Air Carrier Access Act
Overview
New regulations, whose purpose is to carry out the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 (ACAA), as amended, went into effect on May 13, 2009. Both U.S. and foreign air carriers are prohibited from discriminating against passengers on the basis of disability. Both U.S. and foreign air carriers are required to make aircraft, other facilities, and services accessible. Air carriers also must take steps to accommodate passengers who have a disability.
These new regulations now address almost every accessibility issue that a passenger with a disability may face on board the aircraft and in an airport.
Key Changes
New key changes include:
- Applies to both U.S. and foreign carriers.
- New requirements for airport and aircraft accessibility and changes in airport services including reservations, facilities, in-flight and aircraft acquisitions.
- Requires 48-four notification and changes requirements for passengers who use respiratory assistive devices.
- Clarifies how airlines must provide effective communication for passengers who are deaf or hard-of hearing.
- Requires 48-hour notification that a customer is bringing an emotional support animal or psychiatric service animal on board the aircraft.
Definitions and Regulations
The ACAA definition of an individual with a disability is almost identical to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) definition. There is one important difference, though. The ACAA covers even temporary impairments while the ADA requires the impairment to be long term or permanent.
An air carrier must not require any kind of proof as a condition for the provision of transportation, except in some very limited circumstances.
Air carriers are not allowed to impose charges for providing facilities, equipment, or services that the ACAA requires the air carriers to provide to passengers with a disability.
Assistance Requirements
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 impairments and/or who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, so that these passengers have timely access to information the carrier provides to other passengers (info such as weather, on-board services, flight delays, and connecting gates).
Air carrier personnel are not required to provide extensive special assistance, including assistance in actual eating, assistance within the restroom; assistance at the passenger’s seat with elimination functions; and provision of medical services.
Information for Travelers with Disabilities
Assistive devices do not count toward a limit on the number of carry-on items allowed.
Air carriers are required to allow service animals traveling with persons with disabilities to sit with them in the cabin of the aircraft. The definition of service animals includes guide dogs, signal dogs, psychiatric service animals, and emotional support animals. Foreign carriers are required to transport only dogs as service animals.
Accessibility Requirements
Air carriers must provide the following kinds of information about the accessibility of the aircraft expected to make a particular flight:
- the specific locations of seats with movable armrests (by row and seat number);
- the specific location of seats that the air carrier does not make available to passengers with a disability (such as exit row seats);
- any aircraft-related limitations on the ability to accommodate passengers with a disability, including limitations on the availability of level-entry boarding to the aircraft at any airport involved with the flight;
- any limitations on the availability of storage facilities in the cabin or bay;
- whether the aircraft has an accessible lavatory; and
- the kinds of service to passengers with disabilities that are, or are not, available on the flight.
Airports must be accessible to, and usable by, individuals with disabilities. Airport facilities have the same accessibility standards as do places of public accommodation under Title III of the ADA, including the implementing regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Complaint Resolution Official
A Complaint Resolution Official (CRO) must be designated by any carrier providing scheduled service, as well as a carrier providing nonscheduled 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.
(Excerpted from “An Overview of the ACAA” authored by Jacquie Brennan of the Southwest ADA Center.)
