Your weekly frequent11y newsletter, brought to you by @ChrisBAshton:

Tech platform devises new system to simplify process of booking rail travel for disabled travellers

• Whoosh Media have created a system, “The Real-Time Journey Dashboard”, that allows you to scan QR codes on your train seat, to view information such as location of toilets on the train, as well as a live dashboard demonstrating journey progress and delays.
• “Travelling by train is very often a hazardous lottery for wheelchair users and those with restricted mobility, simply because rail companies have failed to keep up with the way people research their journeys.”
• The article above is light on details – I found more information at Onboard Hospitality:
  • Currently found on Northern Rail and Grand Central Rail, with more operators to follow in the coming months.
  • The system is currently receiving around 1500 scans per day.
  • The system can also be used to report antisocial behaviour to the British Transport Police.
  • The system is not an app, though it’s not clear what it is. Presumably it’s just a website that gets loaded via the QR code.

Move the pointer using head pointer on Mac

• This is a macOS user guide for how to enable the ‘head pointer’ on your Mac, using your built-in camera to follow your head movement and move your cursor. I was pointed to this via Stefan’s Web Weekly newsletter.
• It’s quite effective and worth experimenting turning it on to get a feel for what it is like. You may need to adjust the pointer speed as otherwise the cursor may not move enough in sync with your head.

A day in the life: What it’s like to travel through an airport and on a plane as a wheelchair user

• An interesting read about just what a wheelchair user goes through on a typical flight. These users must be transferred into a narrow aisle chair (designed to be able to fit in the aisle of the plane) and then transferred into an airplane seat. Their wheelchair is put in the hold.
• Going through security is difficult as the wheelchair makes the metal detector check redundant, so these passengers have to have a pat-down, which can slow the process down considerably. TSA PreCheck is an option for American fliers to skip the security check.
• In May, Gabrielle deFiebre travelled from New York to Phoenix on a Delta flight. Her wheelchair was damaged by employees in an incident recorded in a now-viral video. In 2019, airlines damaged more than 10,000 wheelchairs. All Wheels Up is an organisation advocating for allowing wheelchair users to be able to stay in their own wheelchairs during flight.
• deFiebre doesn’t eat or drink much at all on flights, knowing the difficulties of transferring into the aisle chair and then into the cramped airplane bathroom.

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