Empowering customers to fly with confidence, Emirates has unveiled a suite of new services and products for people with disabilities at the 7th edition of AccessAbilities Expo in Dubai World Trade Centre. Emirates’ latest services and enhanced offerings include a new Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub available on emirates.com for global customers – providing a wealth of information for travellers with varying accessibility requirements and enabling them to plan their journey by specific need. Emirates also revealed new onboard sensory products and fidget toys for children and adults, and an array of process enhancements across the inflight experience, as well as improved on-ground features in its hub of Dubai, and several innovative and future-focused ideas that are currently in development.
Emirates’ latest services and enhancements for customers with accessibility requirements
New ‘Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub’ on Emirates.com
Emirates new Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub on the flagship Emirates.com, is designed to contain all the information needed for accessible and inclusive travel, featuring accessibility-friendly navigation that allows customers to find information easily and explore the many ways that Emirates can provide travel assistance and support. Emirates’ Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub will continue to evolve and grow to meet customer needs.
Aiming to reduce anxiety before travelling, the Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub spent a year in development, resulting in a design that features a seamless visual style and thoughtful and user-friendly navigation options. To provide consistent, inclusive experiences, the website is built on a token-based architecture to enable seamless updates and simplified customization. Even the colour palette is rigorously tested for contrast compliance to support clarity and readability, and designs are tested with assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice control, and keyboard navigation.
Customers can choose to view and explore sections by disability; including Mobility Assistance, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment and Hidden Disabilities. If preferred, customers can search by looking at specific parts of the journey, which have been clearly arranged – Before your flight, Departure from Dubai, Onboard your flight, Connecting in Dubai and Arriving in Dubai. A third option allows customers to browse by specific needs, including Book Special Assistance, Prepare for travel with the autism-friendly guide, Explore Dubai Airport (DXB) Map and Sensory guides, Find Emirates Support on Be My Eyes support app for people who are visually impaired, Apply for a Sanad tourist card to access helpful services in Dubai, and more.
There are also dedicated sections on Travelling with a Wheelchair and Mobility Aids, and detailed information on Medical Travel - Apply for a Frequent Traveller Medical Card (FREMEC) for customers who have medical conditions or are travelling with medications and medical devices. The new Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub also features a section on Family Travel with clear information on Travelling with Children, Travelling during pregnancy, and Unaccompanied Minors travel.
The Emirates Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub has been cleverly designed so that it can be seamlessly and swiftly updated with new information and improvements, as accessible travel requirements continue to evolve. In the design and build of the hub, Emirates utilised inclusive research methods including engaging a diverse range of users including those with disabilities, in the usability studies.
New Sensory Products & Fidget Toys available onboard
Emirates has designed a range of sensory products and fidget toys for customers of all ages that will be available onboard in all cabin classes, from 1 November 2025. Sensory products and fidget toys are widely recognised for their ability to offer controlled stimulation for neurodivergent minds, allowing an overstimulated system to calm and rebalance. To support customers in this situation, Emirates has designed a tactile stress reliever in the style of an aircraft, two types of fidget cube and a branded aircraft rubber popper. The items will be given to passengers who are neurodiverse, anyone who is struggling onboard, and even to nervous flyers if appropriate.
New Mattress in Business Class to enhance comfort and minimise disruption
In Business Class, Emirates has introduced a new product and process improvement which will positively impact customers with accessibility requirements – a new ‘mattress hood.’ This is an enhancement to Emirates’ existing mattress for customers who wish to relax or sleep in Business Class – where the new mattress now has a built in ‘hood’ which attaches the mattress to the seat more firmly – similar to a fitted sheet. As the mattress is now more secure on the seat, it no longer needs to be collected by cabin crew before landing. For customers with severe mobility disabilities who prefer not to be moved mid-flight, this will be a significant improvement to comfort onboard. Emirates’ new mattress hood is approved as an exception from a safety perspective for take-off and landing.
New Accessibility Features on Inflight Entertainment – ice
Emirates is committed to setting industry standards and accessibility for people with disabilities and now offers over 600 movies with ‘Closed Captions’ and 200 movies with ‘Audio Description’, offering accessibility to customers with visual impairment. Emirates headphones are also compatible with hearing aids when set to the ‘T’ position. To alleviate anxiety or enhance relaxation, there are 12 channels of Wellbeing TV and 31 channels of Happiness and Wellbeing podcasts and playlists, including meditations and soothing sounds.
Onboard Emirates latest aircraft, the Airbus A350-900, a new user interface on ice has been designed in partnership with Thales and advocacy groups for customers with visual impairment, to ensure all customers have an intuitive, high quality inflight entertainment experience. This imparts best practice experiences for customers who are blind or with low vision, including audio-cue navigation assistance, voice metadata feedback, touch and swipe gesturing support and presents the large selection of audio-descriptive (AD) content available on ice.
Improved Barrier Free Access and Biometrics in Dubai
In Emirates’ hub of Terminal 3, Dubai International (DXB), a smart corridor has been equipped with a barrier-free design and biometrics that allow for smooth, independent movement for passengers with disabilities. The area now features flexible camera coverage, meaning that the cameras can self-adjust to heights and angles without restricting or dictating person’s movement if they are in a wheelchair or have mobility issues.
The Emirates self-service check in kiosks have also been improved, with text to speech functionality, improved touchscreen usability, braille and tactile features, headphone jack for mobility and sight challenges, and the ability to self-adjust to accommodate the customers’ height.
Emirates Accessible Chauffeur Drive Service
Emirates also has a newly improved Emirates-branded wheelchair accessible vehicle which is now the prototype for a planned fleet of 10 vehicles, to be introduced by early 2026. The Chauffeur Drive vehicle is a Mercedes V250 Van featuring an electric wheelchair lift and ramp. The lift is a powered device which is designed to extend and lower onto ground level to safely raise the customer with their wheelchair into the vehicle in a seamless manner. Once inside, the additional safety restraints secure the customer who may have severe mobility disabilities. Emirates’ chauffeur drivers are currently being trained in mobility assistance and to support customers with disabilities. Currently, the wheelchair accessible vehicle is used for First and Business Class customers availing of chauffeur drive services based in Dubai, with plans to extend its availability in the future.
Research & Innovation - Initiatives for Accessible Travel
At Emirates,’ teams of innovation experts are dedicated to developing solutions for issues including Accessibility. The team has already produced several prototypes designed to benefit Emirates’ customers with accessibility requirements. One of the innovations that Emirates is exploring is a collaboration with Airbus, to make the cabin more accessible. Through the usage of a unique technology provider, the concept will facilitate independent travel for passengers who are blind or have low vision, using discreetly placed QR codes that can link to the customers’ phone and provide an audio description of the cabin and haptics to locate essential functions like seat rows, lavatories, emergency exits and even digital menus.
Emirates’ focus on Accessible Travel
Championing Change
Emirates is championing change in the aviation industry, with the goal of making travel more accessible and inclusive for everyone. As part of efforts to champion change, Emirates established a dedicated Office of Accessibility and Inclusion and became the World’s First Autism Certified Airline in March 2025. Emirates has trained more than 35,000 staff to support customers with autism and has introduced the ‘Travel Rehearsal’ initiative across 17 countries so far, allowing customers to practice the nuances of the airport experience before travelling.
Designing for Dignity
Emirates is engaged in designing new policies, processes and products with a focus on dignity of customers with accessibility requirements. Empowering all customers to fly with confidence, Emirates introduced a new Accessibility policy and commitment in recent years and implemented new processes in Call Centres to support customer requirements, launched the Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub on Emirates.com to support the customer experience, and introduced many new products to support Accessible Travel in collaboration with direct feedback from communities and groups with accessible travel needs.
Advancing Accessibility
Emirates continues to drive the accessible travel agenda forward in an evolving space, doing what is right and responsible, step by step and prioritising innovation. Emirates also works with an array of partners internationally to advance the accessible travel agenda – from legislators, to operators, to specific groups and communities, and global customers. Emirates also aims to advance accessibility by standardising global processes and creating consistency - online, in call centres, in airports and inflight.
