II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3333 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the accessibility of airline 

information and entertainment programming provided by air carriers 

on passenger flights, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 8, 2021 

Mr. CASEY (for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. 

BROWN, and Ms. DUCKWORTH) 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 airline information and 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 ‘‘Airline Information 

5 and Entertainment Access Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ACCESSIBILITY OF IN-FLIGHT SAFETY AND ENTER2 TAINMENT 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 new section: 

6 ‘‘§ 41705a. Accessibility of in-flight airline informa7 tion and entertainment programming 

8 ‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT.— 

9 ‘‘(1) PROGRAMMING.—On and after the date 

10 that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of 

11 the Airline Information and Entertainment Access 

12 Act, in providing air transportation, an air carrier, 

13 including (subject to section 40105(b)) any foreign 

14 air carrier, shall ensure that all visually displayed 

15 airline information and entertainment programming 

16 available to passengers on a flight is accessible to 

17 persons with disabilities, including by providing (or 

18 making available)— 

19 ‘‘(A) open captioning and American Sign 

20 Language option for persons with disabilities 

21 when such programming is available to pas22 sengers through shared video displays, such as 

23 a monitor located in a passenger access aisle; 

24 ‘‘(B) closed captioning and American Sign 

25 Language option for persons with disabilities 


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1 when such programming is available to pas2 sengers through individual video displays; 

3 ‘‘(C) audio description for persons with 

4 disabilities when such programming is available 

5 to passengers through individual video displays 

6 or shared video displays; and 

7 ‘‘(D) any aural PA announcement in tex8 tual format through individual video displays or 

9 shared video displays. 

10 ‘‘(2) VIDEO DISPLAYS, APPS FOR PERSONAL

11 ELECTRONIC DEVICES, AND WEB PORTALS AND

12 WEBSITES.—Not later than the effective date of the 

13 regulations prescribed under subsection (c)(2), in 

14 providing air transportation, an air carrier, including 

15 (subject to section 40105(b)) any foreign air carrier, 

16 shall ensure that— 

17 ‘‘(A) all individual video displays of vis18 ually displayed airline information and enter19 tainment programming to passengers on a 

20 flight that are operated primarily by using 

21 touchscreens or other contact-sensitive controls 

22 include a mechanism that allows persons with 

23 disabilities to nonvisually operate such displays 

24 in accordance with the standards prescribed 

25 under subsection (c); 


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1 ‘‘(B) any apps for a personal electronic de2 vice, such as a phone or tablet, that are made 

3 available by the air carrier to passengers on a 

4 flight and that display visually displayed airline 

5 information and entertainment programming 

6 include a mechanism that allows persons with 

7 disabilities to nonvisually operate such apps in 

8 accordance with the standards prescribed under 

9 subsection (c); and 

10 ‘‘(C) any web portals or websites the air 

11 carrier directs passengers to in order to access 

12 or pay for inflight entertainment, including the 

13 method for referring passengers to such web 

14 portals and websites, include a mechanism that 

15 allows persons with disabilities to nonvisually 

16 operate such web portals and websites in ac17 cordance with the standards prescribed under 

18 subsection (c). 

19 ‘‘(b) CIVIL ACTION.— 

20 ‘‘(1) AGGRIEVED PERSONS.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any person aggrieved 

22 by the violation by an air carrier of this section 

23 or a regulation prescribed under this section 

24 may, during the 2-year period beginning on the 


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1 date of the violation, bring a civil action in an 

2 appropriate district court of the United States. 

3 ‘‘(B) AVAILABLE RELIEF.—If a court finds 

4 in favor of the plaintiff in a civil action brought 

5 under subparagraph (A), the court may award 

6 to the plaintiff equitable and legal relief, includ7 ing compensatory and punitive damages, and 

8 shall, in addition to any such relief, award rea9 sonable attorney’s fees, reasonable expert fees, 

10 and cost of the action to the plaintiff. 

11 ‘‘(C) NO REQUIREMENT TO EXHAUST AD12 MINISTRATIVE REMEDIES.—Any person ag13 grieved by the violation by an air carrier of this 

14 section or a regulation prescribed under this 

15 section shall not be required to exhaust admin16 istrative remedies before bringing a civil action 

17 under subparagraph (A). 

18 ‘‘(D) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing 

19 in this paragraph shall be construed to invali20 date or limit other Federal or State laws afford21 ing to people with disabilities greater legal 

22 rights or protections than those granted by this 

23 section. 

24 ‘‘(2) ENFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY GEN25 ERAL.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General 

2 may bring a civil action on behalf of persons 

3 aggrieved by the violation by an air carrier of 

4 this section or a regulation prescribed under 

5 this section in any appropriate district court of 

6 the United States. 

7 ‘‘(B) AUTHORITY OF COURT.—In a civil 

8 action under subparagraph (A), the court 

9 may— 

10 ‘‘(i) grant any equitable relief that the 

11 court considers to be appropriate; 

12 ‘‘(ii) award such other relief as the 

13 court considers to be appropriate, includ14 ing monetary damages to persons ag15 grieved by the violation by an air carrier of 

16 this section or a regulation prescribed 

17 under this section, when requested by the 

18 Attorney General; and 

19 ‘‘(iii) assess a civil penalty against the 

20 air carrier. 

21 ‘‘(c) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS FOR OPER22 ATION OF INDIVIDUAL VIDEO DISPLAYS, APPS FOR PER23 SONAL ELECTRONIC DEVICES, AND WEB PORTALS AND

24 WEBSITES.— 


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

2 after the date of the enactment of the Airline Infor3 mation and Entertainment Access Act, the Architec4 tural and Transportation Barriers Compliance 

5 Board shall, in consultation with the Secretary, pre6 scribe standards in accordance with chapter 5 of 

7 title 5 (commonly known as the ‘Administrative Pro8 cedure Act’) setting forth the minimum technical cri9 teria for individual video displays, apps for personal 

10 devices, and web portals and websites described in 

11 subsection (a)(2) to ensure that such video displays, 

12 apps, and web portals and websites include a mecha13 nism that allows persons with disabilities to operate 

14 the displays, apps, and web portals and websites 

15 nonvisually. 

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

17 after the Architectural and Transportation Barriers 

18 Compliance Board issues standards under paragraph 

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

20 are necessary to implement those standards and 

21 shall publish those regulations in an accessible for22 mat. 

23 ‘‘(3) REVIEW AND AMENDMENT.—The Archi24 tectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance 

25 Board, in consultation with the Secretary, shall periVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Dec 14, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3333.IS S3333

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1 odically review and, as appropriate, amend the 

2 standards prescribed under paragraph (1) in accord3 ance with chapter 5 of title 5. Not later than 180 

4 days after the Architectural and Transportation 

5 Barriers Compliance Board issues amended stand6 ards under this paragraph, the Secretary shall make 

7 such revisions to the regulations prescribed under 

8 paragraph (2) as are necessary to implement the 

9 amended standards. 

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

11 ‘‘(1) AUDIO DESCRIPTION.—The term ‘audio 

12 description’ means a method, process, or mechanism, 

13 including a device, that— 

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

15 who has low vision to have access to the key 

16 visual elements of visually displayed airline in17 formation and entertainment programming 

18 (such as actions, settings, facial expressions, 

19 costumes, and scene changes); and 

20 ‘‘(B) allows that access through the provi21 sion of contemporaneous audio narrated de22 scriptions of those elements during the natural 

23 pauses in the audio portion of the program24 ming, or during the audio portion if necessary. 


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

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

3 which may include a device, that— 

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

5 hard of hearing to have access to the content of 

6 visually displayed airline information and enter7 tainment programming; and 

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

9 through an individual device or individually 

10 used technology, all of the audio portion of the 

11 programming (including displaying the dialogue 

12 and any narration, as well as descriptions of on13 and off-screen sounds such as sound effects, 

14 music, or lyrics for music, and information 

15 identifying the character who is speaking) as 

16 text that can be effectively viewed and con17 trolled by that individual while the individual si18 multaneously watches the programming. 

19 ‘‘(3) PERSON WITH A DISABILITY.—The term 

20 ‘person with a disability’ means any person who has 

21 a disability as defined in section 3 of the Americans 

22 with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102). 

23 ‘‘(4) OPEN CAPTIONING.—The term ‘open cap24 tioning’ means a method, process, or mechanism 

25 that— 


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

2 hard of hearing to have access to the content of 

3 visually displayed airline information and enter4 tainment programming; and 

5 ‘‘(B) allows that access by openly dis6 playing on the video display on which the pro7 gramming is displayed all of the audio portion 

8 of the programming (including displaying the 

9 dialogue and any narration, as well as descrip10 tions of on- and off-screen sounds such as 

11 sound effects, music, or lyrics for music, and in12 formation identifying the character who is 

13 speaking) as text that can be effectively viewed 

14 by that individual and other passengers while 

15 the individual and passengers simultaneously 

16 watch the programming. 

17 ‘‘(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

18 the Secretary of Transportation. 

19 ‘‘(6) VISUALLY DISPLAYED AIRLINE INFORMA20 TION AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING.—The 

21 term ‘visually displayed airline information and en22 tertainment programming’ means pre-flight safety 

23 briefing videos, live televised events, recorded pro24 gramming (including television programs), or motion 


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1 pictures that are available to passengers, for a fee 

2 or without cost, on a flight in air transportation.’’. 

3 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap4 ter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by 

5 inserting after the item relating to section 41705 the fol6 lowing: 

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

Æ 


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