Airline Information and Entertainment Access Act

Airline Information and Entertainment Access Act

This bill requires air carriers (including foreign carriers) to ensure equal access to airline information and entertainment programming for all airline passengers regardless of their disabilities.

Specifically, the bill requires

• open captioning and an American Sign Language option for persons with disabilities when the information and programming are available to passengers through shared video displays, such as a monitor located in a passenger access aisle;
• closed captioning and an American Sign Language option when the information and programming are available to passengers through individual video displays;
• video descriptions when the information and programming are available to passengers through individual video displays or shared video displays;
• an aural public address announcement in textual format through individual video displays or shared video displays; and
• control systems for video displays to have a nonvisual operating option.

A civil action may be brought in a U.S. District Court against an air carrier for violations of these requirements.

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board must set forth the minimum technical criteria for individual video displays to ensure that they include a mechanism that allows persons with disabilities to operate the displays nonvisually.