Dubai, UAE, 10 October 2025: 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 in-flight 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 customisation. 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, as well as detailed information on Medical Travel, including how to apply for a Frequent Traveller Medical Card (FREMEC) for customers with medical conditions or those travelling with medications and medical devices. The new Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub also features a section on Family Travel, providing clear information on Travelling with Children, Travelling during pregnancy, and travelling with unaccompanied minors.
The Emirates Accessible & Inclusive Travel Hub has been carefully designed to allow for seamless and swift updates 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 cubes 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 In-Flight Entertainment – ice
Emirates is committed to setting industry standards and promoting accessibility for people with disabilities. The airline now offers over 600 movies with ‘Closed Captions’ and 200 movies with ‘Audio Description’, providing accessibility to customers with visual impairments. Emirates headphones are also compatible with hearing aids when set to the ‘T’ position. To alleviate anxiety or enhance relaxation, Wellbeing TV offers 12 channels, along with 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 in-flight entertainment experience. This imparts best practice experiences for customers who are blind or have low vision, including audio-cue navigation assistance, voice metadata feedback, touch and swipe gesturing support, and presents a large selection of audio-descriptive (AD) content available on ice.
Improved Barrier-Free Access and Biometrics in Dubai
At Emirates’ hub in Terminal 3, Dubai International (DXB), a smart corridor has been equipped with a barrier-free design and biometric technology, allowing passengers with disabilities to move smoothly and independently. The area now features flexible camera coverage, allowing cameras to self-adjust to heights and angles without restricting or dictating a person’s movement, whether 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, a 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 designed to extend and lower to ground level, safely raising 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, wheelchair-accessible vehicles are used for First and Business Class customers availing of chauffeur-driven services based in Dubai, with plans to extend their 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 enhance cabin accessibility. 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’ phones 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 its 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 over 35,000 staff to support customers with autism and has introduced the ‘Travel Rehearsal’ initiative across 17 countries so far, enabling 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 the 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 collaborates with a diverse array of international partners to advance the accessible travel agenda – from legislators and operators to specific groups and communities, as well as global customers. Emirates also aims to advance accessibility by standardising global processes and creating consistency – online, in call centres, in airports and in-flight.
For bookings and flight information, visit: www.emirates.com.
(Source: Your Stories — Emirates)
