Department of Transportation Expands Accessibility to Persons with Disabilities Traveling Internationally

On May 7, 2008 the Department of Transportation announced a final rule making that will extend access rights for persons with disabilities who travel abroad. AS of May 13, 2009, foreign carriers whose flights begin or end in the United States will have to provide the same access to persons with disabilities currently provided by domestic carriers.

In 1986, congress passed the Air Carrier Access Act, (ACAA) which requires that airlines must not discriminate against customers with disabilities. Regulations implementing this law were finally established in 1990. This meant that airlines had to accommodate persons with disabilities in the following areas:

1. Provision of assistance to passengers while boarding and exiting including the option to preboard;
2. Airlines must provide safety briefings in alternative formats;
3. Airlines must allow service animals to travel with disabled passengers in the cabin;
4. Planes over a certain size must have removable aisle arm rests allowing for easier boarding of passengers with physical disabilities;
5. Airlines must allow disabled passengers to bring their wheelchairs, canes and other mobility devices;
6. In the case where wheelchairs must be disassembled and reassembled, airlines must compensate disabled passengers for any damage caused to their wheelchairs;
7. Airlines must make the necessary accommodations to communicate important information to persons who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind; and
8. Passengers with respiratory disabilities must be allowed to travel with approved oxygen delivery devices.

These ACAA requirements will apply to foreign carriers as follows:

1. All carriers whose flights originate or end in the United States;
2. Foreign carriers that link with American carriers in which either the plane or flight number is the same for the entire trip;
3. These regulations do not apply when both flight number and plane change during a trip.

There is a loophole in the service animal requirement. A carrier can get the service animal requirement waived if a trip’s destination is a country with a quarantine which has not worked out specific arrangements for handling quarantined animals. In order to have this requirement waived each foreign carrier must apply for a conflict of laws waiver on a nation-by-nation basis.

These new ACAA regulations should make those international flights run more smoothly, but it will be some time before airline personnel will be accustomed to the new requirements. High turnover among flight crews means that airlines must be consistent in terms of training their employees to follow the regulations. The Department of Transportation has offered to hold such trainings on a regular basis.

The new regulations are also supposed to make airline websites more accessible. According to the new regulations, blind and visually impaired customers who make reservations via the telephone can have the extra charge for using the phone waived if they had problems accessing the airline’s website. DOT will be releasing a supplement to these regulations in the fall which is supposed to contain more details on website accessibility.

Finally, there is one thing that will remain the same for all persons with disabilities who travel. Good advanced planning will help insure that your trip is a smooth and uneventful one. When you make your reservations, I recommend that you let the airline know about your disability and what accommodations you will need. Let them know if you would like to get assistance upon arrival at your destination. Let them know if you will be traveling with a wheelchair, walker, scooter or service animal.

Information for this blog has been taken from the department of Transportation. To read a Department of Transportation press release regarding the new regulations, go to press release on expansion of airline accessibility regulations
To read the entire ruling, go to www.regulations.gov. Plug docket number DOT-OST-2004-19482 into the search box and click on the go button.