Working with Disability Groups

As part of Newcastle International Airport's commitment to consult with local disability groups we have embarked in some new projects.

December 2019

We were lucky enough to be invited along to the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) “Ability not Disability” conference at their Service HQ in Washington.

The event featured speakers from various emergency services and charities, covering a range of topics including:

• disability hate crime
• ADHD and neurodiversity
• dyslexia and dyspraxia
• supporting others with mental health issues

It was a great opportunity to discuss these issues with like-minded organisations and feedback into our own.

We were even treated to a performance from the Blue Light Choir and Northern Counties signing choir, which was fantastic!

November 2019

We welcomed Heidi Jobling and Louise Borrell from Deaflink to deliver a Deaf Awareness session to our permanent staff in Security and Passenger Services. This will enable staff to understand the different types of deafness and how people communicate, including potential issues that may arise. In turn this will ensure that staff members feel more confident when working to support passengers who are deaf or have hearing loss. This training will continue to be rolled out across these departments as we head into 2020.

October 2019

Leonard Cheshire is a national charity that works with people with disabilities and its ‘Change Now’ Programme works with young people from schools and colleges across the North East to introduce them to the world of work and provide work experience opportunities, which we do through; work insight visits to employers, work experience placements and supported internships.

Darren Thompson, Senior Youth Employment Officer, organised for a group of students to conduct an insight visit to learn about the different jobs carried out at the airport.

Passenger Assistance Forum

Our 2019 Passenger Assistance Forum was attended by a fantastic range of representatives from groups and charities, as well as a number of passengers who have used our airport’s services in the past.

Minutes from the forum are available here.

June 2019

Travel Agents

We were delighted to invite a number of travel agent representatives to come and see the facilities and services we have available for people travelling with disabilities. With this knowledge they can then advise passengers of the correct procedures to follow to get the help that they need.

We had a lovely day with visitors from the Percy Hedley Foundation, looking at the processes that our passengers need to follow to make their journeys through the airport and getting some brilliant feedback from the students about their own experiences.

One of our local disabled football clubs travelled through our airport -  46 individuals who all have Autism, to visit the People’s FA Cup in Belfast. They have used the airport for the last 2 years and we have been delighted to have been able to make their journey smooth and stress free by working together to allow them access to the facilities they needed.

May 2019

After consulting with several groups and charities, this month we became the first airport in the North to open a sensory area for passengers with hidden disabilities.

The area provides a designated relaxing and safe environment for passengers with hidden disabilities such as autism, dementia, sensory issues and mental health issues and is designed to support relaxation and de-escalation for passengers who find the busy airport surroundings overwhelming.

Airport staff can direct travellers safely to the location.

We were thrilled to welcome more guide dog puppies into the airport to experience the busy environment as part of their familiarisation training. They also brought a smile to the faces of passengers and staff as they made their way through airside.

April 2019

Haskel School

Haskel is a school for Jewish students who have varying conditions. We were able to give them a guided tour of landside operations to enhance their curriculum provision by allowing them to experience the busy environment.

We joined a Deaflink Tinnitus Support group meeting to deliver a presentation about support available at the airport. However, the information that we learned from the attendees was enlightening. The issues which passengers with tinnitus face are far-reaching and exhausting. By working together, we hope to make air travel more accessible to these passengers.

We invited Dionne Smith from The Percy Hedley Foundation to catch up on changes that we have made since we last met. We also discussed some exciting projects that we hope to be able to action in the near future.

March 2019

Graham McKinney, Puppy Training Supervisor for Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, brought along two beautiful guide dog puppies Piper and Loki with their carers to experience the busy airport environment. They even got to board an aircraft, thanks to Jet2holidays.

We met with Susan Jones and Dr Sue Vernon from The Children’s Foundation to discuss the services currently in place at the airport to support families travelling with children who have hidden disabilities. We hope to work together in the coming year to develop our facilities further with their help and expertise.

We were pleased to be able to attend a Deaflink Forum and give a presentation about services and facilities at the airport. Lots of questions were asked by the attendees and feedback about their own experiences given, which always helps us to see what is working and where we can look to improve.

We also welcomed Diane Murphy and Louise Borrell to the airport to deliver a Deaf Awareness session to a number of our managers and front-line staff. This enabled us to understand the different types of deafness and how people communicate, including potential issues that may arise. We have taken this information on board and hope to implement some of the ideas that we identified on the day.

Colin Brown and Lizzie Armstrong-Brown from Travel Counsellors and Sarah Stephenson from Toby Henderson Trust came along to discuss the services available at the airport for passengers with disabilities, both visible and hidden. Travel Counsellors work with members of the public trying to arrange accessible travel. They are keen to support us in moving our facilities and services forward.

February 2019:

We were delighted to welcome another group of visitors from the Age UK North Tyneside Men’s Group. The group supports older men who struggle with loneliness and arranges activities and outings for them to get to know like-minded people. They were able to have a look behind the scenes and find out about how the airport has developed over the years, including the services we offer to support passengers with mobility problems or hidden disabilities.

December 2018:

Members of staff from across the airport got together to learn some Makaton signing to wish our passengers a ‘Merry Christmas’.

November 2018

Budding guide dog Badger was filmed at the airport as part of his training with handler Darren Ainsley in order to get used to being in unusual scenarios, including large excitable crowds, shiny floors and security checks. We used a GoPro camera fixed to Badger’s harness to capture his entire journey. As well as giving Badger much needed experience, the visit enabled us to see what some of the issues and barriers are that people with little or no sight have when visiting our airport. Watch the footage of Badger here!

October 2018

Sam Butters, Trainee Habilitation Specialist for Guide Dogs Children and Young People’s Services, visited us to discuss the important work she does. She is currently providing habilitation training for a child who has vision impairment. As part of their school curriculum they will be travelling to Europe in the near future. We were delighted to discuss how we could support in preparing them for the necessary steps needed when getting ready for a flight such as check-in, baggage checks, security etc. and look forward to supporting them with this and other cases in the near future.

We invited Sarah Stephenson, Community Fundraising Partner for the Toby Henderson Trust to come in and discuss our assistance services with us and to tell us about the work that they do supporting autistic young people from 2 to 20 years old, while also empowering parents, families and carers by sharing knowledge, experience and understanding. Sarah was delighted to hear about the changes that have been implemented over the last couple of years and projects that we have ongoing at present.

September 2018

We were contacted by Laura Fulco, Administration and Groups Liaison Officer for the Meniere’s Society. Laura was keen to raise awareness of vestibular (inner ear) disorders causing dizziness and imbalance. She explained how people can be affected and how we might be able to support people visiting our airport.

June 2018

We invited Kerry back in to consult on how we might be able to further assist passengers with autism travelling through the airport. We understand that the journey can be exceptionally stressful and that the provision of a calming place for them to wait would be hugely beneficial. This is something that we would like to focus on for the coming year, so watch this space!

Susan Lad, one of our Passenger Assistance staff, was thrilled to escort Paula Jarvis and Darren Ainsley from Guide Dogs for the Blind around our terminal, along with trainee guide dogs Diamond and Winston. They will be visiting us on a regular basis to support in familiarising the dogs with a busy environment and ensuring that the dogs can cope with any environment which their humans might need to access.

If you happen to see them around and about, don’t be afraid to say hello, but please always ask the handler’s permission before you stroke the dogs, as they need to stay focused on the important job they are doing.

This month we were invited to attend a ‘Self-Help for Hard of Hearing’ group session at Newcastle Central Library. We gave a short presentation on the help available at the airport and the plans we have moving forward. We were then able to answer questions that the attendees had about their own plans for future travel.

The group meets on the first Tuesday of every month, offering the opportunity for anyone with a hearing loss to meet the Deaflink project worker and discuss how their services might provide support. If you would like more information, you can contact Louise on [email protected] or call 0191 281 2314.

Haskel Special School

A small group of extremely polite, friendly children from the Gateshead special school came to have a look at what happens behind the scenes at our airport. The children have a keen interest in aviation and hope to be able to make their career in the industry.

We explained that a lot of our staff have worked their way up through the ranks and pure grit and determination, as well as a passion for the industry, will stand any of them in good stead as they grow older.

May 2018

We were delighted to have Linda Oliver from Guide Dogs for the Blind agree to meet us, along with her guide dog Zoe and her support worker Roger Bessent.

Guide dogs in training must become accustomed to navigating busy, noisy environments and what better place for them to do this than Newcastle Airport?

In the near future, the Trainers will be coming onsite with the dogs to do just that. Watch this space!

April 2018

Chloe Brown, Sam Jassat, Ben Ferguson and Linda Ferguson came in to meet with us to discuss the problems that passengers can face when travelling with Diabetes, in particular when taking equipment through the Security Search area.

They have kindly offered to create a poster which we will display in our staff areas, to increase awareness about the condition and also give information on the different types of equipment currently in use. This will ensure that our Security staff can ensure that passengers concerns about using the scanner are minimised and that they have the correct information at hand to make the process as smooth as possible for all involved.

We can’t wait to hear back from them and get the posters displayed.

Mala Janes (Trustee), Sue and Jonathan Kelly visited us to experience the passenger journey and give us valuable feedback on how a partially sighted passenger might be helped through our airport.

Jonathan is a seasoned traveller, so knew the airport well, but was able to point out potential issues that people with reduced sight might face.

We discussed the services we have in place and how we might be able to support someone travelling through our airport.

We asked Caroline from the Autism Society to come in and help us review where we are at since we last spoke to them about the services and resources that we have available to support people with Autism travelling through the airport.

We are really happy with the feedback that we have received from visitors so far, but are looking to see how we can move forward with the project and make travelling even easier for our passengers travelling with Autism, either themselves, or with a child with autism.

We are looking forward to working together again soon.

March 2018

Emily Houlder, Community Services Senior Officer at Age UK North Tyneside contacted us earlier this year. As part of their community services offer they run a range of groups and activities across North Tyneside for people aged 50+ to help relieve loneliness and isolation. The aims of these groups is to bring older people together to try new activities, experience and explore the local area, widen social networks and keep active. Emily explained that a couple of the men’s groups had expressed an interest in visiting the airport as many of them had served in the armed forces.

We invited them along to see how the airport has changed over the decades, with state of the art machinery and new procedures in place to deal with the high volume of passengers now using the airport.

February 2018

We had a very excited group of visitors from the Percy Hedley Foundation today who came to have a look around our landside facilities.

January 2018

We are excited to add the Epilepsy Society to the list of groups that we are working with to develop and improve the service that passengers with Hidden Disabilities receive when travelling through our airport.

Andrée Mayne, Education, Information and Support Services Manager at the Epilepsy Society, was kind enough to spend time discussing ways in which we can work together to raise awareness about the condition and how it affects people wanting to travel by air. We hope to develop an awareness session to deliver to all of our Passenger Services and Security staff, to enable them to support our passengers in the appropriate way.

Hopefully, our Hidden Disabilities passport, available to download here will prove to be effective in allowing people with Epilepsy to access the support they need and we look forward to continuing to work with Andrée and her team to make our airport accessible, stress-free and enjoyable to use.

You can find useful information and tips for travelling with Epilepsy on the Epilepsy Society website: https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/travel-and-holidays#.WnBeaT9vi2w