Being 2013, one would think airlines would accommodate deaf passengers when it comes to in-flight entertainment, but some deaf passengers claim that isn't the case.
Andrew Phillips, policy counsel for the National Association of the Deaf, says that airlines aren't very deaf friendly, USA Today reports.
"In my opinion, the airline industry has done a terrible job of making their in-flight entertainment options accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing community," Phillips told a Senate hearing according to USA Today. "It really bothers me that when I fly other countries' airlines, I am often able to watch movies with English subtitles."
A 2008 law requires airlines to become accessible to the disabled. In 2011, the Transportation Department started working on a rule for deaf-friendly in-flight entertainment but down the agency is trying to determine if such a thing would be technically and economically feasible.
The department is working on a draft proposal for internal consideration and has a formal proposal goal for February.
Deaf groups say that they have been asking for deaf entertainment for several years.
"With existing technology, there is no excuse for not providing captioning capability on in-flight entertainment," Howard Rosenblum, CEO of the National Association of the Deaf said according to USA Today.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin proposed legislation to require airlines to make captions for the deaf and video descriptions for the blind when it comes to in-flight entertainment. His older brother Frank is deaf.
"Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing continue to have difficulty accessing captioned versions of movies, videos and other entertainment content on an equal basis with their hearing peers," Rosenblum said.
On September 10, Virgin America was hit with a $150,000 fine for not making its in-flight safety video accessible deaf passengers. In mid-September, the airline added captions to all safety videos.
Some flights do offer some options for death passengers, but its mostly foreign flight that have captions to translate language. Flights that offer DirecTV also offer captioning such as United Airlines.
"We will continue to roll out closed caption on our international fleet and work with our hardware, software and content providers to expand our offering of accessible content," Hobart told USA Today.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
