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America’s 10 worst airport websites: No.4 – San Francisco International Airport

San Francisco International Airport is the largest airport in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the second busiest airport in California. Many people know it as SFO and that’s what I’m going to call it too.

The airport offers many premium passenger services such as facials, massages, DVD rentals, an aquarium and much more.

Their official passenger services page includes the following:

passenger services
Manicure, facial, massage…at SFO, you’ll enjoy airport services that go far beyond the ordinary. Because we value your time, we make special efforts to ensure your experience at SFO is a great part of your trip. Everything you need for travel is here, like currency exchange offices, banking services, and wireless Internet access. To keep you looking and feeling your best, we’ve got a hair salon, spa and medical clinic. Visit our full-service travel agency for last-minute bookings, tickets and tours. You can even rent a DVD player with the latest movies to keep your family entertained along the way. And to feed the imagination, SFO’s museum galleries, aquarium exhibit and reflection room will help your spirit take flight.

There are also dedicated pages on the airport’s Japanese ceramics exhibition, 1920s photographs of silent film stars, the 75th anniversary of the first flight of the China Clipper, kid’s sports and much more! WOW!

Impressive, I say… but… oh wait… something’s not right… What about more essential passenger services like wheelchair assistance, text phones, accessible lifts?

Do SFO’s authorities think that accessibility information is less important than facials, aquariums and the first flight of the China Clipper 75 years ago?!

Well, whoever designed SFO’s website somehow deemed that accessibility information is not so important and so you can only find it in a sub-sub-section of the website here:
SFO: Passenger services listing

(Check towards the bottom, there are brief mentions of TTY phones and wheelchairs, 119 words in total!)

A screenshot of their mean passenger services web page is shown below (along with my comments in red):

Screenshot of SFO's passenger services page, annotated "Accessibility not cool enough for SFO?"

One of the most frustrating US airport webpages (and I have seen them all!), SFO’s webpage has rightfully earned its place among America’s 10 worst airport websites for the following reasons:

  • No dedicated accessibility or special services webpage while the airport has dedicated web pages on an aquarium, kid sports, Japanese ceramics, silent film stars etc etc (really!)
  • Insultingly little accessibility information (119 words including titles!)
  • No direct link and no hint where to find the airport’s accessibility information.
  • Small fonts used for many sections of the website.

This is No.4 in our America’s 10 worst airport websites series