Disabled travelers sue over airline restrooms
Paralyzed Veterans group says waiting is ‘horrific’
James Thomas Wheaton Jr. has waited during the 30 years since he was paralyzed for the Transportation Department to require single-aisle airliners to have lavatories accessible for the disabled.
Tuesday, Wheaton and the advocacy group Paralyzed Veterans of America filed a lawsuit at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to force the department to develop regulations envisioned under the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act. He plans extensively for trips to avoid needing a restroom for hours at a time, but it’s still harrowing.
“It’s a horrific feeling. In my 30 years of being disabled, I feel the most paralyzed and the most limited in those settings,” said Wheaton, 52, of Golden, Colorado, who was paralyzed after being struck by a drunken driver in Australia while serving in the Navy. “It’s kind of the opposite of the independence that we all seek.”
The 1986 law called for regulations within 180 days to ensure handicapped people could fly on airlines. The department has made several attempts at developing regulations.
In adopting initial regulations in
1990, the department noted that accessible lavatories are clearly important for passengers and required them on planes with two aisles. But it deferred action for narrower planes.
Proposals are contentious because space is tight on single-aisle airliners.
The latest attempt at rulemaking began in 2014. In 2016, the department hosted negotiations between advocates for the disabled, airlines and plane manufacturers.
The consensus report in November
2016 didn’t require rebuilding lavatories on existing planes. But three years after the adoption of regulations, the agreement called for planes with at least 125 seats to have onboard wheelchairs and lavatories with handles and controls for the disabled.
The department was scheduled to propose regulations under those guidelines by July 2017. But the Trump administration halted new rulemaking in January 2017 so it could review Obama administration proposals. The deadline passed without a new one set.
Lavatories can be cramped and difficult to reach, even if the plane has an onboard wheelchair designed for the plane. Some thresholds have bumps. Doors face each other across the aisle, leaving little room to maneuver in privacy.
About two-thirds of the 931 disabled people surveyed for the department in July 2016 told the Paralyzed Veterans of America that inability to use the lavatory is reason enough to avoid flying.
But airlines have resisted larger restrooms because that means losing three to six seats or galley space. Airlines say losing three seats a flight on four flights a day would cost the industry an estimated $33 billion over the next 25 years.
Karianne Jones, a lawyer at the Democracy Forward Foundation, filed the lawsuit urging the court to force the department to adopt regulations on singleaisle planes. The court will weigh the time spent on the regulation and its priority in terms of health and safety, she said.
“Essentially, the lawsuit is based on this notion that the agencies need to be acting with reasonable diligence and moving forward and not needlessly stalling them,” Jones said.
Wheaton flies about once a month, often for his job as treasurer for Paralyzed Veterans of America. Trips require him to plan fluids and foods to avoid needing a restroom for a three- or fourhour flight, plus the half-hour to board and the half-hour to deplane.
“We’re kind of stuck in one seat regardless of whether we have bowel or bladder issues,” Wheaton said. “If there’s any issue that comes up, I can tell you now that I’m in my 50s, sometimes I have to wear special devices to make sure I don’t embarrass myself in front of 300 people.”