December 2022 News

It has been another great year at ODO as we continue to make a real difference in the lives of people with disabilities. December marks the month for fundraising, and you, as a donor, really have to think about where your money works most effectively. One of our best selling points has always been our reach. Our reach is so large because we work globally on travel, and travel is important everywhere to everyone. We also represent the largest minority since disability will touch many of us or our loved ones at some part in our lives. This year, please consider ODO as your last check, the one you want to go the furthest, the one that you feel confident will make a difference. Donate to ODO.

Happy Holidays!

Eric Lipp, Executive Director
Open Doors Organization

The Year at ODO
It’s almost a wrap! 2022 was especially dynamic at ODO as the world of air travel reopened with leisure travelers, including those with disabilities, leading the way. While continuing to conduct 30+ trainings each month for Amtrak in cities across the country, we added a whole new service, the Service Animal Forms Portal. ODO currently processes the new DOT forms for 4 U.S. carriers: Alaska, Allegiant, JetBlue, and Sun Country. To deal with a deluge of registrations—44,000 to date—ODO had to take on 3 new, dedicated employees.           
     Meanwhile, our committee work and speaking engagements, all voluntary, remain an important commitment. ODO staff currently serve on advisory boards at Amtrak, TravelAbility, AccessibleGO, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, and Atlanta, Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle International Airports, as well as on several committees at IATA and TSA. To raise awareness about the disability travel market, ODO spoke at more than 20 travel and tourism industry events in the U.S. and overseas including in Bahrain, Dominican Republic, England, France, Israel and Poland.
   And, saving the best for last, we hosted, in partnership with American Airlines, our Eighth Universal Access in Aviation (UAIA) event. This unique event, the best attended to date, drew over 130 attendees from 60 different airlines, airports, service companies, suppliers and disability organizations. We sincerely thank all our supporters and clients who helped make this another banner year at ODO!

Winnipeg Launches Whill
This December Winnipeg International Airport (YWG) became the first North American airport to offer autonomous wheelchairs to transport guests with reduced mobility. Four Whill power chairs are now in service, ferrying travelers from check in to security and from security to their gate or other location. The user simply selects their destination on the touch screen and Whill does the rest, addressing both wayfinding and mobility needs. The autonomous chair then returns itself to the designated area to wait for the next client. As ODO's Eric Lipp noted in an article in the Winnipeg Free Press, “The Winnipeg airport already provides a good service and I think they got it right giving travellers a choice to use the autonomous device or a traditional wheelchair.” (The photo above shows a woman riding in Whill at YWG while an unoccupied Whill drives the other direction.)

Speech to Text Pilot - MSP
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) now provides all gate announcements in text on a dedicated screen at the 5 boarding gates controlled by the airport. These include Gates E1-4 in Terminal 1 and H12 in Terminal 2. According to Phil Burke, Asst. Director, Customer Experience, the AI program converting speech to text in real time has achieved 90 percent accuracy in English. The goal is to have it seamlessly convert other languages as well and to eventually extend the service to all gates at MSP, an effort that will require adaptation of the airlines' software and therefore their commitment to the project. To our knowledge, this is the first such trial in North America and possibly even the world and represents a huge step forward in accessibility. (In the photo above, the Air Canada gate agent is making an announcement about checking bags, shown in text on the center screen.)