S-1459 : Still Just a Bill

Mobility Aids On Board Improve Lives and Empower All Act or the MOBILE Act

This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue regulations related to the accommodations that air carriers and foreign air carriers make for passengers with wheelchairs (including power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, and scooters); DOT must also develop a road map and study the issue.

Specifically, air carriers must publish the dimensions of aircraft cargo holds. An air carrier must offer a full refund to an individual with a disability who is traveling with a wheelchair and cannot fly on the existing aircraft because the cargo hold cannot physically accommodate the wheelchair.

DOT must also

• evaluate data on the mishandling of wheelchairs on aircraft (e.g., damages, delays, or loss) and submit a publicly available report to Congress, which must include DOT's plans to address issues in the report;
• submit a strategic road map to Congress describing how DOT and the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the Access Board) will establish a research program on the feasibility of main cabin wheelchair restraint systems; and
• study, if DOT first determines doing so would be technically feasible, the economic and financial feasibility of air carriers accommodating passengers with wheelchairs in the main cabin during flight.