United Airlines announced a number of steps it will take to improve travel experiences for people in wheelchairs as part of an agreement with the Department of Transportation after a complaint about the mishandling of a wheelchair on a United flight was investigated, marking the latest move by the Biden Administration to improve infrastructure accessibility.
United Airlines planes sit on the runway at Newark Liberty International Airport on November 30, ... [+]
United will soon offer a flight filter that will let people put in the dimensions of their chair and prioritize flight options on planes with cargo hold doors large enough to hold the chair, as part of an agreement with the transportation department.
The airline will also start refunding the difference of flight costs for customers who have to take a more expensive flight to accommodate their wheelchair, according to a release from United; the changes are expected to be implemented early next year.
United will also conduct a test program at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to explore different ways “to safely accommodate passengers waiting for loaner wheelchairs because of damage or delay to their personal wheelchairs during a flight.”
The agreement followed “a lengthy investigation by the department” into a disability complaint filed by Engracia Figueroa, who died after sustaining injuries from a loaner wheelchair when her custom wheelchair was “severely damaged” and became inoperable on a 2021 United Airlines flight, according to the lawsuit.
150,000. That’s about how many wheelchairs United carried on flights in 2022, the company said. During the past four years, United and United Express carriers mishandled wheelchairs at a rate of 1.2%, making them third-best among domestic carriers tracked, according to the DOT agreement.
Figueroa was an advocate for disability rights and was on her way home from lobbying Congress about disability rights in Washington, D.C. on a United flight, when her custom chair—valued at around $30,000—was ruined. The lawsuit filed on her behalf alleges she was forced to sit in a non-motorized courtesy wheelchair for hours, which supposedly reopened a wound and caused “muscle cramps and spasms.” In a filing from May, United disputed the liability and damages claims and that “any act or omission of United was the proximate cause of Decedent’s injuries or death.” The suit alleges United refused to pay for a replacement chair until Figueroa contacted her local senators and got them involved in filing a complaint, after which they agreed to get a chair but got it to her too late as her condition had worsened. She died on October 31, 2021, a little over three months after her United flight.
The Biden Administration has taken a particular interest in improving infrastructure accessibility. In the last year, it awarded $686 million in funding to projects in nine states that will increase the number of rail stations meeting or exceeding ADA standards and invested in developing accessible electric vehicle charging stations, according to the White House.