Keywords: Disability, Accommodations

The photo depicts a wheelchair sitting on a jet bridge at the Orlando, Florida Airport. Accessibility, equity, and inclusion are crucial elements to mobility justice. The wheelchair highlights the need for a focus on airport infrastructure in regards to disability access. Without wheelchairs, widened security lanes, elevators, and ramps individuals may not be able to easily move around an airport. This wheelchair was specifically located on the jet bridge, as an individual with a disability already boarded the plane. Boarding first allows for those who may require additional time or assistance to board the plane without feeling pressured or rushed. 

However, this additional assistance highlights that besides physically not being able to access certain spaces individuals with disabilities may also feel inferior compared to other members of society. Boarding the plane first isolates an individual with a disability by emphasizing that they are different from other passengers. Social isolation is an unintended result of accommodations. People with disabilities can still feel inferior, even when infrastructure and all efforts are fully accommodating to all members of society. It leaves us to think are there other unintentional effects that come from the creation of accommodations.

Kate Kowalski