US aviation in blind check-in row
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The US aviation industry has been plunged into a discrimination row over the provision of check-in kiosks for blind people.
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Transport (DOT) following a ruling that only a quarter of airport check-in kiosks be made available to blind passengers.
The regulations, which took effect on 12 December 2013, form part of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and require 25% of airport check-in kiosks to be accessible to blind passengers within 10 years.
According to the NFB, this ruling is discriminatory and “fails to implement the ACAA as Congress intended”.
“The technology to make airline check-in kiosks accessible to blind people is readily available; similar technology is already deployed on ATMs,” said NFB president, Dr Marc Maurer. “Yet the Department of Transportation violated the law by allowing continued discrimination against blind passengers based on spurious assertions by the airline industry that making kiosks accessible will cost too much and take a decade.
“Apparently 75% discrimination against blind people is acceptable to the DOT,” he added.
In filing the lawsuit, Dr Maurer called on the court to “strike down the regulations and order the agency to restart the rulemaking process”.
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