[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 84 (Monday, May 2, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 26178-26180]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-10307]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

14 CFR Part 382

[Docket No. DOT-OST-2015-0246]
RIN 2105-AE12


Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: 
Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Membership and First Meeting

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Notice of negotiated rulemaking (Reg-Neg) committee membership 
and public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation (``Department'' or ``DOT'') 
announces the appointment of members to the Advisory Committee on 
Accessible Air Transportation (ACCESS Advisory Committee). The ACCESS 
Advisory Committee was established to negotiate and develop a proposed 
rule concerning accommodations for air travelers with disabilities 
addressing inflight entertainment (IFE), accessible lavatory on new 
single-aisle aircraft, and service animals. Additionally, DOT announces 
that the first meeting of the ACCESS Advisory Committee will be held on 
May 17 and 18, 2016. The meeting is open to the public for its 
entirety.

DATES: The first meeting of the ACCESS Advisory Committee will be held 
on May 17 and 18, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 
Calvert Street NW., Washington, DC 20001, 202-234-0700, in the Diplomat 
Room. Attendance is open to the public up to the room's capacity of 150 
attendees. Since space is limited, any member of the general public who 
plans to attend this meeting must notify the registration contact 
identified below no later than May 10, 2016.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To register to attend the meeting, 
please contact Alyssa Battle ([email protected]; 703-442-4575 
extension 127) or Kyle Illgenfritz ([email protected]; 703-442-
4575 extension 128). For other information, please contact Livaughn 
Chapman or Vinh Nguyen, Office of the Aviation Enforcement and 
Proceedings, U.S. Department of Transportation, by email at 
[email protected] or [email protected] or by telephone at 202-
366-9342.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    On December 7, 2015, the Department published a notice in the 
Federal Register announcing its intent to consider a Reg-Neg on six 
issues--(1) inflight entertainment accessibility; (2) supplemental 
medical oxygen; (3) service animals; (4) accessible lavatories on 
single-aisle aircraft; (5) seating accommodations; and (6) carrier 
reporting of disability service requests.\1\ DOT also announced that we 
had hired a neutral convener, Professor Richard Parker, to speak with 
disability advocacy organizations, airlines, and others about the 
feasibility of conducting a Reg-Neg on these six issues. Mr. Parker 
conducted interviews with 46 different stakeholders representing these 
interests and prepared a convening report to DOT on

[[Page 26179]]

the feasibility of conducting the negotiated rulemaking under 
consideration. The convening report is available in the rulemaking 
docket at DOT-OST-2015-0246.
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    \1\ 80 FR 75953 (Dec. 7, 2015).
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    Based on the convening report, the comments received on the 
December notice, and on the statutory factors in the Negotiated 
Rulemaking Act (5 U.S.C. 563), DOT decided that it would be in the 
public interest to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee with a 
narrower scope. On April 7, 2016, DOT announced that it would establish 
a Reg-Neg committee to negotiate and develop proposed amendments to the 
Department's disability regulation on three issues: Whether to require 
accessible inflight entertainment (IFE) and strengthen accessibility 
requirements for other in-flight communications; whether to require an 
accessible lavatory on new single-aisle aircraft over a certain size; 
and whether to amend the definition of ``service animals'' that may 
accompany passengers with a disability on a flight.\2\
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    \2\ 81 FR 20265 (Apr. 7, 2016).
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II. Establishment of the ACCESS Advisory Committee

    The ACCESS Advisory Committee is established by charter in 
accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. 
App. 2. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx approved the ACCESS 
Advisory Committee charter on April 6, 2016. In accordance with section 
14 of FACA, the charter provides for the ACCESS Advisory Committee to 
terminate when the stated objectives of the Committee have been 
accomplished (i.e., the committee submits its recommendations to the 
Secretary) or upon the expiration of a period not to exceed two years, 
whichever happens sooner.

III. ACCESS Advisory Committee Membership

    In its April 7th Federal Register notice, DOT announced that it was 
soliciting applications and nominations for membership on the ACCESS 
Advisory Committee. DOT stated that it would choose the Committee 
members based on four main criteria: (1) Representativeness (does the 
applicant represent a significant stakeholder group that will be 
substantially affected by the final rule); (2) expertise (does the 
applicant bring essential knowledge, expertise and/or experience 
regarding accessibility and the topic area(s) of interest that will 
enrich the discussion of the available options and their respective 
costs and benefits); (3) balance (does the slate of selected applicants 
comprise a balanced array of representative and expert stakeholders); 
and (4) willingness to participate fully (is the applicant able and 
willing to attend the listed meetings and associated working group 
conference calls, bring in other experts from the applicant's 
organization as needed and relevant, bargain in good faith, and 
generally contribute constructively to a rigorous policy development 
process).
    DOT proposed for public comment the following tentative list of 
stakeholder categories to be members of the Committee: DOT; airlines; 
cross-disability advocacy groups; consumer groups; professional 
associations of flight attendants; advocacy groups for blind and 
visually impaired individuals; advocacy groups representing service 
animal users; advocacy groups for representing people with psychiatric 
disabilities; providers, manufactures, or experts of IFE products, 
systems, and services; advocacy groups representing deaf and hard of 
hearing individuals; academic or non-profit institutions having 
technical expertise in accessibility research and development; aircraft 
manufacturers; and advocacy groups representing individuals with 
mobility disabilities. DOT stated that Committee members will be 
selected to represent not only the interest of that individual's own 
organization but rather the collective stakeholder interests of 
organizations in the same stakeholder category. DOT also noted that all 
individuals or organizations who wished to be selected to serve on the 
Committee should submit an application regardless of whether their 
stakeholder category appeared on list.
    After a careful review of all the individuals nominated to be 
ACCESS Advisory Committee members, the Secretary of Transportation 
hereby appoints the following members:

 Michelle Albert, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
 Zainab Alkebsi, National Association of the Deaf
 Mary Barnicle, United Airlines
 Kelly Buckland, National Council on Independent Living
 Curtis L. Decker, National Disability Rights Network
 Parnell Diggs, National Federation of the Blind
 Paul Doell, National Air Carrier Association
 Geoff Freed, National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
 Brian Friedman, JetBlue Airways
 Laurie A. Gawelko, Service Dog Express, LLC
 Lise Hamlin, Hearing Loss Association of America
 Dr. Katherine Hunter-Zaworski, Oregon State University
 Candace Kolander, Association of Flight Attendants
 Doug Lavin, International Air Transport Association
 Russ Lemieux, Airline Passenger Experience Association
 Lorne Mackenzie, WestJet Airlines
 David Martin, Delta Air Lines
 Orit H. Michiel, Motion Picture Association of America
 Bradley W. Morris, Psychiatric Service Dog Partners
 Lawrence Mullins, Lufthansa Group
 Lee Page, Paralyzed Veterans of America
 Deborah Lynn Price, Frontier Airlines
 Roser Roca-Toha, Airbus
 Alicia Smith, National Alliance on Mental Illness
 Anthony Stevens, American Counsel of the Blind
 Jennifer Sunderman, Regional Airline Association
 Blane A. Workie, U.S. Department of Transportation (Designated 
Federal Officer)

IV. Meeting Participation

    The meeting will be open to the public. Attendance will necessarily 
be limited by the size of the meeting room (maximum 150 attendees). 
Since space is limited, we ask that any member of the general public 
who plans to attend the first meeting notify the registration contact, 
contact Alyssa Battle ([email protected]; 703-442-4575 extension 
127) or Kyle Illgenfritz ([email protected]; 703-442-4575 
extension 128) at Linkvisum, no later than May 10, 2016. At the 
discretion of the facilitator and the Committee and time permitting, 
members of the public are invited to contribute to the discussion and 
provide oral comments.
    The Committee will dedicate a substantial amount of time at the 
first meeting to establishing the rules, procedures, and process of the 
Committee, such as outlining the voting rights of the Committee members 
and defining the meaning of ``consensus.''

V. Submitting Written Comments

    Members of the public may submit written comments on the topics to 
be considered during the meeting by May 10, 2016, to Federal Docket 
Management System (FDMC), Docket Number DOT-OST-2015-0246. You may 
submit your comments and material online or by fax, mail, or hand 
delivery, but please use only one of these means. DOT recommends that 
you include your name and a mailing address, an email address, or a 
phone number in the body

[[Page 26180]]

of your document so that DOT can contact you if there are questions 
regarding your submission.
    To submit your comment online, go to http://www.regulations.gov, 
put the docket number, DOT-OST-2015-0246, in the keyword box, and click 
``Search.'' When the new screen appears, click on the ``Comment Now!'' 
button and type your comment into the text box on the following screen. 
Choose whether you are submitting your comment as an individual or on 
behalf of a third party and then submit. If you submit your comments by 
mail or hand delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no larger than 
8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing.

VI. Viewing Comments and Documents

    To view comments and any documents mentioned in this preamble as 
being available in the docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Enter 
the docket number, DOT-OST-2015-0246, in the keyword box, and click 
``Search.'' Next, click the link to ``Open Docket Folder'' and choose 
the document to review. If you do not have access to the Internet, you 
may view the docket online by visiting the Docket Management Facility 
in Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the DOT West Building, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 
E.T., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

VII. Privacy Act

    In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments from the 
public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT posts these 
comments, without edit, including any personal information the 
commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the system 
of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 
www.dot.gov/privacy.

VIII. Future Committee Meetings

    DOT anticipates that the ACCESS Advisory Committee will have five 
additional two-day meetings in Washington, DC. The meetings are 
tentatively scheduled for following dates: Second meeting, June 14-15; 
third meeting, July 11-12; fourth meeting, August 16-17; fifth meeting, 
September 22-23, and the sixth and final meeting, October 13-14. 
Notices of all future meetings will be published in the Federal 
Register at least 15 calendar days prior to each meeting.
    Notice of this meeting is being provided in accordance with the 
Federal Advisory Committee Act and the General Services Administration 
regulations covering management of Federal advisory committees.

(41 CFR part 102-3.)


    Issued under the authority of delegation in 49 CFR 1.27(n).

    Dated: April 27, 2016.
Kristin Amerling,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2016-10307 Filed 4-29-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P