That’s just one of the ways the airline is improving accessibility
Every October, United celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Throughout the month, we honor the contributions of individuals with disabilities in the workforce. Our United team members with disabilities bring immeasurable value to our workplace and contribute significantly to our communities’ growth, knowledge, and understanding.
Partnering with these team members and communities has contributed greatly to the creation of more accessible solutions, including the addition of Braille to our aircraft cabin interiors. United was the first U.S. airline to accomplish this. These markings will denote individual rows and seat numbers and also be found inside and outside the lavatories. The goal? To help millions of travelers with visual disabilities more easily navigate the cabin independently.
“Finding your seat on a plane or getting to the restroom is something most of us take for granted, but for millions of our customers it can be a challenge to do independently,” says EVP and Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo. “By adding more tactile signage throughout our interiors, we’re making the flying experience more inclusive and accessible, and that’s good for everyone.”
By the end of 2026, we expect to outfit our entire mainline fleet with Braille; in fact, we’ve already equipped about a dozen of our aircraft with Braille markings.
“Just like other customers, when we travel we want to be as independent as possible,” adds Ray Campbell, who is blind and is both Senior Digital Reliability Accessibility Analyst at United and Second Vice President for the American Council of the Blind (ACB). “The inclusion of Braille on our aircraft helps with that.”
United is also working with the ACB, the National Federation of the Blind, and other disability advocacy groups to explore the use of other tactile navigational aids throughout the cabins, such as raised letters, numbers, and arrows.
Adding Braille to United’s aircraft cabin interiors is just one way we’re striving to become a more inclusive airline. The United mobile app was recently redesigned, making it easier to use for people with visual disabilities thanks to adjustments such as increased color contrast, more space between graphics, and a reordering of how information is displayed and announced so that it better integrates with screen reader technologies like VoiceOver and TalkBack.
On top of the improvements to our app, our Inflight Seatback Entertainment screens offer a wide range of accessible features, such as closed captioning, magnification, text-to-speech controls, explore-by-touch capabilities, audio-described movies, and adjustable and high-contrast text and color correction.
It doesn’t end there, either. Our long-standing partnership with Special Olympics provides employment opportunities to athletes through the Special Olympics Ser-vice Ambassador program, a workforce development initiative that affords the chance to work alongside Airport Operations and Customer Service teams. The airline also supports Special Olympics through volunteerism, fundraising, and travel support for attending national and international competitions.
As part of United’s historic growth plan, we expect to take delivery of about 700 new narrowbody and wide-body aircraft by the end of 2032, all of which will lead us toward a redesign for accessibility. It’s all part of our plan to make travel a better experience for everyone.
