United Spinal Launches Health Access Working Group
United Spinal Association is seeking members for its new Health Access Working Group, created to “advocate for improving access to health-care services for the disability community.”
Members will work together “to identify health-care accessibility problems, key obstacles and societal barriers that prevent people with disabilities access to the resources to promote and maintain their health,” the organization said in a May 16 bulletin.
United Spinal also has working groups for outdoor access, accessible parking, emergency preparedness, care support, and accessible transportation. Go to the association’s working group webpage for more information on each group or to join.
InsureMyTrip Names Best, Worst Airlines for Handling Wheelchairs
A new study by InsureMyTrip, a provider of travel insurance, ranked airlines in the United States based on how well — or badly — they’ve handled wheelchairs belonging to passengers.
In a May 7 announcement, InsureMyTrip said it “analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Transportation to shed light on airlines that have areas to improve upon for creating a positive and helpful environment for wheelchair users.” Specifically, InsureMyTrip examined how many wheelchairs and scooters were mishandled by airlines in 2024, as well as passenger compliments and complaints posted in airline reviews and on social media.
JetBlue received the overall top score for handling wheelchairs and “positive sentiment” from passengers. The airline transported more than 29,000 wheelchairs and scooters in 2024 and mishandled 464. Its positive sentiment score was 97%, giving JetBlue an overall score of 7.4.
After JetBlue, the top airlines were Delta Air Lines (6.9 score), Alaska Airlines (6.7), Hawaiian Airlines (6.4) and Southwest Airlines (6.3).
On the other end of the list, Frontier Airlines (2.2 score, with 535 of 30,448 wheelchairs [1.75%] mishandled) was named the worst airline, followed by American Airlines (3.3 score), Spirit Airlines (4.5), Allegiant Airlines (5.0), and United Airlines (5.2).
While top scorer JetBlue did not have the best score for wheelchair handling — JetBlue mishandled 1.59% of wheelchairs and scooters, while Delta mishandled .63%, the lowest percentage of all airlines examined — JetBlue’s high positive sentiment score far outpaced its competitors, leading to the highest score overall.
