Preliminary Regulatory Evaluation (September 2011)

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is issuing a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) to ensure that automated airport kiosks and air travel Web sites are accessible to air travelers with disabilities. The Department is proposing to require carriers (and airports, in the case of shared-use kiosks) to ensure that all new orders for automated airport kiosks are for models that comply with the technical standard set forth in the proposed rule.1 U.S. and foreign carriers would be required to meet the Level A and AA success criteria and performance requirements included in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 standards for Web site accessibility. Carriers would also be required to ensure that the Web sites of large travel agents and tour operators (hereinafter referred to collectively as “ticket agents”) selling air transportation on their behalf meet the same accessibility standard and that large and small ticket agents provide Web-based discounts and other Web-based amenities to the passengers who contact them offline upon request when their Web sites cannot be used by passengers with a disability because of their disability.