14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act): Preamble and Section-by-Section Analysis (with amendments issued through July 2010)

382.43 Must information and reservation services of carriers be accessible to individuals with hearing impairments? The “Response to Comments” section of the preamble discusses the requirements that will apply to carriers with respect to TTY or telephone relay communication between users of TTYs and carriers. As noted in that discussion, the purpose of §382.43 is to put deaf and hard of hearing passengers on a substantially equivalent footing with the rest of the public in their ability to communicate with carriers by telephone regarding information and reservations. We aim to ensure substantial equivalence in both access to any carrier and wait time if an agent is not available when a connection is first made.

Carriers may meet this requirement by using TTYs themselves, but they may also do so by means of voice relay or any other available technology that permits TTY users to communicate with them. This requirement is set forth in §382.43(a). We are also adding a new access requirement in §382.43(a)(4) to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing passengers are informed how to reach carriers by TTY: in any medium in which a carrier states the telephone number of its information and reservation service for the general public, it must also state its TTY number if it has one, or if not, it must specify how TTY users can reach the information and reservation service (e.g., via call relay service). Such media include, for example, web sites, ticket jackets, telephone books, and print advertisements.

Based on comments to the docket, we are also adding §382.43(b), which states that the requirements of §382.43(a) do not apply to carriers in any country in which the telecommunications infrastructure does not readily permit compliance.

For foreign carriers, these requirements apply only with respect to information and reservation services for flights covered by section 382.7. With respect to TTY services, the requirement applies to foreign carriers only with respect to flights for which reservation phone calls from the U.S. are accepted.

Please see the “Response to Comments” section for further information about the requirement that a copy of Part 382 be made available in airports served by carriers subject to this rule.