Australia's former Disability Discrimination Commissioner has settled his case against the Adelaide Airport, over what he says was a humiliating and distressing experience during a security screening. Mr Innes, who is blind, lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission after travelling through the airport with his assistance dog in 2022.
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00:00 Graham Innes says he's regularly discriminated against when passing through airports.
00:06 If I complained every time something happened I wouldn't have a lot of time to do much
00:10 else in my life.
00:12 But it is an endemic problem for people with disabilities.
00:15 Mr Innes was travelling home to Brisbane when he tried to use the security body scanner
00:20 while holding onto his guide dog's lead.
00:22 He said he was refused access to use the body scanner and was asked to use a walk-through
00:27 x-ray scanner with his guide dog put through separately.
00:31 Mr Innes later lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the airport,
00:36 a matter which is now resolved.
00:37 Adelaide Airport have listened to my concerns and they have implemented some changes in
00:45 their processes which will make it easier for me to travel through the airport.
00:51 The Adelaide Airport says it takes disability access at its terminals very seriously and
00:56 that all customer facing staff and contractors will receive disability awareness training
01:01 delivered by organisations run by people with disability.
01:05 But lawyers for Mr Innes say there's a lack of protections regarding travel rights for
01:09 people with a disability, meaning the burden is falling on individuals to drive change
01:14 by reporting incidents.
01:15 Yeah, so at the moment there are disability standards that apply to transport and public
01:20 transport in general, but as I say they don't make particular provision for air travel.
01:25 It's really important to lodge a discrimination complaint if this sort of stuff happens because
01:30 until the authorities hear more about these problems they won't get acted upon.
01:35 Hoping policy makers have more inclusive discussions around airport processes.
01:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]