Bristol Airport Website Fails Disability Travel Accessibility Review
- Written by Roberto Castiglioni
After reviewing disability travel accessibility of London Heathrow and Belfast Airport, Reduced Mobility Rights reviewed the Bristol Airport Website which fails to meet the evaluation criteria.
We are currently in the process of reviewing disability travel accessibility of all airports in the United Kingdom. Disabled passengers and their carers need careful planning of their journey through airports to ensure having all necessary information on hand. The most user-friendly, accessible, accurate, and complete information is, the easier the travel experience will be. In this day and age, airport websites are the first stop for information gathering, which makes them a target for review.
Bristol Airport owners are the global investment group Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 1 (50%) and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) (49%). 5,747,604 transited via Bristol Airport in 2010.
We examine the "Special Needs" page of Bristol Airport using the following criteria: accessibility from the website home page, quality of immediately available content, quality of downloadable content, quality of contact information within the "Special Needs" page. Below is the link to reviewed page. This assessment is accurate to 21 September 2011. Screen shots of the pages below were taken on 21 September 2011.
Bristol Airport (opens a new window)
Accessibility from the airport's website home page:
Good: the assistance page can be easily accessed from the sub navigation menu available in the “at the airport” section.
Quality of immediately available content:
Fails: only general information, mostly irrelevant to the needs of disabled passengers and their carers, is available on the page. The page is missing the airport Quality Standards rules, a requirement under EU regulation 1107/2006. The page also provides inaccurate information about disabled travellers accompanied by carers. Unlike stated on this page, it is a requirement under EU regulation 1107/2006 that “where a disabled person or person with reduced mobility is assisted by an accompanying person, this person must, if requested, be allowed to provide the necessary assistance in the airport and with embarking and disembarking”.
Quality of downloadable content:
Fails: no available content to download.
Quality of contact information within the "Special Needs" page:
Fails: no contact information available on the assistance page. However, there is a clue to use the standard queries phone number on the “contact us” page.
Failing three out of four evaluation criteria is serious reason for the airport managing company to change the website page and make corrections in line with EU 1107/2006 standards; Meeting the requirement of disabled passengers to easily access all critical information relevant to their travel plans must also be a priority to the Bristol Airport managing body.
