elizabeth ’ s Foundation for Disabled People is supporting disabled people to make informed choices and be more confident in air travel .
Mobility Feature
Supporting disabled people to travel by air with confidence
Flying can be a daunting prospect for disabled people . Kate El Bizanti and Lynne Hills share how Queen Elizabeth ’ s Foundation for Disabled People is supporting disabled people to make informed choices and be more confident in air travel .
F lying when you have a disability is a hot topic and covered well in the current media . Making aviation accessible is something that the Queen Elizabeth ’ s Foundation for Disabled People ( QEF ) has been working towards for some time – from our partner charity MERU manufacturing a travel chair that disabled children can use on an aircraft , which is Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ) approved , to developing a service to help disabled passengers across the UK successfully access air travel .
QEF ’ s Tryb4uFly service was born in 2011 , based around the need for disabled people to try different seating and transfer systems in preparation for flying and was first offered at QEF Mobility Services in Carshalton , South London .
This service quickly grew to include a large range of seating systems , a mock aircraft cabin to ‘ try ’ them out , two additional assessment centres in the UK and an equipment hire service to reduce the financial impact of flying for disabled passengers .
As interest in the service grew from passengers and their families , it also attracted attention from airlines and other organisations . So QEF worked alongside industry partners to share knowledge and improve the level of information given to disabled passengers .
Once the pandemic hit , it gave QEF ’ s Tryb4uFly team an opportunity to reflect on how the service had grown and redesign the service offering to ensure it was more accessible and could be expanded further .
The Tryb4uFly service now has four points of contact for disabled passengers and their families that can be accessed in any order , according to their needs . These include free resources available on the website , consultations , assessments and equipment hire .
QEF is also developing unique training courses to expand its partnership with airlines and other travel related organisations and continually improve the quality of the service to disabled passengers .
Free resources
The QEF Tryb4uFly website has a free downloadable checklist with lots of hints , tips and information around flying with a disability ; this information is generic and not specific to