14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act) (with amendments issued through May 2016)

§382.51 What requirements must carriers meet concerning the accessibility of airport facilities?

[Doc. No. DOT-OST-2004-19482, 73 FR 27665, May 13, 2008, as amended at 74 FR 11471, Mar. 18, 2009; 75 FR 44887, July 30, 2010]

(a) As a carrier, you must comply with the following requirements with respect to all terminal facilities you own, lease, or control at a U.S. airport:

(1) You must ensure that terminal facilities providing access to air transportation are readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs. You are deemed to comply with this obligation if the facilities meet requirements applying to places of public accommodation under Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations implementing Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

(2) With respect to any situation in which boarding and deplaning by level-entry loading bridges or accessible passenger lounges to and from an aircraft is not available, you must ensure that there is an accessible route between the gate and the area from which aircraft are boarded (e.g., the tarmac in a situation in which level-entry boarding is not available). An accessible route is one meeting the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), sections 4.3.3 through 4.3.10.

(3) You must ensure that systems of intra- and inter-terminal transportation, including, but not limited to, moving sidewalks, shuttle vehicles and people movers, comply with applicable requirements of the Department of Transportation's ADA rules (49 CFR parts 37 and 38).

(4) Your contracts or leases with airport operators concerning the use of airport facilities must set forth your airport accessibility responsibility under this part and that of the airport operator under applicable section 504 and ADA rules of the Department of Transportation and Department of Justice.

(5) In cooperation with the airport operator and in consultation with local service animal training organization(s), you must provide animal relief areas for service animals that accompany passengers departing, connecting, or arriving at an airport on your flights.

(6) You must enable captioning at all times on all televisions and other audio-visual displays that are capable of displaying captions and that are located in any portion of the terminal to which any passengers have access on May 13, 2009. The captioning must be high-contrast insofar as is feasible.

(7) You must replace any televisions and other audio-visual displays providing passengers with safety briefings, information, or entertainment that do not have high-contrast captioning capability with equipment that does have such capability whenever such equipment is replaced in the normal course of operations and/or whenever areas of the terminal in which such equipment is located are undergoing substantial renovation or expansion.

(8) If you newly acquire televisions and other audio-visual displays for passenger safety briefings, information, or entertainment on or after May 13, 2009, such equipment must have high-contrast captioning capability.

(b) As a carrier, you must ensure that passengers with a disability can readily use all terminal facilities you own, lease, or control at a foreign airport. In the case of foreign carriers, this requirement applies only to terminal facilities that serve flights covered by §382.7 of this part.

(1) This means that passengers with a disability must be able to move readily through such terminal facilities to get to or from the gate and any other area from which passengers board the aircraft you use for such flights (e.g., the tarmac in the case of flights that do not use level-entry boarding). This obligation is in addition to your obligation to provide enplaning, deplaning, and connecting assistance to passengers.

(2) You may meet this obligation through any combination of facility accessibility, auxiliary aids, equipment, the assistance of personnel, or other appropriate means consistent with the safety and dignity of passengers with a disability.

(c) As a foreign carrier, you must meet the requirements of this section by May 13, 2010, except as otherwise indicated in paragraph (a). As a U.S. carrier, you must meet the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section by May 13, 2010.