Profile: cherylechevarria
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Hello, cherylechevarria. Welcome to RegulationRoom and thanks for sharing your experiences! What do think about the standards DOT is suggesting for airport kiosks? Mencik suggested a priority lane for travelers with disabilities to get assisted service, what do you think? See Mencik’s comment below.
The information and knowledge you can provide based on your personal experience and position at NFB will be valuable for DOT. You mention that many travelers who are blind may not have access to a certain type of service or cell phones. Could you say more about this? Do you support the “self-contained” kiosk proposal?
Hi Cherylchevarria! Thank you for your comments. It sounds like you think travelers who use earphones have enough privacy. DOT is also considering allowing kiosks to have loudspeakers. Do you think they should? What about other users: are there additional privacy issues with loudspeakers on airport kiosks?
Do you think that making airport kiosks work basically like ATMs would be enough? One of the things DOT is considering is whether airports are different from other places where people use kiosks, they are especially concerned that airports might be too noisy. Do you think the proposed volume levels are high enough?
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For someone who is a travel agent who is blind, it is hard for me or my clients to book or access there books online or at the Kiosks, more and more people are becoming print disabled whether from being blind by birth, disease, accidents, o…r from being veterans. I am also part of the NFB and we brought cases against certain airports for doing this, and it was thrown out of court because ADA doesn’t have any jurisidiction at the airports or the websites in this matter, only on the actual airlines themselves, we can travel on the but we can’t book them or access our tickets, that is not right.
FYI, with someone who is blind, they might not have access to this type of service or cell phones. I am the President of the Travel and Tourism Division of the National Federation of the Blind, many people already carry headphones with them, especially if they use them at the banks and other avenues. The airlines are not being fair to anyone, and they have to change there scripting on their websites to be accessible to all. The NFB had a law put through congress and passed into law that all websites much be made accessible to all.
This comes from the National Federation of the Blind Directly.
New proposal seeks improved access for disabled fliers
9/20/2011
News Outlet: USA TODAY
The Transportation Department wants to require airlines to make their websites and airport kiosks more accessible to the disabled.
The proposed regulation — made Monday following years of complaints by travelers with disabilities about getting tickets on flights — is similar to a proposal made in 2004 that airlines and travel agents resisted because of the cost and complexity of the changes.
The new proposal calls for the airlines to make their websites accessible to blind people for reservations and check-ins within a year. The airlines would have two years to make the rest of their websites more accessible.
Websites… more »
Under the proposed rule, airlines would also have to upgrade airport kiosks that print boarding passes or baggage tags with braille, audio messages and screens visible 40 inches off the floor. The upgrades to kiosks would apply as airlines replace machines during the next decade.
“I strongly believe that airline passengers with disabilities should have equal access to the same services as all other travelers,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in announcing the proposed regulation.
More than 15 million adults have disabilities with vision, hearing or mobility, according to the Census Bureau, and nearly one-third travel by air.
The advocacy group Paralyzed Veterans of America welcomed the kiosk proposal, saying people with vision and physical impairments have been unable to read screens too high off the ground or use touch-screen functions.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, argued that airlines are “openly discriminating” when not using the most accessible technology.
“It is critical for blind people to be able to buy tickets, check in, print boarding passes and select seats independently,” Maurer said.
A rule that took effect in May 2008 required airlines to discount tickets for disabled passengers who had to make reservations by phone or in person. Airlines had to provide assistance to disabled passengers who couldn’t use their kiosks.
Parts of that rulemaking were hotly debated for years, with 1,300 comments. The Air Transport Association, an airline industry group, argued at the time it would cost each airline at least $200,000 to upgrade their website, plus tens of thousands more each year in maintenance.
Steve Lott, an association spokesman, said the group is still reviewing the newest proposal.
The administration estimates that tens of millions of dollars spent upgrading websites and kiosks would be offset by having more disabled customers buy tickets and saving the time of airline employees.
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Why, just make the kiosks more accessible. There are laws out there in place for this. I know we had them passed into law. If they need to revamp them so be it, we want independence and not special treatment, the same with the websites, more and more websites are not accessible. It would save me a lot of time and aggrevation if I could book my clients some place without have to wait on the phone for a minimum of 30 minutes for a rep to get on the phone and book something for me, instead of me doing it myself.
Many people are responding to this, I don’t know if any of you are blind at all; but I am, again, the airlines didn’t take any of this into consideration when the put these into place at all. If we need assistance we will ask for it but at the same time, if someone cannot use something that everyone else can that is down right discrimination.
The DOT and the DOJ are the ones who need to get into this with the help of the ADA Laws.
By the way, this website isn’t the most accessible one either. You want to hear from us on this, but I use Magnification, others that I have posted this information to, to post in reference to this cannot because it is not accessible.
Also this particular case was thrown out of court due to the judge that said, ADA has no laws over this type of situation.
United Airlines Discriminates Against Blind Passengers
National Federation of the Blind Files Suit Over Inaccessible Kiosks
San Francisco, California (October 25, 2010): The National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people and the leading advocate for accessible technology, and three blind individuals—Michael Hingson, Mike May, and Tina Thomas—who reside in California and frequently fly United, filed a class-action lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against United Airlines. United uses airport kiosks that employ touchscreen technology in a manner such that they… more »
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “The airline industry has an unfortunate history of discriminating against blind passengers, and now United Airlines is repeating that history by deploying inaccessible technology that we cannot use. United is engaging in this blatant discrimination even though the technology to make its kiosks accessible is readily available, has been deployed by others, and will involve little cost to the company. Instead of enjoying the features and convenience of these kiosks, including a quicker and more convenient check-in process, blind passengers must wait in long lines at the ticket counter, even when they have already purchased their tickets and checked in online. We will not tolerate a separate and unequal experience for blind passengers and demand that United cease its discrimination against us as soon as practicable.”
Michael Hingson, a blind motivational speaker and president and owner of a technology sales company, said: “I have traveled throughout the United States and the world for my public speaking engagements and as a technology sales representative, yet I cannot independently check in at the airport. It frustrates me, as a frequent traveler and United passenger, that I must wait for a United employee to assist me with the kiosk, seek help from a sighted passenger (in which case I must share sensitive private information with a total stranger), or else stand in a long line in order to complete the airport check-in process. I hope that this lawsuit will serve as a wake-up call to United and that the airline will swiftly make its kiosks accessible.”
Mike May, CEO of the Sendero Group, a leading manufacturer of technology for the blind, said: “I have been working in the adaptive technology field for twenty years, and I know well that it is easy and practical for United to make its kiosks accessible. There is simply no excuse for the long wait and inconvenience that other blind United passengers and I continue to experience at airports.”
Tina Thomas, a member of the United States Paralympic Judo Team, said: “I find it extremely ironic that United, which touts itself as the official airline of the U.S. Paralympic Team, discriminates against me as a member of that team and as a blind person. I sincerely hope that United will make a more serious and tangible commitment to treating passengers with disabilities equally.”
Plaintiffs are represented in this matter by Daniel F. Goldstein and Gregory P. Care of the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein, and Levy; and Laurence W. Paradis, Karla Gilbride, and Kevin Knestrick of the Berkeley firm Disability Rights Advocates.
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I guess you are referring to the HIPPA and privacy laws. The one thing that blind people do, especially myself when I use an ATM or other accessible device when I am out is carry earphones, and all ATMS and other machines, have the standard sockets, and we just listen and follow the instructions. So that is the way blind people do these things for a very long time. Again, the only thing these business have to do is ask, we know what is out there that we can use, and how to do it to protect our privacy as well.
Machines such as atms and others out there that have capability, usually has an up or down mechaniam that allows us to control thisl. This is basically standard stuff.