PROPELLING AVIATION TO NEW HEIGHTS:ACCESSIBILITY TO IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING PASSENGERS

摘要

In-flight entertainment has been available for over forty-five years but to this day remains without captions or subtitles, thus depriving deaf and hard of hearing passengers of access to this service. The Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 (ACAA) and implementing regulations do not require captioning of in-flight entertainment, and Congress, the airline industry, and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) have yet to remedy the problem. The courts do not allow deaf and hard of hearing passengers a private right of action and punitive damages under the ACAA. The DOT recently indicated it will issue a Notice of Pro-posed Rule Making on the subject, and what follows is an argument for a new regulation that interprets the ACAA to require captioning of in-flight entertainment on U.S. transcontinental and international flights."The airplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.