U.S. Transportation Department’s Proposal to Extend ADA to all Passenger Liners Makes Sense

Following up on a Supreme Court ruling in 2005, the Transportation Department has formally proposed to issue a new package of regulations to extend the Americans with Disabilities Act to passenger vessels, including foreign-flagged cruise ships.

The proposals deal with the “policies and conditions relating to transportation of passengers with disabilities” rather than with matters involving vessel operations and physical or architectural barriers. Those matters are being dealt with separately by the U.S. Access Board, a federal agency devoted to accessible design issues.

For now, the DOT’s proposal is confined to matters such as making sure that reservations information is accessible to the blind and deaf and insuring that vessel operators accept assistive devices –like wheelchairs and walkers- and service animals without question.

The rules would prohibit vessel operators from requiring disabled guests to give advance notice, from limiting the number of disabled guests (there would be exceptions for group bookings), from requiring the use of services or assistance that the guest does not request. Terminal and transfer facilities, such as shuttle bus transfer operations, are also covered.

The rules would cover all vessels, including cruise ships; ferries and government-operated ferries such as the Alaska Marine Highway, river boats, local dinner and sightseeing boats; fishing boats, and floating barges used as dockside attractions and casinos. Foreign-flagged cruise ships are specifically covered when the ship picks up passengers at ports in the U.S., its possessions, territories or commonwealths.

The applicability of the ADA to foreign-flagged ships was a bone of contention in the industry for several years until the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that elements of the law can be applied to foreign-flag ships serving U.S. ports without running afoul of international maritime treaties.

The DOT regulations would contain an escape clause under which an operator of a foreign flag vessel could seek a waiver of any provision that conflicts with a “binding legal requirement of a foreign nation.”