Accessibility in aviation

Every day, millions of people fly by airplane to destinations across the world. Each of these journeys are punctuated by a multitude of digital touch-points. From finding and booking flights online, to checking in through electronic kiosks and using apps to check departure times, these micro interactions build into a wider digital experience.

We help airlines and organisations in the aviation sector to make these digital experiences more accessible and inclusive to all travellers. And we’ve supported airlines and travel agencies like British Airways and Skyscanner to do it.

During this time, we’ve learnt great deal about how to integrate accessible practices for travel. Accessibility has been central to our ethos since we first set up our agency in 2001, but we’ve found that the aviation sector in particular faces a unique set of challenges and solutions.

Integrating accessibility at scale

Instilling accessibility in the aviation sector can be difficult due to its sheer scale – not only of customers, but also of staff. Tens of thousands of staff members will work for any given aviation company – ranging from flight crew and ground staff to baggage controllers and engineers.

Each of these teams will have their own skill levels, knowledge and technical requirements. Some individuals will have access needs themselves, while others may not have much knowledge about accessibility at all. It’s vital any accessibility work you do is cognisant of these differences.

Tailor training around individual needs

Building with accessibility in mind early in a project can be up to 40 times cheaper than fixing it after a product launch. When coupled with training, teams can take a more holistic approach, make less mistakes and centre accessibility in all their decision making.

It’s important that any tools or processes created to embed accessibility are built around the skills and experience of the teams who will use them. You need to understand how these teams work and how accessibility might feed into their day-to-day role. This means you can identify what skills they have and what processes, tools or training they might need.

From here, you can create bespoke accessibility training materials that fit around the work they actually do. We never take a one-size-fits all approach to accessibility and inclusion.

Adapt training and support to job roles

The next step to embedding long-lasting good practice is to focus on instilling the core values of accessibility. We recommend dedicating the most time and effort to the teams responsible for managing the digital experience. Namely, designers, developers and product owners.

It’s important to remember that while these disciplines may have overlapping skillsets, their training needs are largely unique to them. So, use a customisable approach to training and adapt the materials, topics and details to suit the skills of whoever you’re talking to.

This team-centric approach means you can provide highly focused and helpful insights that are built around teams’ actual working practices. We do this for all of our projects. And as a result, we’re able to capture both hearts and minds, and ensure that accessibility is treated as an ongoing commitment.

Embed new processes through mentoring

Even with training, there is a learning curve to applying accessibility in practice. As people encounter new situations, it isn’t always clear how to make those interfaces accessible.

Short mentoring sessions can shore-up the knowledge, just going through recent or upcoming work on a shared-screen with an accessibility expert can embed the accessibility perspective effectively.

One to one sessions help people learn at their own pace and in a way that is personalised to their knowledge and experience. For example, the guidance we create covers topics like how to test as you go along, how to annotate designs or how to use assistive technology. We then couple this with processes that explain when and where those things need to happen.

Take a systematic approach to design

Having a systematic approach to design is really helpful for accessibility because it stops people from having to re-invent the wheel for every design task. With a well defined and documented system a designer can start with an accessibility-compatible pattern, component, or colour scheme.

Large travel companies tend to have a lot of teams working on the website and apps, and the more teams there are the more important this becomes. Get to the root of your designs, make them accessible, and your work will become immediately easier.

Provide documentation for your design systems

It’s equally important that developers have a source of well-tested components as their starting point. Ideally, the designers and developers are working from the same set of components, so the whole foundation works for accessibility.

It is very noticeable when we do audits that teams who use an accessible design system (such as the GDS design system) produce much more accessible output from day 1. We work with our aviation clients to ensure that components are accessible by default and there is accompanying guidance to ensure they’re deployed correctly.

For example, if a particular design pattern needs to work in a certain way with assistive technology, this should be included where the pattern is documented. Date-pickers and drop-downs are very common when booking flights or hotels, and it’s easy to find 10 variations across a site, rather than one accessible version.

Test iteratively and often

Usability testing with people also establishes real stories in the team’s minds. Anyone with a disability who has travelled will have expectations and concerns about their future trips. Gathering those stories, in the context of the current interface, will provide ideas and enthusiasm for making it better.

For example, there are also some interfaces specific to aviation can be very complex, such as when you pick seats on a plane for several passengers. There is no common pattern for this type of experience, so all of the different variants need testing.

We recommend testing with users to see how they interact with the interface. Often, we’ll also sit down with several teams to tackle components like seat maps. This ensures components are usable in general, and works with a multitude of inputs and outputs.

Empower teams to take it into their own hands

Over time, we find that by fostering a culture of inclusive design, enthusiasts emerge. These accessibility champions are then able to continue making change within their product teams and beyond.

We try to embed these accessibility and ethical design champions on every project we deliver. And we encourage our clients to select one internally, too. These champions ensure that the right questions are asked, and assumptions are challenged and tested.

Their inclusive view goes beyond just accessible design. For example, these champions might also influence the choice of technology used, functionality developed, and how content and service design improvements can remove barriers.

This approach has been so successful than in one of our recent projects delivered for a leading aviation company, our client nominated their very first Digital Accessibility and Regulatory Lead. This ensured that not only will accessibility continue to be a priority, but it signalled a commitment and an organisational shift towards a more inclusive future.

Design accessible travel services

Creating an accessible service isn’t just about removing barriers. It also means pairing good design with better content so that all users are confident, prepared and enjoy their journey. Weaving accessibility into your design and development lifecycle will not only unlock your service, but make it easier for your teams to work confidently and in an inclusive way.

Over 11 million people in the UK have a disability. That’s roughly one in four people. This increases to 80 million across Europe, and over a billion people worldwide. Ensuring that these travellers can access your digital products isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s essential that you meet the regulations and legislation of off of the countries we sell in and fly to.

If you’re unsure where to start, get in touch. Our dedicated accessibility team are always happy to talk through your unique challenges and offer solutions to help you move forward.

Let’s work together

If you’re ready to improve your accessibility we’ve got the team to make it happen. Get in touch with our experts today to get started.