DOT ISSUES FINAL RULE FOR AIRPORT DISABILITY ACCESS
August 31, 2015
The Department of Transportation issued a final rule entitled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance.” It amends 49 CFR Part 27, which deals with regulatory requirements for U.S. airports to ensure the availability of lifts to provide level-entry boarding for passengers with disabilities. As a result of the 2008 amendments to Part 382, including extending its application to foreign carriers, the requirements in Part 27 no longer mirrored the requirements in the modified Part 382. This new rule addresses those inconsistencies.
The Department declined to adopt specific requirements with respect to the dimensions, design, materials, and maintenance of service animal relief areas, with the exception that such service animal relief areas be wheelchair accessible (which was already a requirement imposed on airports by the Americans with Disabilities Act). The Department, however, decided to require airports to provide at least one service animal relief area in each airport terminal and decided to use “airport terminals as the standard upon which airports must determine the number of required service animal relief areas, rather than using the amount of time it would take for an individual with a disability to reach a service animal relief area from a particular gate.” In addition to requiring airports to have at least one service animal relief area per terminal, the Department also mandated that, with limited exceptions, the relief areas be located in the sterile areas of terminals. Airports will have one year to comply with this requirement.
Several other miscellaneous issues were addressed in the new rule. The Department decided not to adopt a proposed revision that would require airports to specify the location of such service animal relief areas on airport websites and on other signage throughout the airport. Airports operators will, however, be required to ensure “high-contrast captioning at all times on televisions and other audio-visual displays capable of displaying captions located in any gate area, ticketing area, first-class or other passenger lounge provided by a U.S. or foreign carrier, or any common area of the terminal to which passengers have access.” Finally, the Department also finalized a proposed rule that will require airports to negotiate with foreign carriers, in addition to U.S. carriers, to ensure adequate provision of lifts, ramps and other devices used for boarding and deplaning of aircraft when level-entry boarding is not available. This requirement has already existed for airport operations with U.S. carriers; the rule will now apply for airport operators with foreign carriers as well.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).