Safran announces accessible in-flight entertainment

Safran Passenger Innovations is making in-flight entertainment accessible to more passengers than ever, with a new dedicated RAVE OS Accessible Mode for passengers with vision, auditory, and motor function difficulties as well as making the system easier to use for passengers in the neurodivergent community and those with cognitive disabilities. Safran Passenger Innovations took a blank sheet approach to making IFE accessible to as many passengers as possible, collaborating closely with our customers, in particular where they have existing accessibility programs, allowing SPI access to dedicated specialists who participate in industry advocacy groups.  

Eduardo Duran, Safran Passenger Innovations’ Director of Software Products, commented: “As well as our own research, we worked with our customers’ accessibility teams to understand better how passengers with disabilities need to use IFE. The results were surprising, and it really challenged our conventional thinking and ultimately helped us build a more thoughtful product, designed around the concept of inclusion.” 

The RAVE OS Accessible Mode starts by asking each passenger a series of questions to personalize their mode.  Configurations include language selection, a screen reading function for passengers who are blind or have low vision, filtering to show only content with audio descriptions, theme color selection for passengers with low vision or colorblindness and text based or image-based navigation to assist passengers with cognitive disabilities navigate the system with ease. Once the passenger has configured the system, they are able to change their selections at any time via the settings menu.

A key principle of the RAVE OS Accessible Mode was to simplify the interface and highlight the most important functions, allowing people with cognitive disabilities to navigate easily and enjoy the features of the entertainment system. Menus are presented as large buttons with either large high contrast text or icons, depending on passenger preference. Entertainment guide pages are presented using large icons with high contrast text with large touch areas with minimal steps to launch content.  Critical functions for assistance, such as cabin attendant call and settings are present on every screen in the same prominent location allowing passengers to call for assistance or change options with no friction. IFE must be even more intuitive than consumer products so a passenger can very quickly learn how to use the system during the first few minutes of arriving in their seat and this principle was embraced when imagining the RAVE OS Accessible Mode.

Safran Passenger Innovations will be showcasing its new RAVE OS Accessible Mode during the Aircraft Interiors Expo and will be seeking feedback from Airlines and disability advocacy groups to make further improvements prior to officially launching the product in 2024.

A summary of the innovative features of the RAVE OS Accessible Mode are as follows.

• Configuration wizard for passenger personalization.
• Dedicated simplified User Interface with a choice of graphical or text-based navigation including features to aid passengers with cognitive disabilities.
• A screen reader that announces the feature selected in the User Interface through the passenger’s headset.