Our mission
To increase awareness and promote safer, more dignified accessible air travel through dedicated research and advocacy.
Our approach
Our vision
Air travel is accessible for all passengers with disabilities, allowing individuals to remain in their personal wheelchairs during flight and experience safe, dignified journeys.
Air travel should empower independence, not take it away. Through research findings and collaboration with stakeholders, the day will come when passengers can retain their mobility devices and dignity, remaining in their wheelchairs onboard commercial flights. This mission drives everything we do at All Wheels Up—because everyone deserves accessible and dignified travel.
Michele Erwin founded All Wheels Up in 2011 after flying with her son Greyson, who has SMA, and experiencing firsthand the challenges of traveling with a wheelchair.
Determined to drive change, she began advocating for crash testing wheelchairs for accessible commercial flights. Discovering that existing wheelchair restraints by Q’Straint—used in accessible vans and buses—could exceed the FAA’s 16 G requirement, Michele initiated testing and collaborated with regulators, including the FAA, airlines, airplane manufacturers, and Congress, to make air travel accessible.
For years, the disability community has longed for the ability to fly safely with dignity while remaining in their wheelchairs. Today, air travel remains a source of dread—wheelchairs are frequently damaged, misrouted, and repaired at great cost to airlines—highlighting the urgent need for dignified and inclusive solutions.
There are approximately 5.5 million wheelchair users in the United States. In the European Union, the number is around 5 million. Globally, millions more rely on wheelchairs, particularly in developing countries, where access to mobility aids remains a significant challenge.
All Wheels Up is proud to have an accomplished Board of Directors, with experience across engineering, aerospace, medicine, policy, and strategic planning.
They bring a wealth of knowledge and vision to our mission. Their combined insights and collaboration help to advance solutions for accessible air travel solutions, guide advocacy for policy changes, and help build strategic partnerships within the aviation industry. Through their collective vision and commitment, we are advancing the goal of safer, more inclusive air travel for all.
2025 Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Advocacy Collaboration Grants to test wheelchair restraint systems for compliance with aircraft seating standards and research paper on the medical necessity of wheelchair spots on commercial airplanes.
2022 Award recipient. For non profit organizations providing programs for those living with spinal cord injury and services that are community-driven, empowering, and inclusive of all ages and backgrounds to enhance quality of lift. All Wheels Up received the grant to fund the All Wheels Up Fly Safe Today program providing resources for safe air travel to patients with a spinal cord injury.
2023, 2024, and 2025 recipients. The Expedia Made to Travel™ Fund is a targeted grant-making program that supports impact-driven organizations working to remove barriers for underserved and underrepresented communities to travel globally.
All Wheels Up is dedicated to advancing wheelchair-accessible air travel and ensuring a more inclusive flying experience for all passengers with disabilities.
Through rigorous testing, research, and advocacy, we strive to raise awareness among industry stakeholders and passengers about the critical benefits of wheelchair and overall accessibility in air travel. Our educational campaigns and workshops shed light on the importance of this initiative, featuring real-life stories and testimonials from individuals who would greatly benefit from these advancements. By fostering empathy and understanding, we aim to build widespread support for our mission. In addition, we are actively collaborating with policymakers to advocate for legislative changes, paving the way for the industry to incorporate designated wheelchair spaces on airplanes.
The animation we launched in 2014, and later revisited during discussions with airlines, served as a pivotal starting point for conversations about creating a designated wheelchair spot on planes.
We have a page on our website dedicated to how you can get involved. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Donate.
We also have a quarterly newsletter where you can learn what we are doing and progress on making airplanes accessible.
We will be posting on our social media whenever we need help. We will need help reaching out to Congress on legislation and in many other ways.
Air travel stands as one of the most heavily regulated industries, with rigorous FAA testing and approval requirements for all aircraft components. Rather than viewing this as a barrier, we see this as an opportunity to drive meaningful change. As we progress through the feasibility stage, we are laying the foundation for transformative change. While we wish this transformation could happen immediately, key steps remain—ranging from establishing FAA standards for securement systems to final certification and deployment—before wheelchair spots become a reality on commercial flights. However, we are confident that this change is on the horizon. Every milestone brings us closer to realizing our vision of fully accessible aircraft. Through collaborative partnerships with manufacturers, regulators, airlines, and advocacy groups, we’re accelerating the timeline for implementation. Every breakthrough in testing, design, and advocacy moves us forward along this transformative journey. Together, we’re not merely adapting to existing systems—we’re pioneering the future of inclusive air travel for generations to come.
Our vision is to make air travel accessible for all. We collaborate with stakeholders in the United States and other countries, expanding toward global implementation. While our initial focus was on working with U.S. regulators, airlines in the U.S. and other countries, as well as multinational corporations such as Boeing and Airbus, our ultimate vision is to ensure accessibility in air travel worldwide.
We are actively building relationships with international aviation authorities, aircraft manufacturers, and disability advocacy organizations across different countries. By fostering these partnerships, we aim to develop universal design solutions that can be implemented globally—ensuring that air travel is safe, dignified, and inclusive for all passengers, no matter where they fly.
All Wheels Up is a qualified 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
Partner with All Wheels Up to lead the way in inclusive innovation, driving forward accessibility solutions that allow every passenger to travel safely and with dignity.
Support All Wheels Up in advancing accessible air travel for everyone by sponsoring critical research that paves the way for inclusive and barrier-free flight experiences.
If you are interested in sponsoring All Wheels Up, please email us
