Etihad confirms accessible upgrade of its Bluebox Ai deployment

Etihad Airways has confirmed that it will upgrade its Bluebox Ai iPads to include Bluebox aIFE – Bluebox’s award-winning accessible IFE platform for visually impaired passengers.
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"We recognise the industry-wide need for a more accessible passenger experience and felt it important to make our IFE more accessible to our visually impaired guests," said Jamal Al Awadhi, Vice President, Product and Guest Experience, Etihad Airways. "With the aviation community together this week in Hamburg at the Aircraft Interiors Expo, we had an opportunity to keep the attention of our airline peers on this important issue."

Etihad has been a customer of Bluebox since 2013, providing Bluebox Ai iPads primarily for service recovery purposes. Bluebox will shortly update the current iPads, allowing visually impaired passengers to enjoy the same IFE content as is provided to other passengers via the seat-back IFE. The combined build enables cabin crew to switch between the standard IFE mode (Bluebox Ai) and accessibility mode (Bluebox aIFE) depending on a passenger’s needs.

"Etihad’s commitment to their guests is impressive, and we’re looking forward to helping bring accessible IFE to the visually impaired among them," said David Brown, Business Development Director, Bluebox. "Our hope is that with this announcement and more focus on accessibility during AIX, more airlines will deploy solutions like ours to address the needs of passengers with disabilities."