New standards in accessible seating with Airbus
This is a special feature from PAX Tech's October 2024 APEX Global EXPO issue

Airbus’ ACCESS Beam concept
Airlines today have three main focus areas for accessibility, says Ingo Wuggetzer, President Cabin Marketing at Airbus. The first is an enhanced cabin
design featuring adjustable and removable seating, accessible lavatories and
space for wheelchairs. The second is advanced inflight services such as
smart cabins with assistive technology
and accessible entertainment systems.
Finally, the third is improved accessibility features for seamless boarding
and universally designed interiors.

Ingo Wuggetzer, President Cabin Marketing, Airbus
“Though our main focus remains
the cabin experience onboard, we are
looking beyond this to collaborate
with all relevant stakeholders from
other industries to learn and integrate on-ground solutions to achieve
efficient and consistent solutions
for the passengers,” he explains.
A challenge in creating an anticipatable inflight experience for all passengers is to standardize and certify wheelchairs for aircraft, their positioning and usage.
“This could be a big step toward using your own wheelchair onboard an aircraft," Wuggetzer says.
Airbus is focusing on accessibility from the design stage, looking at modular solutions to position and accommodate wheelchairs in the future. The ACCESS Beam converts aircraft cabin seating for wheelchair users, as needed.
Along with design, Wuggetzer says inflight digital innovations are also a priority on Airbus’ accessibility agenda.
“The technical approach is to develop a digital support that is compatible with the user’s personal electronic devices and is supported by the aircraft connectivity backbone,” he explains.
He says that while existing solutions like BeMyEyes or RightHear are very promising, Airbus wants to create a “one-stop-shop” solution. With such technology, guidance and information can be tailored to different disabilities, including text-to-speech translations for passengers with visual impairments or speech-to-text translations for passengers with hearing impairments. He says this ideally also leads to workload relief for the cabin crew.
Thinking about long-term accessibility goals, Airbus sets its sights on 2030 and beyond for setting an accessibility standard and a fully collaborative approach with other key players.
“We have started a cross-industry approach and, as a result, would like to establish a co-development initiative with affected people, associations, airlines and innovative partners to drive customer-centric innovations, delivering valuable solutions to all stakeholders,” Wuggetzer reveals.
He says he also imagines defining a new cabin accessibility standard
as part of the Airspace brand following universal design principles
in the mid-to-long-term.