| Verified against primary record | |
| Treaty standard | Health services to be provided as close as possible to people’s own communities[1] |
|---|---|
| Air travel right | Carriers may not refuse a reservation or embarkation on grounds of disability, subject to derogations[2] |
| Equipment handling | 1.26 per cent of wheelchairs and scooters checked were mishandled, United States, 2024[3] |
| Records read | Treaty text, Regulation and consumer reports, 30 September 2026 |
| Independently reported | |
| Travel volume | No dataset found that counts disabled people travelling internationally for care |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. The handling rate counts devices checked, not passengers, and covers reporting United States carriers only. | |
Medical travel for people with disabilities covers two things that should be kept apart: travel undertaken by a disabled person for any medical reason, where disability shapes the journey rather than its purpose, and travel undertaken specifically to obtain disability-related treatment. Most of what can be verified concerns the first.
The treaty position
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that states parties recognise that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of disability. Article 25 requires states to provide the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care as provided to other persons, to provide those health services needed by persons with disabilities specifically because of their disabilities, to prohibit discrimination in the provision of health insurance, and to provide these health services as close as possible to people’s own communities.[1]
That last requirement sits awkwardly alongside the premise of medical travel, which is that the patient goes to the service. Nothing in the sources consulted discusses this tension, so it is noted here as a reading of the treaty text rather than as a debate anyone has recorded.
Two neighbouring articles bear on the journey itself. Article 9 requires states to take appropriate measures to ensure access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, with the subparagraphs naming buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities including medical facilities.[1] Article 20 requires measures facilitating the personal mobility of persons with disabilities in the manner and at the time of their choice, and at affordable cost.[1]
Air travel rights and their limits
In the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 provides that an air carrier, its agent or a tour operator shall not refuse, on grounds of disability or reduced mobility, to accept a reservation for a flight departing from or arriving at a covered airport, or to embark such a person at that airport, provided the person holds a valid ticket and reservation.[2]
The right is materially qualified by the article that follows it, and quoting the first without the second overstates the protection. Article 4 permits refusal where necessary to meet applicable safety requirements, or where the size of the aircraft or its doors makes embarkation or carriage physically impossible, in which case the carrier shall make reasonable efforts to propose an acceptable alternative.[2] Assistance at the airport and from the carrier must be provided without additional charge, but is conditional on notification at least 48 hours before the published departure time.[2]
Mobility equipment in transit
The most solid quantitative material on this subject concerns what happens to wheelchairs on aircraft. United States carriers have been required to report mishandled mobility devices since December 2018. For the full year 2024, reporting marketing carriers recorded a mishandled wheelchair and scooter rate of 1.26 per cent, down from 1.38 per cent in 2023. In December 2024 they reported checking 76,630 wheelchairs and scooters and mishandling 925, a rate of 1.21 per cent.[3] In January 2024 they checked 56,659 and mishandled 836, a rate of 1.48 per cent, against a mishandled baggage rate of 0.75 per cent across 37.4 million bags in the same month.[4] In that month mobility devices were mishandled at roughly twice the rate of ordinary luggage.
Two qualifications belong with those figures. The denominator is devices checked, not passenger journeys, so the rate should not be described as a rate per enplanement. And the series covers reporting United States marketing carriers, not every airline a patient might use.
What is not known
No dataset was found that counts disabled people travelling internationally for medical care. The equipment-handling data counts devices on flights and says nothing about the purpose of the journey. A 2025 scoping review of 46 articles on barriers and facilitators in health tourism, organised into eight themes, contains no discussion of accessibility or of barriers faced by patients with disabilities at all.[5] Whether hospitals marketed to international patients are accredited on physical accessibility could not be established from the publicly available material.
Evidence on barriers to healthcare for disabled people is comparatively strong but describes domestic access rather than travel abroad. A 2026 systematic review of 86 studies published between 2014 and 2025 found economic barriers reported in 67 per cent of studies, physical accessibility in 21 per cent, healthcare system barriers in 20 per cent, communication and information in 19 per cent, and social or attitudinal barriers in 16 per cent, with rural populations showing 13 to 40 per cent higher unmet needs than urban ones.[6] Those figures concern getting to services within a country and should not be transferred to international travel.
See also
- Companions in medical travel, often necessary where mobility assistance is required
- Medical travel and language barriers, for communication access during treatment
- Medical tourism and health equity, for who is able to travel at all
- Medical travel coordination, where accessibility arrangements are made in practice
References
- United Nations. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Articles 9, 20 and 25. Verified against primary record: treaty text read on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights site. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- European Parliament and Council. Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air. OJ L 204/1, 26 July 2006, Articles 1, 3, 4, 7 and 10. Verified against primary record: Official Journal text read. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- United States Department of Transportation. Air Travel Consumer Report: December 2024 and Full Year 2024 Numbers. Verified against primary record: regulator publication opened and read. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- United States Department of Transportation. Air Travel Consumer Report: January 2024 Numbers. Verified against primary record: regulator publication opened and read. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- Jalali M, Haghgoshayie E, Janati A, Yoshari P, Khodayari-Zarnaq R. Health tourism: a global perspective on the barriers and facilitators. Discover Public Health, 2025; scoping review of 46 articles searched through June 2023. Independently reported: peer-reviewed scoping review. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- Palombi L, et al. Barriers to accessing healthcare for people with disabilities: a systematic review. Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 14, 19 February 2026; 86 studies, search period 2014 to 2025. Independently reported: peer-reviewed systematic review of domestic healthcare access. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
Sourcing note: the treaty articles, the Regulation and the two consumer reports were opened and read on 30 September 2026. The observation about Article 25 and proximity of care is presented as a reading of the treaty text, because no source was found that discusses it. The air travel right is given together with its derogations, since quoting the first article alone would misstate the protection. The barrier percentages describe domestic access within countries and are labelled as such rather than being repurposed as travel figures. Whether international patient hospitals are accredited on accessibility is left open rather than answered from an incomplete document.