What flying is for passengers who use wheelchairs at Nigerian airports

 For passengers who use wheelchairs, air travel in Nigeria can be an embarrassing, uncomfortable, and perilous prospect.

Many of the airports across the country do not have designated toilets for PWDs. Wheelchairs are available but most times, they take forever to reach PWDs that need them. Wheelchair lift is often not available on all aircraft.

Transportation is generally a huge mountain to climb for most PWDs. Persons with disabilities are widely recognised as being socially disadvantaged, and as a result, they face numerous deprivations, discriminations, and denials of their rights.

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Access to airports and airline facilities and services for the purpose of air travel, though frequently undervalued, is an important aspect of life for individuals with disabilities whose rights are flagrantly overlooked.

There have been numerous accounts of outright denial of air travel rights, as well as humiliating and degrading treatment of PWDs and responses to their requests.

Oluwayemisi Adekunle is a frequent traveller. The nature of her job takes her around the country. She recounted her experience at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, and witnessed the inhuman treatment meted out to people with disabilities especially when it comes to the provision of wheelchairs for those in need of the service.

 Adekunle noted that traveling by plane can be very stressful for anyone, having to contend with the long wait, the security hassles, moving around the airport, lost luggage and so many other issues to contend which is not a walk in the park.

The process can be even more grueling for people with disabilities. Airlines are also required to provide passengers with disabilities with many types of assistance, including wheelchairs or other guided assistance to board, deplane, or connect to another flight; seating accommodation assistance that meets passengers’ disability-related needs; and assistance with the loading and stowing of assistive devices, the way such assistance is rendered in many instances often come in a very dismissive way with no dignity at all.

 She noted that recently, it is clear that a great deal more awareness and advocacy is needed, pointing out that this is what informed her putting together her experience.

 According to her, “Most times when I am traveling from or back to Nigeria (let me not even talk about flights within the country) as a passenger with a mobility impairment who self-identifies as living with disability, the standard practice in most other countries is that I am provided with assistance from airlines to move through the airport.

 “The courteous assistance I often receive comes with all the dignity every human deserves but unfortunately anytime I am in my beloved country, I am at the mercy of officials who believe they are doing me a favor and I can’t as much as ask to use the restroom while waiting to board as you are pushed to one side with no one in sight to offer any help until it is time to board.”

 “ I have had instances where it took officials up to 2 hours between me being deplaned and getting through the airport checks as they often claimed not to have been briefed before I left the country I was coming from. I always wonder why such treatment has never been meted out to me in those other places as it is only in my fatherland that they do not receive such briefings ahead. There had been times I was told to mount stairs at our MMIA because the person with the key to lifts is nowhere to be found”, she added.

 Making air travel accessible to people with disabilities according to her is ultimately about being inclusive, stressing that it is about enabling everyone to enjoy the freedom that air travel offers.

 Safe and dignified travel for all passengers, including those with disabilities, she further stated is an airline’s commitment not just because it is “the right thing to do” but also because it makes business sense bearing in mind the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s estimate that approximately 15% of the world’s population.

 Toying with such a significant population Adekunle said is not a wise business decision buttressing her claim that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) member airlines have in 2019, during their Annual General Meeting (AGM) unanimously adopted a landmark industry resolution which re-affirmed their commitment to provide safe, reliable and dignified travel for people with disabilities.

 Although the provision of wheelchairs at airports in Nigeria is not in the purview of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) aviation handling companies like NAHCo and SAHCo, FAAN should be seen to hold regular meetings with them on service provision at various airports across the country by carrying people living with disability along in the development of their accessibility policy and operating standards.

 The disability community should be involved and listened to. This will be the best way to keep the focus on disability, accessibility, and inclusion.

 With WHO’s estimate that more than one billion people of the world’s population live with some form of disability, changing the focus from disability to accessibility and inclusion is allowing the travel sector to make this a reality for passengers with disabilities.

Wole Shadare