White House aims to ease air travel with wheelchairs

The Biden administration last week proposed new rules aimed at improving the flying experience for disabled passengers after years of complaints, including that wheelchairs are routinely broken on flights.

The proposed measures include that airlines promptly repair or replace damaged wheelchairs and offer yearly comprehensive training for employees and contractors who work with disabled travelers and handle the devices they use.

“We’re really trying to make clear that just like a number of other passenger protections required by rule and by law, taking proper care of wheelchairs and the passengers who use them is fundamental and is required,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a briefing with reporters. “And there are consequences for airlines that don’t do that.”

The rulemaking also seeks to make mishandling of wheelchairs and other assistive devices an automatic violation of the Air Carrier Access Act, a shift that would enable officials to more easily penalize and hold air carriers accountable when mobility devices are damaged or mishandled, Buttigieg said. In addition, carriers would have to make loaner wheelchairs available when users’ devices are being repaired or replaced.

According to the Transportation Department, an estimated 5.5 million Americans use a wheelchair, and many encounter barriers when traveling by air. Since 2018, air carriers have been required to report the number of mobility devices they’ve mishandled, damaged, delayed or destroyed. In 2022, more than 11,000 wheelchairs, power wheelchairs and scooters were lost, damaged, delayed or stolen. Those numbers are expected to be even higher for 2023, officials said.

The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposed rules — part of a push by the administration to improve the flying experience for everyone. Other steps the administration has taken include making billions of dollars available through various programs to improve accessibility at airports, rail and subway stations, Buttigieg said. The administration also finalized a rule to make bathrooms on single-aisle aircraft accessible to people with disabilities.