For any traveler, significant preparation often goes into planning for a trip – whether it be a two-day work trip or week-long vacation. But for the ~5.5 million wheelchair users in the U.S., there are even more logistics to consider and challenges to overcome when navigating airports and airplanes.
People in wheelchairs have a vastly different flying experience. With current aircraft configurations, they must transfer out of their wheelchair, where they feel secure, to an uncomfortable seat not designed to support their bodies. Their chair is typically stored in the cargo hold, where damage may occur. After landing, they have to wait until their chair is available on the jet bridge before they can deplane. These challenges create a stressful experience before, during and after the flight itself.
Partnership with Delta Flight Products (DFP)
Biogen is committed to helping enhance the quality of life for the rare disease community we serve, and we know improvements to accessible travel are integral to this. In June 2024, Biogen announced a partnership with Delta Flight Products, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines established to create innovative solutions for airlines around the world.
Working together, Biogen and DFP have a vision to increase awareness of aircraft improvements to support people with disabilities. With our deep relationships in the spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Friedreich ataxia (FA) communities, Biogen and DFP engaged patients and advocates at top annual conferences.
People visiting Biogen and DFP’s shared conference booth have been able to learn more about DFP’s advancements, provide feedback to DFP designers for future developments, and ask questions about the logistics around booking these new innovations once they launch. The booth has featured some of DFP’s biggest innovations currently in development:
- Airplane seats that will allow passengers to remain in their own wheelchairs for their entire journey, limiting risks for passengers with reduced mobility;
- Cargo storage improvements to reduce damage to checked wheelchairs; and
- Improved onboard wheelchairs for patients to use when travelling to the aircraft lavatory during flight.
While learning about DFP’s innovations, patients share their own stories and experiences with DFP designers so that together, we're bringing more awareness and potential solutions to this topic. Two avid travelers, Sory Rivera, living with SMA, and Sam Bridgman, living with FA, spoke with a DFP engineer about their personal travel experiences. They also learned about DFP’s development process, the feedback DFP incorporates into the prototypes, and the regulations that must be followed before innovations are available on planes.
Looking Forward
With Biogen’s focus on supporting the diverse needs of our patients, we are in a unique position to further the urgency of these conversations for our patient communities so that one day accessible travel is just travel – whether they are flying to visit family, see a physician, or simply explore somewhere new. We plan to continue to seek the community’s insights and feedback so that we can better understand their experiences and help those living with disabilities unlock their world.
At Biogen, we strive to change lives by taking on the toughest challenges. Now is the time to help our patients experience more of the world through travel.
To learn more about the importance of making air travel accessible to everyone, please view the video with Sory and Sam.
