US moves to improve airplane bathrooms for people with disabilities

The Transportation Department announced on Wednesday that it had finalized new regulations to require more commercial aircraft to have accessible bathrooms, a long-awaited step to address complaints from disabled travelers about the difficulties of flying. Under the regulations, new single-aisle planes with at least 125 seats will eventually be required to have at least one lavatory large enough for a disabled passenger and an attendant to enter and move around in. Twin-aisle planes are already required to have an accessible lavatory. “Traveling can be stressful enough without worrying about being able to access a restroom,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Yet today, millions of wheelchair users are forced to choose between dehydrating themselves before boarding a plane or avoiding air travel altogether.” The finalized regulations came out of a lengthy effort by the Transportation Department, dating back to the Obama administration, to develop new rules intended to improve air travel for people with disabilities. In 2016, an advisory committee established by the department called for accessible bathrooms on new, larger single-aisle planes, and the department proposed new regulations last year to carry out that recommendation. Airlines have increasingly used single-aisle planes on lengthy flights, worsening the discomfort for disabled travelers who cannot use existing lavatories. The new requirement for accessible lavatories does not kick in immediately. It will apply to new single-aisle planes that airlines order beginning in 2033 or that are delivered beginning in 2035. But that timeline is faster than what the advisory committee laid out in 2016 and what the Transportation Department proposed last year. The new regulations also include other steps meant to improve air travel for people with disabilities, such as installing grab bars in lavatories on certain new planes.<br/>