Air travelers likely to wait decades for wheelchair accessible bathrooms

Wheelchair users traveling by air usually have two major concerns to deal with: 1) will their wheelchair survive the flight without being damaged or not arriving at the final destination; 2) what if they need to use the restroom aboard the plane? While there is now greater accountability and awareness with airlines when it comes to handling wheelchairs (no, we still have a long way to go), the news about accessibility of on-board restrooms is not good as there may not be any progress made for upwards of 20 years.

In January, the U.S. Department of Transportation proposed its first update to lavatory design rules since 1990, when the Air Carrier Access Act barred discriminating against passengers with disabilities. The airline industry is exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act that sets accessibility standards for most businesses.

In 2016, airlines, manufacturers and disability advocates negotiated a compromise to modernize regulations for bathrooms on commercial aircraft. After years of delay and a lawsuit by Paralyzed Veterans of America, the federal agency proposed a first round of changes in January. A second proposal could make lavatories bigger, but has not yet been released for public review and would not take effect for at least 20 years. Both proposals would only apply to new aircraft and not the more than 5,600 planes in the air today.

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