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)

382.51 What requirements must carriers meet concerning the accessibility of airport facilities? The principal substance of airport facility accessibility requirements is the same for both U.S. and foreign carriers. Certain aspects of the requirements differ depending on whether the facility in question is located in the U.S. or in a foreign country.

U.S. facilities that a carrier owns, controls, or leases must meet requirements applicable to Title III facilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The requirements are those of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), as incorporated in Department of Justice (DOJ) ADA regulations implementing Title III. There must be an accessible path between gate and boarding area when level entry boarding is not available to an aircraft. The ADAAG reference in paragraph (a)(2) is to the former version of the ADAAG, which is still the version incorporated in the DOJ rules. When DOJ incorporates the new version of ADAAG in their Title III rules, we will update this reference.

Inter-terminal and intra-terminal transportation owned, leased, or controlled by a carrier at a U.S. airport must meet DOT ADA rules. Since DOT has already incorporated the new version of ADAAG into its regulations, the new ADAAG’s provision will apply to any features covered by the DOT rules. One new requirement at U.S. airports is to provide, in cooperation with the airport operator, animal relief areas for service animals that accompany passengers who are departing, arriving, or connecting at the facility.

At foreign airports, to which the ADAAG do not apply, Part 382 applies a performance requirement to make sure that passengers with a disability can readily use the facilities the carrier owns, leases, or controls at the airport. For foreign carriers, this requirement applies only to terminal facilities that serve flights that begin or end in the U.S (i.e., those covered by section 382.7). Both U.S. and foreign carriers must meet the requirements at foreign airports within one year after the effective date of the rule. As noted elsewhere in the preamble, carriers may rely on the facility accessibility services provided by airport operators at foreign airports, supplementing where needed to ensure full compliance with this rule.

In the DHH NPRM, we proposed several requirements for U.S. and foreign carriers at terminal facilities that they own, lease, or control at any U.S. airport. First, we proposed a requirement that carriers enable any existing captioning feature (preferably high-contrast) on all televisions and other audio-visual displays providing safety, information, or entertainment content in those portions of the airport that are open to the general public and that they keep this captioning feature on at all times. Second, we proposed a requirement that in areas of restricted passenger access such as club rooms, carriers enable any existing captioning function on televisions and other audio and visual displays upon request. Third, we proposed a requirement that carriers replace any televisions and other audio-visual displays that do not have a high-contrast captioning function with ones that do as these devices are replaced in the normal course of operations or when the airport facilities undergo substantial renovation or expansion. Fourth, we proposed a requirement that newly acquired televisions and other audio-visual displays be equipped with high-contrast captioning capability. We solicited comments both on these proposals and on whether any carriers have leases for terminal facilities at a U.S. airport whereby the airport retains control over the televisions and other audio-visual displays in that facility. If so, we said, we would consider requiring the carriers and airports to work together to enable captioning on equipment that has captioning capability and to replace equipment that does not have high-contrast captioning capability with equipment that does. (We also noted that all televisions with screens of at least 13 inches made or sold in the U.S. since July 1, 1993, have been required to have captioning capabilities.) We further solicited comment on whether televisions and other audio-visual displays equipped with captioning features would necessarily have high-contrast captioning (e.g., white letters on a consistent black background), whether such equipment may have some type of captioning other than “high-contrast,” and whether the availability of high-contrast captioning, as opposed to low- or medium-contrast captioning, depends on the age, cost, or screen size of the equipment.

None of the comments addressed the question of high- versus medium- versus low-contrast captioning. Most of the carriers and carrier groups that filed comments claimed not to have control over the audio-visual equipment at their terminal facilities. The individuals and disability organizations that filed comments strongly objected to different standards for audio-visual equipment in areas open to all passengers versus areas with restricted access, and all support captioning on all such equipment at all times.

We are modifying the language of the proposed §382.51 to make our intentions clearer, and based on the comments, we are also adding language that places joint responsibility for compliance on the carrier and the airport in cases where the latter has control over the televisions and other audio-visual equipment that this section addresses. (To this end, we will also be amending 49 CFR Part 27, Subpart B, to codify the requirement for airports.) We have determined, based both on the comments from individuals and disability groups and on the lack of objections from carriers and carrier groups, that the same standard should apply to all equipment, whether it be in areas to which the general public has access or in areas to which access is limited. If such equipment has captioning capability, that capability must be enabled at all times. These requirements do not apply to either U.S. or foreign carriers at foreign airports.