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You’re listening to the Disability Law Lowdown podcast, Show #33, with your host, Jacquie Brennan.

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Jacquie Brennan: Jacquie Brennan and today we’re going to be talking about the Air Carrier Access Act. We covered some of the topics before and today we’re going to cover a few more. We’re going to cover airport facilities, security screening, automated kiosks, accessible lavatories on the aircraft, onboard wheelchairs, stowing of passenger wheelchairs and seating accommodations.

Now you might remember from last time that the Air Carrier Access Act was first passed in 1986 and has been amended since then, but now we have brand new regulations that went into effect May 13, 2009. So we’re going to be talking about the provisions of the ACAA and the regulations.

Airport facilities must be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. Air carriers are responsible for accessibility of all airport facilities that are owned, leased or controlled by the air carrier. Airport facilities have the same accessibility standards as do places of public accommodation under Title Three of the ADA including the implementing regulations that were promulgated by the United States Department of Justice.

Air carriers must ensure that transportation systems within terminals and between the terminal and other terminals or other destinations, including moving sidewalks, shuttle vehicles and people movers comply with the accessibility requirements of the US Department of Transportation’s ADA rules.

Animal relief areas must be available for service animals that accompany passengers departing, connecting or arriving at an airport.

Captioning must be enabled at all times on all televisions or other audiovisual displays that are capable of displaying captions and are located in any part of the terminal where passengers can go. New or replacement televisions or audiovisual displays must have high-contrast captioning capability.

Now, security screening, probably everyone’s least favorite part of flying. All passengers, including passengers with disabilities, are subject to TSA security screening in US airports. Likewise, at foreign airports, passengers, including passengers with disabilities, are subject to the security screening measures required by law in the country where the airport is located. If an air carrier imposes security measures that go beyond those mandated by TSA or a foreign security screening, then it must use the same criteria for passengers with disability as for other passengers.

Passengers who use a mobility or other assistive device should not be subject to special screening just because of the device unless the device activates a security system or security personnel make a judgment that the device might conceal a weapon or other prohibited item. Air carriers may not require searches of individuals with disabilities to a greater extent or for different reasons than for other passengers. If a passenger with a disability requests a private screening, then it must be provided in time for the passenger to enplane. But if, with the use of technology, an appropriate screening of the passenger can be performed without necessitating a physical search of the person than a private screening is not required.

Automated kiosks. If a carrier has an automated kiosk in a terminal that is not readily usable by a passenger with a disability for things like ticketing and getting boarding passes, then the carrier has to provide equivalent service to the passenger with the disability. This can be achieved by the carrier either providing personnel to assist the passenger in using the kiosk or by allowing the passenger to come to the front of the line at the check-in counter.

Accessible lavatories on the aircraft. On aircraft with more than one aisle, if lavatories are provided then at least one must be accessible. Accessible lavatories must allow a passenger with a disability to enter, maneuver to use all lavatory facilities and leave by using the aircraft’s onboard wheelchair. It must offer the same kind of privacy that other passengers have. The lavatory shall have locked doors, accessible call buttons, grab bars, faucets and dispensers that are usable by a passenger with a disability, including wheelchair users and persons who have manual impairments. An aircraft with only one aisle does not have to have an accessible lavatory.

Onboard wheelchairs. Okay, if an aircraft has more the sixty passenger seats and an accessible lavatory, it must be equipped with an onboard wheelchair. If a passenger requests an onboard wheelchair, then the carrier must provide it if the aircraft has more than sixty passenger seats even if it does not have an accessible lavatory. The basis for this request must be that the passenger can use an inaccessible lavatory but cannot reach it from the seat without the use of an onboard wheelchair. Passengers can be required to give advance notice for this service.

Stowing of passengers’ wheelchairs. Air carriers must ensure that there is a priority space in the cabin that is large enough to stow at least one typical, adult size folding, collapsable or break down manual passenger wheelchair that would fit in a space of thirteen inches by thirty-six inches by forty-two inches without having to move the wheels or otherwise dissemble it. This applies to aircraft with a hundred or more passenger seats. The space has to be somewhere besides the overhead compartments or under seat spaces that passengers use for carry-on items.

Seating accommodations. For passengers who use an aisle chair to access the aircraft and cannot readily transfer over a fixed aisle arm rest, the carrier has to provide a seat in a row that has a movable aisle arm rest. Personnel must be trained in the location and the proper use of the movable aisle arm rest including appropriate transfer techniques.

Adjoining seats must be provided for a person assisting a passenger with a disability in these following circumstances: when a passenger with a disability is traveling with a personal care attendant who will perform functions during the flight that airline personnel are not required to perform, assistance with eating for example, when a passenger with a vision impairment is traveling with a reader or an assistant who will perform functions for the person during the flight, or when a passenger with a hearing impairment is traveling with an interpreter who will be assisting the person or interpreting during the flight, or when the air carrier requires the person to travel with a safety assistant. A passenger traveling with a service animal must be given either a bulkhead seat or not a bulkhead seat, whichever one the passenger requests. A passenger who has a fused or immobilized leg must be provided a bulkhead seat or other seat that provides more room on the side of an aisle that better accommodates the person’s disability.

Air carriers are not required to furnish more than one seat per ticket or to provide a seat in a class of service other than the one the passenger purchased. A carrier must never deny transportation to any passenger in order to provide accommodations for another passenger.

Lastly, moving within the terminal. Air carriers are required to provide assistance when requested by a passenger with a disability to transport the passenger between gates to a connecting flight as well as from the terminal entrance or vehicle drop-off point, through the airport to the gate for a departing flight or from the gate to the terminal exit or vehicle pick-up point. This includes assistance in accessing key functional areas of the terminal like ticket counters and baggage claim. It also now includes a brief stop at the passenger’s request, at the entrance of a restroom that is on the route that the person is taking.

Carriers at US airports must, if requested and in cooperation with whoever operates that airport, escort a passenger with a service animal to an animal relief area at the airport. That’s a new requirement and, in fact, there are a lot of new requirements around service animals and the fourth part of this series will be about service animals.

When providing assistance to move through the terminal, carriers must assist passengers who are unable to carry luggage with transporting both checked and carry-on luggage. The carrier may ask the passenger for a credible verbal assurance she or he cannot carry the luggage in question. If credible verbal assurance is not provided the carrier may require documentation that the person cannot carry luggage.

That wraps up Part Two of the Air Carrier Access Act’s new regulations. Thanks for joining us this time and we hope you’ll join us for Part Three.

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The Disability Law Lowdown is brought to you by the Disability Business Technical Assistance Centers which are a network of ADA centers that provide training, technical assistance and materials on the ADA and other disability related laws. Funding for the Centers is provided by a grant from NIDRR, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. You can subscribe to the Disability Law Lowdown at our website at disabilitylawlowdown.com or on iTunes.





The Southwest and Rocky Mountain ADA Centers are part of a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232. This podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works 2.5 License. For more information and transcripts, visit www.ada-podcast.com.