WASHINGTON, D.C. (WAND)- U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced new rules on Tuesday to improve accommodations for wheelchair passengers, marking what is being called the most significant expansion of rights for passengers with disabilities in a generation.
The new regulations require hands-on training for employees who assist passengers with disabilities and handle their wheelchairs. Additionally, the rules establish new provisions for addressing incidents where a wheelchair is damaged.
Senator Tammy Duckworth spoke alongside Buttigieg about how this is one step closer to protecting Americans with disabilities.
“I know from personal experience that when an airline damages or breaks a wheelchair, it’s much more than a simple inconvenience—it’s the equivalent of breaking someone’s legs,” said Duckworth.“Decades after both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Air Carrier Access Act became law, it is long past time that those of us who roll down jet bridges will be treated with the same amount of dignity as those who walk down them. This rule, which builds on and helps implement my accessibility provision from this year’s FAA Reauthorization, is critically important to ensuring that every passenger with a disability is treated with the respect and care they deserve. While we still have a long way to go in our work to make air travel truly accessible for all, this newly finalized rule got us closer to that better, fairer future, and I am so grateful to Secretary Buttigieg for his advocacy and leadership in helping make this a reality.”
In 2018, Duckworth introduced a groundbreaking law that requires air carriers to disclose the number of mobility devices they damage, break, or lose on a monthly basis.
Since the Department of Transportation (DOT) began enforcing the Duckworth law, it has found that American Airlines mishandled thousands of wheelchairs and treated passengers with disabilities in unsafe or undignified ways.
These findings led the department to impose a $50 million penalty on the airline, marking the largest fine ever issued by the DOT against an airline for violating disability regulations.
According to the DOT, more than 25 million Americans—over 14 percent of whom use wheelchairs—report they have disabilities that limit their travel. Yet, thousands of wheelchairs and other mobility aids continue to be mishandled, damaged or lost each year.
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