Revised Air Carrier Access Act To Provide Greater Accommodations For Individuals With Disabilities

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 -- The U.S. Transportation Department's Office of the Secretary has issued a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to revise its Air Carrier Access Act to provide greater accommodations for individuals with disabilities in air travel, according to Secretary of Transportation Raymond H. LaHood.

According to a Federal Register notice: "The DOT proposes to revise its rule implementing the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) to provide greater accommodations for individuals with disabilities in air travel by requiring U.S. and foreign air carriers to make their Web sites accessible to individuals with disabilities and to ensure that their ticket agents do the same. It would also require U.S. and foreign air carriers to ensure that their proprietary and shared-use automated airport kiosks are accessible to individuals with disabilities."

The proposed rule establishes the technical criteria and procedures that apply to automated airport kiosks and to web sites on which covered air transportation is marketed to the general public in the U.S. to ensure that individuals with disabilities can readily use these technologies to obtain the same information and services as other members of the public, states the DOT.

The DOT has also proposed to revise its rule that would require U.S. airports to ensure that shared-use automated airport kiosks are accessible to individuals with disabilities.

This supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking is applicable to U.S. carriers and to foreign air carriers operating flights to, from and in the United States, and to U.S. airports with annual enplanements of 10,000 or more.

Comments may be submitted by Nov. 25 through http://www.regulations.gov; or Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001. Refer to the docket number DOT-OST-2011- 0177.

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