There are many kinds and degrees of handicaps. To consider the effects a very different new transportation system may have on people with various handicaps, there are two main issues:

1. What problems will people with different handicaps experience in using SkyTran, and how can they be solved?
2. What opportunities will SkyTran offer to solve problems they have now with today's transportation methods?

Problems using SkyTran

 As the Elderly perspective article points out, using SkyTran requires two basic things: physically getting to the station (mobility) and knowing where you want to go (cognition). There are other issues, like communicating your destination to the system and paying for the ride (not to mention getting the money to pay with), but they seem more easily solved. For communication, as a current ad featuring mumbling rocker Ozzy Osbourne humorously shows, a PDA can solve problems with speech recognition (currently expected to be the major input mode for SkyTran destinations).  Even if every vehicle or station on your system doesn't have touch input devices, people who have speech problems can carry some communications device they do know how to use -- they need something to interact with the rest of the world anyway -- and enter their choices by WiFi or Bluetooth -- problem solved. If you only speak Swahili and the local SkyTran system hasn't got the Swahili speech recognition module yet, you only need to be able to reach some Swahili call center somewhere in the world where a bright underpaid local can access your Podunk Mississippi route map and help you out. (When the McDonalds CEO mentioned that people giving their order in the drive-up in Los Angeles might hear a North Dakota accent, the wags at www.ironictimes.com took the logical next step: "Place your order in clear, simple Hindi!")  Or you call your middle-school son or cousin Nhahila in the next town -- all kinds of ways to solve the problem. Similarly blind or deaf people can use whatever senses they do have available to communicate -- even people who are blind AND deaf can use a communication device with Braille readout and keyboard.

Mobility issues

Limited mobility is a much bigger issue.  Everything is probably easy if the station is in your building, assuming that you have an elevator to reach the floor with the station. Otherwise you need to 

• travel a few blocks to the station -- a number of possibilities there, from walking laboriously to riding some kind of assistive vehicle
• climb the 8' (2.5 meters) stairs up to a standard mini-station. 

People who get around with crutches or canes or even walkers can possibly do both without assistance. Ramps or motorized seats on station stairs are probably cheaper than wheelchair lifts; they will be common on SkyTran stations in areas where lots of elderly people live, just as they are in businesses and churches and public buildings today that cater to that population. These institutions will probably be eager for building-attached SkyTran portals, by the way -- it will be a big selling point.

If you are in a wheelchair, the next question is whether you can "transfer" -- support your weight for a moment to move from one seat to another -- independently. If so, you can probably use SkyTran stations independently as long as you can get up to them -- including any in-building station.  If you live in an apartment with a SkyTran portal, and your school or work and lots of the other places you go (or can decide to go) have them, too, life is pretty good. SkyTran has an unusually convenient arrangement for getting in and out, by the way. The seats are at normal chair height and the floor of the vehicle is the same level as the station floor, and there is no lip to step over as there is with cars. The door opens and closes automatically by swinging up above your head before it reaches the platform; so it isn't in the way, either.  Therefore, if you can transfer yourself from your wheelchair to any other chair, you can probably get in and out of SkyTran.

Finally, the Unimodal website mentions putting wheelchair-accessible portals every few miles and paying for free van service for people who need it. If the attendants help you in and out of the vehicle and help you stow your wheelchair in the cargo space or a second vehicle, you may be able to use SkyTran even if you can't do much more than steer your electric wheelchair. At this level of handicap, people who already have a modified van may prefer to keep using it -- they can bring any medical equipment they need with them, and they don't need to keep transferring. Independence is the goal; SkyTran offers it for many people, but it won't be the answer for everyone.

Cognitive issues

SkyTran has many good features for people with mild or even moderate cognitive impairments. Unlike drivers, they won't pose a risk to others if they make a mistake in judgment. (This includes those whose cognition is temporarily impaired by alcohol and other drugs. "Don't get MADD; get SkyTran!") Because SkyTran is individual rather than public transportation, they won't routinely be riding with strangers who might take advantage of them. The "walk up and ride" model and large number of stations makes SkyTran riders in general much less tempting targets for crime. 

However, some people are not capable of consistently choosing safe and appropriate destinations. Here the fact that SkyTran is automated transportation makes it feasible for parents or guardians to set limits: their charges can only get out at certain destinations. Even someone severely impaired could travel safely alone if he doesn't have medical issues or panic attacks, etc. In this case, his vehicle can be programmed not to exit the guideway at all unless an authorized guardian is present at the destination and enters her code and/or electronic credential; otherwise the vehicle continues on to some safe backup destination. (see SafeTran).

SkyTran Opportunities

Automated transport has a huge positive potential for people with many handicaps, such as blindness and retardation. Blind people who today bravely launch across streets facing all kinds of unknown hazards will simply speak a destination into a microphone and speed to any destination. Similarly IndependentElderly. Also, retarded adults who could do useful jobs, enjoy leisure activities and live halfway decent lives -- are denied these opportunities by the difficulty and expense of providing adequate supervised transportation. Children who need to go to specialized schools spend hours of their day on buses, not learning much of value. With some simple adaptations (see SafeTran), SkyTran can people in all these groups back their dignity -- give them the maximum possible degree of independence; let them play useful roles in the world instead of being helpless and a burden to others. All together, we are talking about a significant fraction of the population who can live much better lives. Of course, there is also a major economic impact (both directly positive by letting people work, and by making problems like the Social Security crisis more solvable). Again, SkyTran isn't just about economics or city planning: it's about millions of people having better lives.
Links: 

• Independent Elderly: IndependentElderly 
• Independent Handicapped: IndependentHandicapped
• Supervised transport for vulnerable groups: SafeTran
• Relevant text from the Americans with Disabilities act of 1990