Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Regulation

14 CFR 382.53: What information must carriers give individuals with a vision or hearing impairment at airports? (Air Carrier Access Act regulation)

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/dot-2009-airport-information/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • US Department of Transportation
  • eCFR

Government (US Department of Transportation)

Summary

The US air travel rule that requires airlines to give passengers who identify themselves as needing hearing or visual assistance prompt access to the information given to other passengers at gates, ticketing areas and customer service desks.

Key findings

  • US carriers must ensure that passengers who identify themselves as persons needing visual or hearing assistance have "prompt access to the same information provided to other passengers at each gate, ticketing area, and customer service desk" they own, lease or control at any US or foreign airport; foreign carriers must do so at US airports and, abroad, for flights to or from the US.
  • Where the airport has effective control over the gates, ticketing areas and customer service desks, the carrier and the airport are jointly responsible.
  • The information covered includes flight safety, ticketing, check-in, delays or cancellations, schedule changes, boarding, connections, gate assignments, checking baggage, offers on oversold flights, paging, aircraft changes that affect passengers with disabilities, and emergencies; baggage claim information must reach these passengers no later than others.
  • Names no method or technology: it does not mention hearing loops, assistive listening systems, captions or visual displays.

Limits

Applies only to passengers who identify themselves, and to the carrier's own areas; it sets an outcome, not a technology. Read from the eCFR text current on 9 October 2026; the section was issued on 13 May 2008 (73 FR 27665) and amended on 18 March 2009 (74 FR 11471), and the date given is the latest amendment shown.

Read the original

www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/section-382.53

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

US Department of Transportation. 14 CFR 382.53: What information must carriers give individuals with a vision or hearing impairment at airports? (Air Carrier Access Act regulation). eCFR. 18 March 2009. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/section-382.53 (accessed 9 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/dot-2009-airport-information/

Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.