The Board is conducting an outreach campaign on access to airports, a common source of complaints by travelers with disabilities. As part of this effort, the Board is exploring in depth leading access issues to gather information for its use in raising awareness, promoting effective design, and improving compliance. To date, the Board has collected information and received briefings from invited experts on a range of topics, including self-service ticketing kiosks, security checkpoints and screening procedures, boarding bridges and devices, signage and communication systems, and telecommunications. The Board continues to collect resources that will inform and improve the design of airport terminals.
As part of this initiative, the Board also seeks a greater a dialogue with airport designers and operators to share and collect information and to improve accessibility. Recently, the Board met with the design team for a terminal replacement project at an international airport in Minnesota to provide training on access standards and to discuss accessibility issues. Such outreach supports a two-way flow of information that is beneficial to the Board by broadening its understanding of design issues and constraints and identifying sources of confusion or challenges where additional guidance or research is needed. The Board is interested in meeting with additional design teams, airport operators, and other stakeholders for further outreach related to this effort. For more information, contact Bill Botten at <airports@access-board.gov>, (202) 272-0014 (v), or (202) 272-0082 (TTY).
Resource: Access Currents
Volume 15, No.2 March/ April 2009
http://www.access-board.gov
