BUSINESS TRAVELLERS WATCHING BBC WORLD NEWS on TV in their hotel room may have noticed Ade Adepitan presenting The Travel Show. The Paralympian basketball star and broadcaster is a high-profile wheelchair user – and a frequent traveller.
Like Adepitan, there are many more business travellers who are disabled, assisted in no small part by the UK’s Equality Act 2010. This made it illegal for employers to discriminate against those with disability. Employers are obliged to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that someone with a disability is not put at a disadvantage in doing the same job. And that means the ability to travel if that’s what the job requires.
But a surprising finding in writing this article was how much under the radar this issue remains in mainstream business travel management. A number of travel organisations approached for this feature were unable to help. That is not to say that these organisations do not cater for disabled travellers, but it does suggest that for some, solutions may be ad hoc rather than formal strategies.
However, we spoke to a few travel management companies (TMCs), with non-commercial clients, who shared their insights into managing this requirement.
THE BACKGROUND
“Make sure that policy doesn’t get in the way of that person doing their job – we shouldn’t stand in the way of their travelling.” This is the advice from John O’Sullivan, marketing director at Key Travel, which has a large number of clients in the humanitarian sector.
Click Travel’s senior account manager, Tracy Beer, agrees: “We want to give the traveller choice and accommodate their requests. They want to feel that this is just normal procedure.”
Disabled travellers or – as Sean de Lacey, head of sales for Diversity Travel, says – “travellers with special requirements” do travel on business and the task is how to support them in a way that works both for them and for the company.
For example, every travel manager will ask its TMC how it would locate its travellers in the event of an emergency. De Lacey says that “companies have a responsibility under duty-of-care. It is essential for every traveller but especially for travellers with special needs.” He cites the example of an earthquake. “We need to get to travellers and get them out. If a traveller is disabled, there are even greater challenges because you need to find them and work out what additional support services they require.”
TRAVEL POLICY
Some aspects of company policy – for example, stipulating a preferred airline partner, which might involve a connection on long-haul flights, rather than the more expensive direct flight – may not be suitable for a disabled traveller.
O’Sullivan says this is one reason why “most travel managers will have a clear ‘exceptions’ rule”. He says: “To have all the exceptions outlined would be massively long, so you would have a clear outline of what to do if you are entitled to exceptions.
In this context it means there will be notes in the traveller profile that mean an out-of-policy travel booking may be acceptable.”
If policy specifies pre-trip approval, this should be the time to flag the need for any special requirement. It is vital that the profiles of travellers with special requirements be kept up to date, and it must be made clear whose responsibility this is.
Some traveller needs might be permanent but some will be more temporary.
A business traveller that has a broken leg may need support only in the short term.
The corporate needs to ensure that insurance is adequate and pre-existing medical conditions are specified. Travellers should detail any medication or other requirements. As De Lacey says, “some of this might be difficult to acquire abroad”.
SPECIAL REQUESTS
Notes on travel profiles can precipitate a wide range of needs:
• Some illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, mean the traveller has to have access to liquids at all times, which means carrying a doctor’s letter to be entitled to take more than the 100ml currently allowed through airport security.
• If the disability involves a wheelchair (which will always have to go into the hold) airlines will generally not count this against the free baggage allowance.
• Blind airline passengers may be permitted to bring a guide dog on board.
• Airlines will allocate deaf or blind passengers to specific seats to ensure they can see or hear the safety briefing.
• If the passenger is physically disabled, the airport pick-up, whether it is a car or bus, needs to be equipped with disabled access.
The requests may be special, but the procedure should be standard. O’Sullivan advises bookers to give as much notice as possible, “particularly with an airline, as
there’s only so much support in a building. They generally need 48 hours notice.”
De Lacey recommends that travel planners disaggregate the main trip segments to identify where special support might be needed. For example, the TMC should look at the whole hotel experience rather than just the check-in and room. He cites rail as another example: “What if the traveller has requested a destination that doesn’t have support services? How does the TMC identify which have those services?”
According to O’Sullivan, “the more you tell an airline, the smoother the journey will be”. In fact, cabin staff receive training for supporting disabled people, and airport staff are trained to be sensitive to these issues.
Disability is a big issue for meeting planners because there is a strong likelihood that at least one of the delegates at any event will have a special requirement. A suitable venue must have disabled access not only for the meeting room but also for break-out areas, the restaurant and bar, and be able to support the needs of those whose hearing or sight is impaired.
THE FUTURE
O’Sullivan says: “The message to our teams is that disability shouldn’t restrict people’s travel. Communication is key. Whoever is doing the booking needs to know the disability and the level of that disability.”
De Lacey also stresses the importance of communication. “Take a step back and think how we can improve and make it better for travellers before they go out of their front door,” he says. “Once the trip has taken place and the traveller has come back, they should be encouraged to give feedback.”
He adds: “The organisation should promote their experiences to encourage other travellers. It’s a case of raising the whole profile. Travellers’ needs – like where they travel – will always evolve.”