Disability Access News

Herald Sun
April 11, 2008 01:55pm

THE advent of low cost airlines in Australia and their over-zealous interpretation of safety regulations has led to greater discrimination against people with disabilities, the disability watchdog says.

A group of deaf people from Melbourne has launched a discrimination case against Tiger Airways after the budget carrier insisted they travel with a carer last month.

Federal disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes says the problem isn't limited to Tiger.

"There have been endemic problems in airlines over the past few years where people with disabilities have been refused carriage because of their disability," Mr Innes said on Sky News.

"The introduction of low cost airlines has been one of the reasons."

Mr Innes said they often applied unnecessarily strenuous or zealous interpretations of airline safety regulations and their staff weren't trained well enough.

"What you get sometimes are individual decisions which are outside airline policies," he said.

In 2006, Virgin Blue was forced to back down over its policy requiring wheel chair-bound passengers to be accompanied by a carer. It was currently fighting a federal court case over alleged discrimination, he said.

Last week, Mr Innes co-chaired a forum with Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Services Bill Shorten to discuss how disabled people were treated by airlines.

The forum included the main airlines, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and government representatives.

Mr Shorten said the Government was concerned that discrimination was taking place "in the name of safety".

"But the reality is most people with impairment can understand (safety) instructions and fly," Mr Shorten said on Sky News.

Mr Shorten said Tiger was wrong to insist deaf passengers travelled with a carer.

"People who are deaf can still see and all emergency safety briefings have pictorial representations," he said.

"Just because people are deaf doesn't mean that they're stupid."

He said Qantas had the best policy: "If you can't self-medicate and self-see then you need a carer".

But Mr Shorten said individual flight attendants were not to blame.

Better training and awareness about disability was needed, he said.

"The airline industry needs to reach out to people with disability."

Comment is being sought from Tiger Airways.

By scopical.com.au
Published: 11 April 2008 8:59am

Four deaf passengers traveling aboard Singapore-owned Tiger Airways - which now flies in Australia - say they feel humiliated by requests to not travel on the airline again because of their hearing problem.

News Limited newspapers reported that a group of four Victorians - Adrian and Julie Doyle, along with two friends Steve and Robyn May - were asked when boarded to either purchase a seat of a sign-language translator, or to not fly with Tiger Airways again.

The four say they are humiliated by Tigers requests, and have now launched a discrimination case against the airline.

Adrian Doyle said that it was a humiliating and embarrassing moment for the group.

"The stewardess wrote on a piece of paper to me that we all require a carer on a plane because of our 'deafness', which sure floored me," Mr Doyle said.

"My friends had steam coming out of their ears, and my wife was dumbfounded."

"I then took the paper and wrote that they had insulted us by saying that we require a carer, since we have all travelled a lot, and never encountered any problems with our disabilities."

The airline says it is their policy to require those suffering from such an issue to be accompanied by a carer.

"I am shocked and stunned that Tiger allow themselves to discriminate against deaf people," Mr Doyle said.

The airline has now offered to apologise.

"We are happy to apologise to the people involved for the inconvenience and embarrassment they might have experienced," Tiger's Matt Hobbs said.

However both Qantas-owned Jetstar and Virgin Blue allow deaf passengers to travel unassisted.