A Welcome Surprise at 35,000 Feet: Accessible In-Flight Entertainment on Air Canada

AUDIO VERSION

By Peter Quaiattini

During my recent holiday travel between Calgary and Toronto on Air Canada, I had an experience I didn’t expect. As a totally blind traveller, I discovered that the in-flight, seat-back entertainment system was accessible. That alone made this trip stand out.

How did I learn about this? Before the flight, I stumbled across a note in the Air Canada app on my smartphone. It mentioned upcoming features tied to my trip, with a brief reference to “accessible entertainment.” This caught my attention.

Once on board, after receiving my personalized safety briefing, I decided to ask. I mentioned the accessible entertainment note to a flight attendant and asked if they knew anything about it. They stepped away, checked, and returned with good news: the accessible feature had been enabled on my seat’s system. I was offered a headset as well, which I declined since I prefer using my own headphones.

When I plugged in my headphones, to my surprise, a welcome message played automatically and explained how to use the screen through touch and gestures. Each corner of the screen had a specific function, such as help, information, and moving up one level. I can’t recall the fourth corner, but the layout was logical and easy to learn. Touching my finger to the middle of the screen and holding does things like select, start and stop. Swiping left and right moves through choices and, while content is playing, enables rewind and fast-forward.

The content available to me didn’t appear to be identical to what my sighted travel companion could access, though I can’t say how large the difference was. On the outbound flight, I browsed the options independently and chose a movie. Even better, I was able to turn on audio description and enjoy the film from start to finish. Very cool!

On the return flight, I explored further. I moved through categories without assistance and selected an audiobook. Audio description wasn’t needed in that case, but the player controls were fully accessible and worked as expected.

Overall, I came away impressed. Being able to choose content, control playback, and enjoy a movie with audio description made a real difference to my travel experience. It was smooth, intuitive, and respectful of my independence.

My only lingering question is about scope. I’m not sure how broad the accessible content library is compared to what sighted passengers can access. I suppose you could argue both sides. It’s possible that once the accessibility feature is enabled, the system only presents content that includes described audio. If described audio isn’t needed, there may be an assumption that a traveller is at least partially sighted and therefore doesn’t require the accessible mode at all. I’m only guessing. Still, this was a strong step in the right direction and a genuinely positive experience. Credit where it’s due—this made flying more enjoyable.