II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 556 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the accessibility of entertainment programming provided by air carriers on passenger flights, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 13, 2013 

Mr. HARKIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the 

accessibility of entertainment programming provided by 

air carriers on passenger flights, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Air Carrier Access 

5 Amendments Act’’. 

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1 SEC. 2. ACCESSIBILITY OF IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT 

2 PROGRAMMING. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 417 of 

4 title 49, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 

5 section 41705 the following: 

6 ‘‘§ 41705a. Accessibility of in-flight entertainment 

7 programming 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In providing air transportation, 

9 an air carrier, including (subject to section 40105(b)) any 

10 foreign air carrier, shall ensure that— 

11 ‘‘(1) on and after the date that is 180 days 

12 after the date of the enactment of the Air Carrier 

13 Access Amendments Act, all visually displayed enter14 tainment programming available to passengers on a 

15 flight is accessible to individuals with disabilities, in16 cluding by— 

17 ‘‘(A) providing, or making available, open 

18 captioning for individuals with disabilities, in19 cluding individuals who are deaf or hard of 

20 hearing, when such programming is available to 

21 passengers through shared video displays, such 

22 as a monitor located in a passenger access aisle; 

23 ‘‘(B) providing, or making available, closed 

24 captioning for individuals with disabilities, in25 cluding individuals who are deaf or hard of 

26 hearing, when such programming is available to 

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1 passengers through individual video displays; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(C) providing, or making available, video 

4 description for individuals with disabilities, in5 cluding individuals who are blind or visually im6 paired, when such programming is available to 

7 passengers through individual video displays or 

8 shared video displays; and 

9 ‘‘(2) not later than the effective date of the reg10 ulations prescribed under subsection (c)(2), all indi11 vidual video displays that display entertainment pro12 gramming or information to passengers on a flight 

13 that are operated primarily by using touchscreens or 

14 other contact-sensitive controls include a mechanism 

15 that allows individuals with disabilities, including in16 dividuals who are blind or visually impaired, to inde17 pendently operate the displays in accordance with 

18 the standards prescribed under subsection (c). 

19 ‘‘(b) ENFORCEMENT.— 

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The remedies and proce21 dures set forth in section 308(a) of the Americans 

22 with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12188(a)), 

23 including the injunctive relief described in paragraph 

24 (2) of that section, shall be available to any person 

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1 aggrieved by the failure of an air carrier to comply 

2 with subsection (a). 

3 ‘‘(2) ENFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY GEN4 ERAL.—The provisions of section 308(b) of the 

5 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 

6 12188(b)) shall apply with respect to the compliance 

7 of air carriers with subsection (a) to the same extent 

8 that those provisions apply with respect to the com9 pliance of covered entities with title III of that Act 

10 (42 U.S.C. 12181 et seq.). 

11 ‘‘(c) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS FOR OPER12 ATION OF INDIVIDUAL VIDEO DISPLAYS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

14 after the date of the enactment of the Air Carrier 

15 Access Amendments Act, the Architectural and 

16 Transportation Barriers Compliance Board shall, in 

17 consultation with the Secretary of Transportation, 

18 prescribe standards in accordance with chapter 5 of 

19 title 5 (commonly known as the ‘Administrative Pro20 cedure Act’) setting forth the minimum technical cri21 teria for individual video displays described in sub22 section (a)(2) to ensure that such video displays in23 clude a mechanism that allows individuals with dis24 abilities to operate the displays independently. 

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1 ‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days 

2 after the Architectural and Transportation Barriers 

3 Compliance Board issues standards under paragraph 

4 (1), the Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as 

5 are necessary to implement those standards and 

6 shall publish those regulations in an accessible for7 mat. 

8 ‘‘(3) REVIEW AND AMENDMENT.—The Archi9 tectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance 

10 Board, in consultation with the Secretary, shall peri11 odically review and, as appropriate, amend the 

12 standards prescribed under paragraph (1) in accord13 ance with chapter 5 of title 5. Not later than 180 

14 days after the Architectural and Transportation 

15 Barriers Compliance Board issues amended stand16 ards under this paragraph, the Secretary shall make 

17 such revisions to the regulations prescribed under 

18 paragraph (2) as are necessary to implement the 

19 amended standards. 

20 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

21 ‘‘(1) CLOSED CAPTIONING.—The term ‘closed 

22 captioning’ means a method, process, or mechanism, 

23 which may include a device, that— 

24 ‘‘(A) allows an individual who is deaf or 

25 hard of hearing to have access to the content of 

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1 visually displayed entertainment programming; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(B) allows that access by displaying, 

4 through an individual device or individually 

5 used technology, all of the audio portion of the 

6 programming (including displaying the dialogue 

7 and any narration, as well as descriptions of on8 and off-screen sounds such as sound effects, 

9 music, or lyrics for music, and information 

10 identifying the character who is speaking) as 

11 text that can be effectively viewed and con12 trolled by that individual while the individual si13 multaneously watches the programming. 

14 ‘‘(2) INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY.—The 

15 term ‘individual with a disability’ means any person 

16 who has a disability as defined in section 3 of the 

17 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 

18 12102). 

19 ‘‘(3) OPEN CAPTIONING.—The term ‘open cap20 tioning’ means a method, process, or mechanism 

21 that— 

22 ‘‘(A) allows an individual who is deaf or 

23 hard of hearing to have access to the content of 

24 visually displayed entertainment programming; 

25 and 

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1 ‘‘(B) allows that access by openly dis2 playing on the video display on which the pro3 gramming is displayed all of the audio portion 

4 of the programming (including displaying the 

5 dialogue and any narration, as well as descrip6 tions of on- and off-screen sounds such as 

7 sound effects, music, or lyrics for music, and in8 formation identifying the character who is 

9 speaking) as text that can be effectively viewed 

10 by that individual and other passengers while 

11 the individual and passengers simultaneously 

12 watch the programming. 

13 ‘‘(4) VIDEO DESCRIPTION.—The term ‘video de14 scription’ means a method, process, or mechanism, 

15 including a device, that— 

16 ‘‘(A) allows an individual who is blind or 

17 visually impaired to have access to the key vis18 ual elements of visually displayed entertainment 

19 programming (such as actions, settings, facial 

20 expressions, costumes, and scene changes); and 

21 ‘‘(B) allows that access through the provi22 sion of contemporaneous audio narrated de23 scriptions of those elements during the natural 

24 pauses in the audio portion of the program25 ming, or during the audio portion if necessary. 

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1 ‘‘(5) VISUALLY DISPLAYED ENTERTAINMENT

2 PROGRAMMING.—The term ‘visually displayed enter3 tainment programming’ means live televised events, 

4 recorded programming (including television pro5 grams), or motion pictures that are available to pas6 sengers, for a fee or without cost, on a flight in air 

7 transportation.’’. 

8 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap9 ter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by 

10 inserting after the item relating to section 41705 the fol11 lowing: 

‘‘41705a. Accessibility of in-flight entertainment programming.’’. 

Æ 

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