Category: Transportation

On February 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to strengthen 14 CFR Part 382, the rule implementing the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). The safety and dignity of passengers whose mobility depends on wheelchairs and scooters is proposed in the following rule provisions:

• Mandating annual, hands-on training for airline staff and contractors who (1) physically assist passengers with transfers to and from aircraft seats, aisle chairs, and personal wheelchairs, and (2) handle passengers’ wheelchairs.
• Outlining actions that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged during transport.
• Allowing passengers to choose the company that will repair or replace their wheelchair if it’s mishandled with the airline covering the costs.
• Clarifying that (1) airlines must provide prompt, safe, and dignified assistance to all passengers with disabilities; and (2) damaging or delaying the return of a wheelchair is an automatic violation of the ACAA.
• Making it easier for DOT to hold airlines accountable for failing passengers who use a wheelchair.

Comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking must be received within 60 days of the date it is published in the Federal Register (publication is imminent at https://www.federalregister.gov). Comments can be filed on www.regulations.gov, giving the docket number DOT-OST-2022-0144, the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN 2105-AF14), and agency name i.e. the U.S. Department of Transportation.

If you’re perturbed that the NPRM doesn’t go far enough, remember that regulations must stay within the boundary of the statute which authorizes them. So this is a good time to also promote passage of the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2023 (H.R. 1267 and S.545) which U.S. Representative James Langevin has introduced every year since 2015. The bill which has yet to gain traction in the United States House or Senate would do the following for airline passengers with disabilities:

• Expand protections and require airlines to meet minimum accessibility standards for safe and effective boarding and deplaning, seating accommodations, accessible lavatories, and stowage for wheelchairs and assistive devices.
• Require the DOT to prescribe regulations setting minimum accessibility standards for new and existing aircraft, airport facilities, websites, and kiosks.
• Establish a procedure for filing disability-related discrimination complaints with the DOT.
• Assist passengers through a toll-free hotline or other electronic method.
• Authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) and aggrieved passengers to bring civil actions for discrimination against an air carrier.
• Mandate the issuance of fines to airlines that violate the laws protecting people with disabilities in air travel, and to refer patterns of discrimination to the DOJ.

Want relief? Submit comments and get your congressional representatives to support the ACAA Amendments.

Photo credit: Markus Kammermann from Pixabay

You may also want to read:

• Angela Muir Van Etten. “Add Teeth Not Candles for Birthday of Air Carrier Access Act.” Blog post. October 3, 2022. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/air-carrier-access-act/
• Angela Muir Van Etten. “AIRLINE PASSENGERS with DISABILITIES have RIGHTS: What’s in Our Bill?” Blog post. December 18, 2023. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/airline-passengers-with-disabilities-have-rights-whats-in-our-bill/
• H.R. 1267 – Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2023. 118th Congress (2023-2024). https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1267?s=1&r=8
• S. 545 —Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2023. 118th Congress (2023-2024). https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/545?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Air+Carrier+Access+Amendments+Act%22%7D&s=1&r=2
• Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers with Disabilities Using Wheelchairs (MS Word Version). United States Department of Transportation. February 28, 2024. https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/flying-with-dignity-NPRM-MSWord

baggage hold. Yet despite being at the gate for at least an hour before boarding, the boarding agent told me I was going to make the plane late! What? She was the one who stopped me riding the scooter to the door and instead of pre-boarding me with passengers needing assistance was boarding me last because she couldn’t get anyone to take the scooter. Finally, another employee intervened. He let me ride to the door and had no trouble finding two baggage handlers to take the scooter down the lift. Clearly the boarding agent was the source of this problem.

Upon arrival in Dallas, I was pleasantly surprised when my scooter appeared unscathed at the plane’s door. But sadly my scooter story doesn’t end here. After immigration and customs clearance, the scooter broke down. A concerned passenger tried to help, but despite being a mechanic he couldn’t diagnose or fix the mechanical problem without proper tools. (Ironically this forced me to check the disabled scooter in Dallas and voluntarily pick it up in baggage claim in WPB.)

Meanwhile I had to get to my connecting gate without wheels to carry me, my CPAP, computer, coat, and handbag. This time I welcomed the wheelchair service. However, when the gate changed to another terminal requiring a SkyLink ride on the monorail, my wheelchair transporter tried to dump me onto a golf cart with a step too high for me to climb. I refused to switch. This was the first of seven gate changes—three on my original departure date and four the next day after my first flight was cancelled and rescheduled. Each change involved a prolonged wait for another transporter.

But God was in the details. I teamed up with another passenger connecting to WPB who also needed wheelchair service. We watched one others bags when we went to the bathroom, got something to eat, or requested a transporter. And when our flight was cancelled a Good Samaritan advocated to help us avoid going to gate number eight to rebook our flight and arrange vouchers for a hotel, taxi and meal.

I landed in WPB 25 hours later than planned at 12:30 a.m. Despite the early morning hour, prayers were answered when a baggage handler was there with a cart to carry the disabled scooter, a wheelchair transporter brought me to baggage claim, and good friends Lorrie and Garry brought me home.

God provided for all my needs.

For more of my writings, go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com where you can subscribe to my weekly blog and find retail links to my dwarfism memoir trilogy.

Specifically staff had failed to reach out to paratransit riders or people with disabilities and groups representing them in the community. The public notice of the proposed plan had been posted in a newspaper, but not the newspaper read by the Radio Reading Service for blind or visually-impaired listeners. And no notices were posted on buses or distributed to organizations whose clients used county transit services.

I recruited paratransit riders to join me in making public comments to ask the BOCC to postpone approval of the paratransit plan until public participation was provided. After five years advocating at the BOCC in support of public transit funding, the entire BOCC knew my name. The BOCC Chair declared me trustworthy and responded favorably to our comments.

Our advocacy achieved the desired result when the BOCC declined to adopt the ADA Paratransit Plan and directed staff to come back after working out the notice and public participation issues with me. Although county staff also knew me, they weren’t so appreciative. The staff member who had prepared and presented the ADA Paratransit Plan to the BOCC cried when the plan was not adopted. Still, she had no choice but to work with me.

After following my lead on giving adequate notice to riders and meaningful outreach to disabled organizations, public participation on the plan was scheduled in March 2012. Even so, county staff still saw this as “Angela’s” meeting that would only need a small conference room. When 30 people turned up, staff had to open the county commission chamber at the last minute.

County staff were astounded that 15 people and disability organizations made public comments—nine riders, five disability professionals, and one employer—giving meaningful input on the plan. Staff listened to the public input and responded with many improvements to the plan relating to eligibility recertification, the trip pick-up window, consideration of weather conditions that affect a person’s ability to get to a bus stop, and the appeal process. Finally, I was ready to support the revised ADA Paratransit Plan when staff resubmitted it to the BOCC four months later.

Another recurring issue was the county Metropolitan Planning Organization’s scheduling of public participation transit workshops on evening and weekend hours when there was no transit service. We dealt with this issue at a Florida Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) Local Coordinating Board (LCB) meeting. The motion to schedule public workshops at times when TD riders could get there either by providing after-hours transit or scheduling daytime meetings passed unanimously.

This post is a condensed excerpt from chapter 18 in book three of my dwarfism memoir trilogy, “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities,” https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/.

And according to the Paralyzed Veterans of America September 2022 survey, almost 70% of those traveling with a wheelchair or scooter have had their device damaged. Although the Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, published in July 26, 2022, mandates that the airline compensate up to the original purchase price of the wheelchair or device, this falls far short of redressing the hardship experienced by device users.

Wheelchairs are not bought off the store shelf; they are customized to fit the user’s body and medical needs.

As one disability advocate explained, “You can’t just say, ‘The chairs’ broken, here’s another chair.’” A loaner wheelchair or scooter will lack the custom features needed to maintain health and safety. In a most egregious case, Engracia Figueroa, an amputee with a spinal cord injury died from a severe infection of a pressure sore that developed when she was using an airline loaner after they totaled her power wheelchair.

Repairs to damaged wheelchairs often take weeks or months to complete. The process involves an evaluation, a prescription, insurance approval, ordering parts, and making the repairs. In the meantime, the user loses mobility, independence, possibly the purpose of their trip, and maybe the ability to go to work or play their sport.

Wheelchairs are not simple technology; they are sophisticated, fragile, and should be handled with care.

Airlines often choke when asked to pay the original purchase price of the wheelchair or scooter. Some airlines have responded to passenger complaints about damages with low ball offers like 5,000 travel miles or monetary compensation of $125. In Figueroa’s case, it took months of fighting before the airline agreed to pay the $30,000 needed to replace her wheelchair. And yes, high tech power wheelchairs can cost more than some cars.

Under the ACAA passengers can’t bring private legal action against offending airlines. They’re limited to filing complaints with the airlines and the DOT. But only three times since 2018 has the DOT exercised its’ authority to fine an airline for ACAA violations, despite receiving about 30,000 disability-related complaints annually.

So on October 2^nd let’s give the ACAA a 36^th birthday to remember. Let’s jump start the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2021 (H.R. 1696/S. 642) introduced by U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Representative Jim Langevin, on March 9, 2021. Among other things, the bill increases penalties for damaged wheelchairs or mobility aids, gives air travelers the right to sue in court for damages, and requires better stowage options for assistive devices.

Please contact your representative today and ask for their support.

You may also like to read:

• “The ACAA Survey Results: Air Travel Experience of Passengers with Disabilities.” September 2022. Paralyzed Veterans of America. https://pva.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-ACAA-Survey-Results-FINAL.pdf
• “Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights.” July 2022. United States Department of Transportation. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2022-07/508_Airline_Passengers_with_Disabilities_Bill_of_Rights_07132022_ADA.pdf
• H.R.1696 – Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2021. 117th Congress (2021-2022). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1696?s=1&r=47

For a subscription to my weekly blog on dwarfism and disability issues, go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com/blog/.

These thoughts spun in my head as I observed the distress of the worker who had slammed his foot on my left foot accelerator instead of the brake. He was mortified. The manager was effusive with apologies and assurances that the garage would fully compensate me for the loss. And the garage faithfully followed through with funds for both the car’s value and cost of rides in the interim. But how could they compensate for the loss of time, independence, spontaneity, and plans that had to be cancelled?

I clung to the knowledge that God is in control and allowed this to happen. And it occurred to me that this was God’s way of expediting our long term plan of replacing my car with a wheelchair accessible van (WAV)! We had known for some time that Robert’s difficulty getting in and out of my car meant a WAV was in our near future. The accident made it clear the future had arrived. 

            Even so, I was disheartened and discouraged. Our plans for driving to the Little People of America Florida weekend meeting in Sarasota were scrubbed. The opportunity for making in person book sales was lost. COVID had made in person marketing inadvisable and now this!

The words of the psalmist struck a chord with me.

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” Psalm 43:5, New Living Translation (NLT)

And God reminded me that He is a worthy source for my hope and praise! He activated our church and biological families to encourage us by meeting our transportation needs. They acted in accordance with New Testament instructions:

“And we urge you, brothers and sisters, . . . encourage the disheartened, . . .” 1 Thessalonians 5:14, New International Version (NIV)

“But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus.” 2 Corinthians 7:6 (NLT)

            This #NationalDayofEncouragement, I reflect on our 18 weeks without wheels. Our 21 member driver team transported us to 58 destinations primarily for church activities, medical, and vehicle shopping. We also had personal couriers pick up prescriptions and mailed packages.

We are encouraged beyond what words can express! We salute you all.

For a subscription to my weekly blog on dwarfism and disability issues, go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com/blog/.