ODO’s first training module developed for Airports Council International (ACI) is now open for registration at the ACI Online Learning Center. Entitled “Passengers with Disabilities and Reduced Mobility Awareness Training,” the course will provide participants with an awareness of, and appropriate responses to, customers with physical, sensory, mental, and hidden disabilities, as well as those using service animals.
Disability and Reduced Mobility Awareness Training is mandated for airline and airport frontline staff not only in the US under the Air Carrier Access Act but also in Canada under the Canada Transportation Act and in Europe under EC 1107.
The self-paced eLearning module takes approximately 2 hours to complete and costs $95 per enrollment.
In a nationwide program that will run throughout 2011, Open Doors Organization (ODO) is providing customer service training to almost 8,000 frontline staff, from conductors and other train crew to ticket agents and red caps. The day-long classes, which cover basic sensitivity training as well as Amtrak policies and procedures in relation to passengers with disabilities, are being conducted in 17 cities as part of Amtrak’s annual block training.
This is ODO’s largest project to date and required not only curriculum development but also recruitment of a large number of knowledgeable trainers, a majority of whom have disabilities themselves. The goal of the program is to enhance service for Amtrak’s many customers with functional limitations—physical, sensory and cognitive. This fast-growing customer segment includes many older individuals who increasingly rely on train travel as an alternative to driving.