Lavatories accessible to passengers with disabilities will appear on single-aisle airliners under a proposed new Department of Transportation rule, but not for another two decades. Yes, you read that right.
The new rule, if implemented, will only apply to airliners ordered 18 years after the date the rule goes into effect, planes that would only start to be delivered two years after that, leaving the increasing ‘gray wave’ of older Americans and others with disabilities still resorting to measures such as not eating or drinking for hours before a flight because they will be unable to use the restroom.
Six years have already passed since DOT agreed to the long delay in 2016, but until this week it did not move further toward creating a new rule and requirement. The move now is possibly spurred by a suit filed in 2018 by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, under the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act. That act, rather than the Americans with Disabilities Act, covers airline operations.
The rule would require, similarly to the rule for twin-aisle planes, that at least one lavatory be accessible to passengers who need an assistant or use of a walker or the aisle wheelchair to use it. The issue is increasingly critical because the airlines, rather than making more access available, have shrunk lavatories to as little as 24″ wide in order to free up space for more revenue seats.
