Reposted from Fast Lane, the Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood
At the Department of Transportation (DOT), we are committed to improving access for everyone to our transportation systems, and ensuring that all passengers receive the respect they deserve before, during and after their trips. One of the most effective tools for pursuing these goals is the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), the landmark law that prohibits discrimination in air travel on the basis of disability.
Last month, representatives of the aviation industry, advocates for persons with disabilities and current and former government officials gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ACAA. This celebration was hosted jointly by the DOT, the Air Transport Association and the National Council on Disability.
The Air Carrier Access Act, enacted in 1986 and signed into law by President Reagan, is one of the most significant civil rights triumphs in our nation’s history.
Just 25 years ago, passengers with disabilities frequently suffered degrading and discriminatory treatment from airlines. Individuals were often required to travel with a companion – regardless of their physical ability – and too often carriers failed to provide even basic assistance, such as providing wheelchairs in a timely manner. In addition, policies often varied from airline to airline or even between flights on the same carrier.
Today, thanks to this act, air travelers can be assured of fair and equal treatment regardless of disability. DOT’s rule implementing the ACAA, issued in 1990, sets out specific requirements to ensure equal access to air transportation.
For example, most new aircraft are required to be built with the needs of travelers with disabilities in mind, and as a result more aircraft have accessible lavatories, priority space for storing a passenger’s folding wheelchair and moveable aisle armrests. In addition, airlines must provide passengers timely assistance with boarding, deplaning and making connections and permit service animals to accompany passengers on flights.
And, because our commitment to equal access to air travel continues, DOT is planning additional measures to ensure equal treatment for passengers with disabilities.
The Department recently asked for public comment on a proposal to require carriers to make their websites and self-service kiosks accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, DOT has taken other steps to make air travel easier for person with disabilities, including holding forums to ensure that air travelers with disabilities and airlines know their rights and responsibilities, and monitoring carrier compliance with the ACAA regulations and issuing fines when carriers fail to comply with the rules.
Helpful information on the ACAA and the rights of air travelers with disabilities is available on DOT’s Aviation Enforcement website. If you’re a traveler with a disability who believes an airline is violating your rights, let us know by filing a complaint at this site, or through the Department’s toll-free disability hotline at 800-778-4838.
DOT understands that everyone deserves equal access to transportation, and we will continue to help make air travel – and all modes of transportation – accessible to all.
One primary reason why housing for the disabled and the impoverished is rarely available and takes so painfully long to get assistance is that HUD is so terribly lop-sided and top heavy to operate. Unfortunately more than 70 cents from every dollar spent goes to excessive manpower/workers/benefits, buildings/supplies, etc. I think that a giant effort must be made to drastically reduce wasted overhead and those funds be redirected to help the citizens of this wonderful country, especially for the disabled, those down on their luck and those that have worked most of their adult life and then somehow find themselves in need of some of that money they paid in taxes when they were employed and/or may have been the employer at one time.
Thank you for sharing this information. It will really be helpful to solve my confusion.
How do the new policies of airlines offering (extra legroom), and charging for baggage affect those with disabilities that use a mobility device and a service animal? I have been afraid to fly because I use a motorized wheelchair AND a service dog. I would not want my ticket to be charged extra fees because I have to gate check my wheelchair, and have extra carry-on bags (dog food for a day, and other dog supplies, as well as a CPAP machine).
Now that you have authorized the use of portable
Oxygen machines, only one carrier, American, still
supplies oxygen. The portable units will not keep up with my oxygen demand of 6 continuous liters of oxygen at rest and 10 liters sleeping. American only offers the oxygen on large jets, forcing a long car travel to get to the airport and makes it impossible for me to fly to see my mother who lives alone in Florida and is in frail health. So the while the rule change allowing for oxygen units helps many disabled folks, it also effectively bared seriously disabled persons from air travel. The ruling, which was filled with good intentions, also bars folks that cannot afford a machine, but could of paid the $100.00 fee for non-stop flights at regional airports that offer large jet service. I wish the FAA would rethink this and allow us high usage oxygen disabled and financially strapped folks the ability to fly again, by purchasing oxygen from the airlines.
Disabled people will never be viewed as equal, so testing does not and will not ever make you qualified over other non-disabled applicants. Get real. The sad reality is that we need special placements with companies who don’t freak over some physically or mentally difference if a person can do the same job, but with more accommodations to overcome their differences from the main population. In tough times only those who are not disabled will get the job unless the ADA steps in and encourages jobs for the disabled.