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You're listening to the Disability Law Lowdown podcast, show number 34, with your host, Jacquie Brennan.

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This is Jacquie Brennan and welcome to the third part in our series on the Air Carrier Access Act. As you may remember, new regulations, whose purpose it is to carry out the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 as amended, went into effect on May 13. So these podcasts have really been a discussion of those new regulations.

So today we're going to cover boarding and deplaning, services on the aircraft, live safety briefings, mobility aids that are brought into the aircraft cabin, stowage of battery-powered mobility aids, electronic devices that assist with respiration, and then enforcement of this through the complaint-resolution officials.

So, carriers have to offer pre-boarding to passengers with a disability who identify themselves at the gate as needing additional time or assistance to board, to stow accessibility equipment, or to be seated. Air carriers must promptly provide assistance when requested by a person with a disability with enplaning and deplaning. That is, getting on the plane and getting off the plane. this includes the services of personnel, the use of ground wheelchairs, accessible motorized carts, boarding wheelchairs and/or on-board wheelchairs, ramps, or mechanical lifts.

Boarding and deplaning assistance must be provided through the use of lifts or ramps at any U.S. commercial service airport with 10,000 or more annual enplanements, where boarding and deplaning by level-entry loading bridges or accessible passenger lounges is not available.

Carriers must not leave a passenger who has requested assistance unattended for more than 30 minutes by the personnel responsible for enplaning, deplaning or connecting assistance in a ground wheelchair, boarding wheelchair, or other device in which the passenger is not independently mobile.

Services on the aircraft.

Air carrier personnel must provide the following assistance, when requested, for a person with a disability. Assistance in moving to and from seats as part of enplaning and deplaning; assistance in preparation for eating, such as opening packages and identifying food; assistance with the use of the on-board wheelchair when there is one on the plane, to enable the person to move to and from a lavatory; assistance to a semi-ambulatory person in moving to and from the lavatory, not involving lifting or carrying the person; assistance in stowing and retrieving carry-on items, including mobility aids and other assistive devices stowed in the cabin; effective communication with passengers who have vision impairment and/or are deaf or hard of hearing so that these passengers have timely access to information the carrier provides to other passengers, like information about the weather, on-board services, flight delays, connecting information, that kind of thing.

Air carrier personnel are not required to provide extensive special assistance, including assistance with actual eating, assistance within the restroom, assistance at the passenger's seat with elimination functions, and, of course, provision of medical services.

Now, when the air carrier provides live safety briefings, that is, the flight attendant generally actually giving the safety briefing as opposed to a recorded one, air carriers must provide an individual safety briefing for each person who may need the assistance of another person to move expeditiously to an exit in the case of an emergency. And that person's attendant. Air carriers may offer an individual briefing to any other passenger, but may not require the person to have such a briefing unless they meet the requirement of the last sentence I read.

The individual safety briefing should be done as inconspicuously and discreetly as possible. The air carrier cannot require the person with a disability to demonstrate that he or she has listened to, read, or understood the information presented.

Mobility aids brought into the aircraft cabin.

Carriers must permit passengers with a disability to bring the following kinds of items into the aircraft cabin, as long as they can be stowed in the designated priority storage areas, in overhead compartments, or under seats. Manual wheelchairs, including folding or collapsible wheelchairs; other mobility aids such as canes, crutches or walkers, including canes that are used by individuals with vision impairments; other assistive devices for stowage or use within the cabin, such as prescription medications and delivery devices, such as syringes or auto-injectors, vision-enhancing devices, POCs, ventilators, respirators that use non-spillable batteries, as long as they comply with applicable safety, security and hazardous material rules.

Assistive devices do not, by the way, count toward the limit on the number of carry-on items allowed.

Air carriers must ensure that a passenger with a disability who uses a wheelchair and requests pre-boarding can stow the wheelchair in the priority stowage area and have priority over other items brought onto the aircraft by other passengers and crew. If the passenger with a disability does not pre-board, the passenger may still use the area to stow the wheelchair or other assistive device on a first-come first-served basis, along with all other passengers seeking to stow carry-on items.

If the wheelchair is too big for the space when fully assembled, but will fit if the wheels or other parts can be removed without the use of tools, the carrier must remove the applicable components and stow the wheelchair in the designated space. The other parts, that were taken off, must be stowed in the areas for stowage of carry-on luggage. If wheelchairs or other aids or devices cannot be stowed in the cabin because approved stowage area is not available in the cabin, or the items cannot fit in the stowage areas, then these items are given priority for stowage in the baggage compartment. The carrier must provide for the checking and timely return of the passenger's wheelchair and other devices as close as possible to the door of the aircraft, so passengers can use their own equipment to the extent possible, unless the passenger request the return of the items in the baggage claim area, or if it would be inconsistent with regulations governing transportation security or the transportation of hazardous materials.

Unless restricted by a baggage compartment size or aircraft worthiness consideration, a carrier must accept a passenger's battery-powered wheelchair or similar mobility device, including the battery, as checked baggage. One hour advance check-in may be required, but even if the passenger checks in after that time, the carrier must carry the device if it can do so by making a reasonable effort and without delaying the flight. The carrier cannot require that the battery be removed, as long as there is a manufacturer label that says it is non-spillable. Even if the battery is spillable, the battery need not be removed if it can be loaded, stored, secured, and unloaded in an upright position. If not, then the carrier must remove and package the battery separately. A leaking or damaged battery should not be transported.

Now, electronic devices that assist with respiration.

Carriers, except for on-demand air taxi operators, who conduct passenger services , must allow, on all aircraft with capacity of more than 19 seats, any passenger with a disability to use a ventilator, respirator, continuous positive airway pressure machine (called a CPAP), or an FAA approved portable oxygen concentrator (a POC), unless, either the device does not meet the FAA requirements for medical portable electronic devices and does not display a manufacturer’s label that indicates that the devices meets those FAA requirements, or the device cannot be stored and used in the passenger cabin, consistent with TSA, FAA or PHMSA regulations.

Now we're going to talk about the complaints resolution officials.

A complaint resolution official, called a CRO, must be designated by any carrier providing scheduled service, as well as a carrier providing non-scheduled service, using aircraft with 19 or more passenger seats. A CRO must be available at each airport the carrier serves at all times when the carrier operates at the airport. The CRO may be available in person or by telephone. If a telephone link to the CRO is used, a TTY or similarly effective technology must be available for the person with hearing impairments. CRO services must be available in the language in which the carrier makes services available to the general public. Carriers must make passengers aware of the CRO's availability and contact info any time a person raises a complaint, raises a concern with carrier personnel or contractors about discrimination, accommodation, or services for passengers with a disability and it's not immediately resolved by carrier personnel. This includes issues at the airport as well as when contacting agents, reservations, or accessing web sites.

The CRO must be completely familiar with the requirements of the ACAA and its implementing regulations as well as the carrier's procedures with respect to passengers with disabilities. The CRO should be the carrier's expert with compliance with the ACAA. The carrier must make sure the CRO has the authority to resolve complaints on behalf of the carrier. The CRO must have the power to over-rule the decision of other personnel with one exception -- the CRO does not have to be given authority to countermand the decision of a pilot in command of an aircraft when the decision is based on safety considerations.

If the CRO gets a complaint before the action or inaction of the carrier personnel has resulted in a violation of the ACAA, then the CRO must take or direct whatever action is necessary to ensure compliance. If the alleged violation has already happened and the CRO agrees that it was a violation, then the CRO must provide a written statement setting forth the summary of the facts and what steps the carrier proposes to take in response.

If the CRO decides that the carrier's action does not violate the ACAA, then the CRO must provide a written statement that has a summary of the facts and the reasons for the CRO's decision. The written statement from the CRO must tell the individual about the right to pursue Department of Transportation enforcement and the statement should ideally be given to the individual at the airport. But if that isn't possible, it must be forwarded within 30 calendar days of the complaint.

Carriers must respond to written complaints received by any means, whether it's letter, fax, email, electronic instant message, anything, if they concern matters that are covered by the ACAA and its implementing regulations unless the written complaint is sent or transmitted more than 45 days after the alleged incident. Passengers have to state in the written complaint whether the person contacted a CRO about the issue, and if so, then give the name of the CRO, the date of the contact and any written response from the CRO. Within 30 days, the carrier must provide a written response that specifically admits or denies that a violation occurred. The written response must set forth a summary of the facts, and either the steps that will be taken in response or the reasons for the decision that no violation occurred. The response must also inform the person of the right to pursue Department of Transportation enforcement.

If an individual believes that an air carrier has violated any provision of the ACAA and its implementing regulations, the individual may either seek assistance or file an informal complaint at the DOT no later than 6 months after the date of the incident. And you can do this in two ways. Either go to the Department's Aviation Consumer Protection Division, which is at airconsumer.ost.dot.gov and selecting "Air Travel Problems and Complaints" or you can write to the Department of Transportation Aviation Consumer Protection Division, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590.

That's it for this segment and next time we will cover service animals under the ACAA and its new implementing regulations.

Thanks for joining us, talk to you next time.

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.