| Abstract | Passengers travelling with a powered mobility aid face many challenges as they travel by air, including the potential of being separated from their only mode of transportation, leaving themselves in full trust of the airlines and airports. To be proactive in addressing the issues surrounding the transportation and safe storage of wheelchairs, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) mobilized an International Working Group (IWG) in 2018. One major outcome of this initiative, and of this current study, was the identification of functional and performance guidelines as well as best practices for the airlines and other stakeholders on the securement or containment of mobility aids in the cargo compartment.
The CTA, Transport Canada (TC) and the National Research Council (NRC) collaborated on this study to complete the objectives of the initiative. The NRC interviewed stakeholders from all sides of the accessible air travel experience including ground services, wheelchair manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, and travellers. To efficiently address the stated concerns, the NRC completed an in-depth investigation resulting in best practices and recommendations regarding mobility aid handling and transport.
Through interviews and observations, we identified the current pain points faced during securement and containment of mobility aids in the cargo hold. The collected data helped us understand the needs of handlers and ramp personnel when they are interacting with a traveller’s powered mobility aid. Based on the observations and analysis, we were able to identify a total of 9 significant pain points and critical handler tasks.
Following this, 22 interviews were conducted across 7 stakeholder groups. The results of the task analysis and interviews revealed that the process for safe securement and containment of mobility aids extends beyond the cargo hold.
At a high level, our study recommends and provides the following elements related to handling powered mobility aids;
• 9 functional guidelines for the safe securement and containment of powered mobility aids;
• functional job aid guidance that includes clearly defined high-level steps for securement and containment, written in lay language, with visuals for quick reference;
• a detailed training needs analysis (TNA) that can identify gaps in skills and knowledge for handlers with respect to securing wheelchairs.
In addition to recommendations related to handling mobility aids, our study also provides recommendations related to handling powered mobility aids at a systems level:
• that mobility aid original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) provide a brief document with visuals and clearly defined steps for safely disassembling and reassembling the mobility aid;
• that mobility aid OEMs include securement brackets as part of their design, and that the brackets themselves be designed to be more visible;
• that communication between travellers and airlines be improved by further developing the Mobility Aid Passport and Mobility Aid Handling Checklist, identified as short-term recommendations within the Mobility Aids and Air Travel Final Report (Hunter-Zaworski, 2019);
• that training regulations continue to require recurrent training to prevent errors associated with skill fade;
• that current training be adjusted, whether through regulation or through recommendations to airlines, as there is a gap between the current training content and the knowledge that handlers possess and are able to effectively apply on the job; 8 training-related recommendations are provided to this effect. |
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