[Blindtlk] Airline travel rule question?

[Mike Freeman]

Hi, Jim.

(1) Yes, there is such a rule although it is in Federal regulations, not 
Federal law. It is at 34 CFR Part 121 point something-or-other. The 
regulation states that any passenger sitting in an exit row must be able 
to engage in certain activities, one of which is being able to observe 
what's going on outside the airplane. These are called "functional 
requirements" and this functional requirement effectively means that one 
must be sighted to sit in an exit row.

This onerous requirement came as part of the regulations implementing 
the Air Carrier Access Act; in effect, the regs did exactly the opposite 
of what we wanted the law to do. WE had a bill which would have 
abolished such onerous requirements and it did get a plurality vote in 
the Senate in 1986 -- but not a sufficient vote to force "clochure", 
i.e., cessation of debate, on the measure (there was a filibuster 
against it by such luminaries as Senator Stevens of Alaska and Slade 
Gorton, then a Senator from Washington). Our policy is still that we 
oppose such requirements but the political times have not seemed right 
to revive the issue.

(2) I am unaware of any law or regulations governing the circumstances 
under which blind persons can be moved and to what seats (other than if 
they're in exit rows); I believe there was a recent proposal of D O T 
regulations which would have limited the number of guide dogs on a 
flight but I don't believe these went into effect; there was too much 
protest. Pete Donahue would know more of this than I.

Mike

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006, Jim Portillo wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> I need to know the following.  Is there a federal law which states that blind people can not sit in exit rows?  We were having a seminar today, and someone brought that issue up saying that it was illegal for airlines to put blind folks in those seats.  I told them that I didn't think that was the case, but it sounded like some of my students (one in particular who worked for American airlines) said that there was a federal ruling on that.
> Any ideas on this?  I thought we had done away with such ideas.
>
> Also, one person said there was a rule that said that if a flight was overbooked, they did not make a blind person deboard the plane; rather, they would move the blind person to first class.
> Again, any ideas or clarifications on this would be appreciated.
>
> Jim
>