For disabled passengers, the skies aren’t always very friendly

TERRY SZOLD used to fly on commercial airlines three or four times a year. But in the last few years, as a chronic neurological condition has worsened, she has had to use a wheelchair. That’s when she grew increasingly dissatisfied with traveling on commercial airlines.

She was “banged up,” she said, when transferred to the airline’s aisle chair, a miniature version of a wheelchair that is used to get passengers to their seats. Another big hassle was getting to the restroom, she says. (When a trip to the bathroom is needed, a flight attendant typically provides the aisle chair, if necessary, to transport the passenger.)

So Szold, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, hasn’t flown for two years.

Her experience isn’t unusual for air travelers who use wheelchairs, says H. Stephen Kaye, an associate professor and research director of UC San Francisco’s Disability Statistics Center. “I’ve heard of people who dehydrate themselves so they don’t have to use the bathroom” during a flight, he said. “A lot don’t travel by air if they can avoid it.”

Under the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, passengers can’t be discriminated against on the basis of disability by any domestic or foreign air carrier. But the act is far from perfect, and the Department of Transportation is reviewing some of the regulations that implement the act’s disability-nondiscrimination provisions.

The act says carriers can’t refuse transportation to anyone on the basis of his or her disability and they can’t require advance notice that a person with a disability will be traveling. But carriers can require up to 48 hours’ notice for certain accommodations that may need preparation time. Among the act’s other provisions: Newer aircraft with 30 or more seats must have movable aisle armrests on half of the aisle seats. New wide-body aircraft with twin aisles must have accessible lavatories, but single-aisle planes, as the rule now stands, do not.

Many of the proposed changes, says DOT spokesman Bill Mosley, involve making the original rules clearer and simpler. For example, a proposed rule about onboard storage for wheelchairs clarifies that the area must be adequate for a folding adult-size chair.

The DOT also asked for comment on whether a special closet should be maintained for wheelchairs and clarifies that wheelchair storage takes precedent over storage of crew members’ luggage. It also clarifies how airline personnel should help disabled passengers, suggesting explicit duties such as helping them with baggage if needed.

The DOT is evaluating the comments and suggestions and will publish a final set of regulations. “We hope to complete it as soon as possible,” Mosley said. (To read the suggestions, see dms.dot.gov, click on “Simple Search,” then enter docket No. 19482.)

The DOT’s proposed changes come at a time when the airline industry, with some carriers in financial trouble, can ill afford them. The proposed rules impose “unduly burdensome requirements on U.S. airlines without adequate justification,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Assn. of America, the trade organization of the principal U.S. airlines.

“Our members have advisory boards to help assist them with complying with the Department of Transportation’s rules,” Castelveter said, “and to improve services for all passengers with disabilities, including those who use wheelchairs or other mobility-assistive devices. As a result, we receive relatively few complaints about wheelchair access issues.”

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Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kathleendoheny@earthlink.net.