Introduction

Pre trip considerations

At the airport

Boarding & Deplanng

On the plane

Conclusion

Work to still be done

Summary of the ACAA

Details of the ACAA

Air Carrier Access Act

This page contains the Guide to the Air Carrier Access Act This guide is designed to offer travelers with disabilities an authoritative source of information about the Air Carrier Access rules: the accommodations, facilities, and services that are and are not required.
	To review only the major points of the Act, visit a brief summary of the Air Carrier Access Act

Introduction

For years, access to the nation’s air travel system for persons with disabilities was an area of substantial dissatisfaction, with both passengers and the airline industry recognizing the need for major improvement. In 1986 Congress passed the Air Carrier Access Act, requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop new regulations which ensure that persons with disabilities will be treated without discrimination in a way consistent with the safe carriage of all passengers. These regulations were published in March 1990.
The DOT regulations, referred to here as the Air Carrier Access rules, represent a major stride forward in improving air travel for persons with disabilities. The rules clearly explain the responsibilities of the traveler, the carriers, the airport operators, and contractors, who collectively make up the system which moves over one million passengers per day. (These rules do not apply to foreign airlines.)
The Air Carrier Access rules are designed to minimize the special problems that travelers with disabilities face as they negotiate their way through the nation’s complex air travel system from origin to destination.

How this is achieved
* By recognizing that the physical barriers encountered by passengers with disabilities can frequently be overcome by employing simple changes in layout and technology.
* By adopting the principle that many difficulties confronting passengers with hearing or vision impairments will be relieved if they are provided access to the same information that is available to all other passengers.
* Through training of all air travel personnel who come in day-to-day contact with persons with disabilities, to understand their needs and how they can be accommodated quickly, safely, and with dignity.

This guide is designed to offer travelers with disabilities a brief but authoritative source of information about the Air Carrier Access rules: the accommodations, facilities, and services that are now required to be available. It also describes features required by other regulations designed to make air travel more accessible.
The guide is structured in much the same sequence as a passenger would plan for a trip: the circumstances he or she must consider prior to traveling, what will be encountered at the airport, and what to expect in the transitions from airport to airplane, on the plane, and then airplane to airport.

Pre trip Considerations

The New Traveling Environment

The Air Carrier Access rules sweep aside many restrictions that formerly discriminated against passengers with disabilities:

* A carrier may not refuse transportation to a passenger solely on the basis of a disability.

* Air carriers may not limit the number of individuals with disabilities on a particular flight.

* All trip information that is made available to other passengers also must be made available to passengers with disabilities.

* Carriers must provide passage to an individual who has a disability that may affect his or her appearance or involuntary behavior, even if this disability may offend, annoy, or be an inconvenience to crew-members or other passengers.

Exceptions to this rule

* The carrier may refuse transportation if the individual with a disability would endanger the health or safety of other passengers, or transporting the person would be a violation of FAA safety rules.

* If the plane has fewer than 30 seats, the carrier may refuse transportation if there are no lifts, boarding chairs or other devices available which can be adapted to the limitations of such small aircraft by which to enplane the passenger. Airline personnel are not required to carry a mobility-impaired person onto the aircraft by hand.

* There are special rules about persons with certain disabilities or communicable diseases. These rules are covered in the chapter entitled "At the Airport."

* The carrier may refuse transportation if it is unable to seat the passenger without violating the FAA Exit Row Seating rules. See the chapter "On the Plane."