Here is some information about the Department of Transportation newest proposed regulations concerning nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in air travel. In partnership with DOT our work is on the website Regulation Room where we take DOT's proposed regulations and break them down into manageable, plain language sections and then allow public comments on these sections. Our goal is to open the federal rulemaking process to more of the general public, specifically people who will be impacted by a particular regulation or who have knowledge or expertise about DOT's questions. Your community may be especially interested in and have knowledge about the proposed airport kiosk and website accessibility standards. DOT is the first federal agency to propose using the website standards as well. WE believe that many other federal agencies will be following with similar standards proposals in the near future. I have drafted some talking points about the rule and our site below. DOT is proposing to enhance the rights of travelers with disabilities with rules that would:
- Require airlines and airports to make check-in kiosks accessible to travelers with disabilities; and,
- Require airlines and travel agents to make their websites accessible to individuals with disabilities.
DOT has many unanswered questions about how to best accomplish these goals and needs to know your real-world experience with these issues. Regulation Room is DOT's Open Government Flagship Initiative where you can read about the proposals and comment on what you think DOT got right or wrong. Visit the Regulation Room website to participate in the rulemaking. All of your comments will be submitted to DOT at the end of the comment period as an official comment. Our priority is to make Regulation Room accessible to as many users as possible. So, we are working hard to make sure that our website meets the leading edge of accessibility compliance. However, we know that users may experience our site in different ways. If you cannot access our content or submit a comment, please email us or call us at 607-255-8783 and we will help you in whatever way we can. Regulation Room is part of Cornell University's e-Rulemaking Initiative. Contributions to the Regulation Room site will become part of a formal public comment that DOT will take into consideration before a final decision is made. We encourage you to share this site with your membership, either through your website, e-mail communications or social media. The comment period is currently scheduled to close on November 25th. Please contact me anytime if you have any questions or need any other information, and thank you in advance for your help! Best, Josiah Heidt J.D. Cornell Law School '11 2011-2012 Open Government Fellow Cornell eRulemaking Initiative, Cornell Law School | 
