Emma Bennison has encountered so many problems flying over the years, she's lost count of how many times she's been poorly treated.

"Every time I go to an airport, I'm anxious," said Ms Bennison, who is blind and a cane user.

Formerly CEO of Blind Citizens Australia and now chief innovation officer for Life Without Barriers, Ms Bennison has regularly travelled by air for work.

While she can't remember every single incident, a couple of distressing events spring to mind.

There was the time she was forgotten by assistance staff she'd pre-booked and was left in an airport lounge for so long she missed her flight.

Or the time she was taken to an "accessible" seating area and left there for an hour and a half.

"I didn't know where I was. I stood up a couple of times and called out, but nobody seemed to notice," she said.

"Eventually I called my travel agent, and they called the airport, and the airport called the airline."

Then there are the smaller things she encounters repeatedly — everything from inaccessible websites and self-check-in kiosks to prejudice from airline and airport staff.

"If I'm with somebody else … they'll just ignore me, and they'll say, 'can she take her shoes off?', or 'can she stand over here and put her arms out?'

"It's particularly galling when I'm leading a team of people, and I'm often travelling with them, and they have to watch that."

Ms Bennison said while staff often had good intentions and were doing their best, frustrating and belittling incidents were far too common.

"There are so many possible points of failure and … there is no empowering solution that enables me to get assistance if I need it."

Long-standing frustrations

Earlier this year, the ABC heard hundreds of stories from people with all kinds of disabilities from across the country who said Australian transport networks, including the aviation system, had failed them.

People with disability have reported being humiliated during air travel, having crucial mobility aids broken, getting slugged with extra costs, having assistance animals turned away, and being tipped out of wheelchairs.

But there's hope real change could be afoot.

The federal government pledged in its long-awaited Aviation White Paper this week to create an industry ombudsman and charter of rights.

As part of a suite of accessibility reforms, it also vowed to create aviation-specific disability standards — similar to those that exist for public transport — co-designed with people with disability and industry stakeholders.

Transport Minister Catherine King said the treatment of people with disability was "not good enough".

Airport and airline lobby groups have both acknowledged the issues people with disability face during air travel, and welcomed the opportunity to work with each other, the disability community and governments on next steps.

The Australian Airports Association said airports were, "well advanced in implementing measures to make travel more inclusive".

"This includes investments in facilities such as service animal relief areas and changing rooms, programs to make precincts easier to navigate, and providing disability training to staff," head of policy and advocacy Natalie Heazlewood said.

"Members … have also adopted the hidden disability program, with the development of guidance materials to recognise the importance of inclusivity at airports and promoting industry best practice."

Airlines for Australia and New Zealand chair Graeme Samuel said stakeholder discussions had already started on "improving the journey from kerbside to destination for passengers with accessibility requirements".

'Wheelchair apartheid'

Current and former disability discrimination commissioners have hailed the White Paper as a first step towards reforming an industry they said has discriminated against people with disability "for generations".

However, they said it was critical the pledges were acted on and new rules enforced — otherwise there was no point in creating them.

Incumbent commissioner Rosemary Kayess said the sector needed a stronger regulatory framework forcing it to be proactive, rather than reactive, to make sure discrimination didn't happen in the first place.

Ms Kayess said she'd personally experienced a gamut of frustrating incidents, from seeing her expensive power wheelchair end up in a different country after being put on the wrong flight, to breaking her arm after an on-board transfer between seats went wrong.

She said "real" co-design with the disability community was critical if the new standards were to be effective.

"People have been treated in very undignified ways … this can't just be a tick box [co-design process]," she said.

Graeme Innes served as commissioner between 2005 and 2014, and in January settled a long-running discrimination dispute with Adelaide Airport.

Mr Innes, who is blind, said he experienced issues "every time" he travelled, and some people with disability "just don't fly anymore because it's too hard".

Mr Innes singled out Jetstar's policy of only allowing two wheelchair users on certain flights and said it amounted to "wheelchair apartheid".

In response, a Jetstar spokesperson said the availability of wheelchair assistance for each flight was shown throughout the booking process on its website, and customers should contact it if they had any questions.

They added that the airline was committed to providing safe and comfortable travel experiences for everyone, and it regularly reviewed the support it provided to customers.

Ms Bennison said it shouldn't be up to people with disability to hold the system to account when it failed to include them.

The new ombudsman scheme is expected to be operational by 2026, though no timeline has been set for the accessibility reforms.

"If all of those commitments in the White Paper were to come to fruition, that would significantly improve my day-to-day life and [those of] many friends and colleagues," Ms Bennison said.