The Air Carrier Access Act, signed into law in 1986, led to the implementation of regulations designed to ensure equal access in air travel. While the U.S. Department of Transportation has a poor track record of enforcement, the law is the reason that I have been able to travel in spite of my disability. Together with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ACAA positively impacts my life as a wheelchair travel blogger and person with a disability.
Civil rights in America are important. The ACAA, like other civil rights laws, is designed to protect the American ideal - that all people are equal and possess a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When a person with a disability encounters any violation of their civil rights, they are left to feel unequal, unimportant and undervalued. It is the weight of those feelings in myself that has led me to take such a strong stance against discrimination on the basis of disability, wherever it exists - including in the air travel industry.
After taking more than 500 flights as a wheelchair user, I have uncovered a pattern of discriminatory civil rights abuses by airlines which have negatively affected my air travel experience.
The three most common violations of the law, based on my own experience, could be easily corrected if the Department of Transportation would enforce the law without hesitation. These violations are: