The story "Airlines Tackle Wheelchair Need" covers common themes here are RollingRains.com but gives them a much wider audience. Here are two champions of Inclusive Travel quoted in the well-researched report by Barbara De Lollis:
By 2030, Open Doors estimates that nearly 24% of the U.S. population will be disabled, and 15% severely disabled, resulting in about 53 million more disabled people than in 1997. The group estimates that around a third of adults with disabilities fly at least once every two years.It's not just aging that contributes to the increase in travelers with disabilities. Medical technology allows people who have endured severe trauma from war, vehicle crashes and the like to travel with relative ease, says Kate Hunter-Zaworski, director of the National Center for Accessible Transportation at Oregon State University.
"We are facilitating living a fuller life, and air travel is essential to a full life," she says.
At JetBlue, the growth in passengers who request wheelchair assistance has outpaced overall passenger growth consistently since 2004. Last year, about 262,000 JetBlue passengers, or 1.2%, requested such assistance when making their reservations.
For the full story:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-03-12-wheelchair-travel_N.htm