Air India | Coimbatore → Delhi | 01 Oct
It was a quiet afternoon flight on an Airbus 320neo - about three hours long. After the meal service, most passengers had settled into their own ways of passing the last stretch of time - reading, watching something on their devices, or simply sleeping. The cabin was calm, curtains between the different classes (economy, premium etc) drawn neatly to create that serene, premium feel for the front section. There wasn't much really happening at that point.
I was in seat 8D, and across the aisle, in the front row (7A, B, C), sat an elderly couple, probably in their seventies. Just two of them in the 3 seats. I noticed the elderly woman across from me looked restless. She kept glancing front and back, perhaps searching for a flight attendant? Maybe. After a few minutes of not seeing anyone, I gestured that she could press the call button.
She tried - but couldn’t reach it. In fact both couldn't reach it. Leaning a bit towards me, she said something in Tamil. I don’t know Tamil (except for a very few words to ease up my travel in the region), but from her words and gestures, I understood: she was a wheelchair user and needed to go to the washroom but didn’t know how to get help.
I pressed my own call button. A flight attendant soon appeared from behind the curtain — carrying a tray with a small bottle of water, probably expecting a routine request. The woman tried to catch her attention, but since it was me who had pressed the button she came to me first. When she approached, I quickly explained the situation and pointed to the elderly woman.
The attendant nodded, went over, and handled everything with care and professionalism within minutes. A few minutes later, the woman returned to her seat. She smiled and said softly, “Thank you.”
That moment stayed in my mind. Earlier, she had been waiting anxiously for sometime until I noticed. Even the call button wasn't reachable (and in this case they couldn't stand and press). It made me think - how prepared are our environments for people with different needs? Not this particularly but public spaces in general.
In an airplane or airports, as much as I have seen, there is usually a good support compared to many other places. For example, for someone who is blind or has low vision trying to use a public washroom, how can they get to know the layout of the inside spaces? Everyone has a different need, is our built environment inclusive enough?
The flight continued smoothly. As the captain announced, “We’re 3,800 feet above sea level, visibility four kilometers — we’ll land about 20 minutes ahead of schedule,” I found myself still thinking about that moment.
How can we design spaces — aircrafts, train stations, cities, public spaces - where aesthetics and accessibility go hand in hand?
Because everyone’s needs is different, and they also change over time. A good co-design session with people having different needs could be one way, observation another, talking to understand different perspective again another.
A better-prepared world supports us all.
- Pranav.
Note: This article has been written with the idea to reflect observations that I have had from my experience. Such discussions and conscious thoughts brings hopes for conscious chance in the world around us. This article is the first one, of 'hopefully' many more.. Hopefully, there would be more such stories to write, reflect and think about. Readers are welcome to use these or any insights that they might get.