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Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Mar 13, 2013
Air Carrier Access Amendments Act - Requires domestic and foreign air carriers to ensure that all visually displayed entertainment programming available to flight passengers is accessible to individuals with disabilities, including by making available open captioning (openly displaying text on a shared video monitor), closed captioning (displaying text through an individual video monitor), and video description (audio-narrated descriptions through individual or shared monitors) for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired, as the case may be.
Requires in addition that all individual video displays to flight passengers of entertainment programming or information that are operated primarily by use of touchscreens or other contact-sensitive controls include a mechanism allowing individuals with disabilities to operate such displays independently in accordance with standards the Access Board shall establish.
Makes certain penalties under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 available to persons aggrieved by an air carrier's failure to comply with this Act.
People & committees
Sen. Harkin, Tom [D-IA] · D–IA
Legislative record
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Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S1792-1793)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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