Airport security – ensuring equality and dignity for people with disability.

In September 2008 the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government invited input into the Aviation Security Screening Review. The Department issued two documents to guide comments: Overview, a summary of key issues addressed by the review and Human Factors – Special Circumstances Screening, a discussion paper on the issues of passengers with special needs.PIAC joined with the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre to respond to issues relevant to people with disability. PIAC and DDLC based their submission on an analysis of case studies reported on in Flight Closed: Report on the experiences of People with Disabilities in Domestic Airline Travel in Australia (2007) and experience representing clients who brought complaints of unlawful disability discrimination against domestic airlines.The main issues canvassed in the submission are the need for consistent practices between and within airports in Australia, the need to security officers to be trained and equipped to process passengers with special needs and adoption of effective complaint processes. The submission rejects the suggestion in the Department’s discussion paper that passengers with special needs should be defined and passengers fitting those characteristics are separated from other passengers for security processing.