Delta will be first to offer sign language bar for uniforms

Delta Air Lines is now allowing in-flight crew members' to include a language bar option on their uniforms to indicate whether they know a signed language. The option is already available for spoken languages like Spanish and Russian. Delta will be the first U.S. airline to do this. Delta CEO Ed Bastian shared the news with a video on his LinkedIn page.

Deaf Couple has a Complaint against Delta

A deaf couple say they were discriminated against by Delta Air Lines while in Detroit and ended up missing their flight. In response to their claims Delta released a statement saying it takes "situations like these very seriously and as part of our culture of continuous improvement, we are using this as an opportunity to learn." Socorro Garcia and Melissa Yingst were in Detroit for the National LGBTQ Task Force's Create Change conference. Read more about what happened in a New York Post article here and the San Francisco Gate here. Below is the couple's explanation of what happened.

Are new laws designed to protect travelers "meaningless"?

New legislation allows for the development of an “Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights.” While some advocacy groups applaud the deal, signed by the President last week, others look at it differently. MIC quotes the CEO of Hearing Access & Innovations as saying "feel-good bills are a waste of time. I want bills that really work.” Read more here.

Another video of the Airport Confrontation

Here is another video showing the confrontation that started when a passenger alledgedly hit a service dog during a flight to Orlando. The man says he didn't punch the dog but swatted at it. There an ABC News report here.

Man hits pregnant deaf woman and her service dog

A man on a Frontier Airlines flight from Colorado Springs to Orlando hit a deaf woman's service dog and then the woman who was pregnant. She was traveling with her boyfriend, who is also deaf. WESH-TV has more including a short video of part of the altercation here.

Airline changes it Service Animal Policy

Delta Airlines plans to impose tighter restrictions on animals brought on board its airplanes. Many people have started bringing their pets with them when the travel, pretending they are service animals to take advantage of ADA law. Starting in March 1, Delta will require advance documentation before boarding animals to certify the owner’s need and the animal’s training. The annoucement also says:

Delta has seen an 84 percent increase in reported animal incidents since 2016, including urination/defecation, biting and even a widely reported attack by a 70-pound dog. In 2017, Delta employees reported increased acts of aggression (barking, growling, lunging and biting) from service and support animals, behavior not typically seen in these animals when properly trained and working.

Read the full details of the change from Delta here.

Deaf-blind man ordered off Flight

Frankie Thomson has flown for decades by himself, despite being deaf-blind. But he was removed from a Easyjet flight going from Edinburgh to Gatwick.Thomson was told the decision was for "safety reasons."Read the full story here.

Texas Deaf man looks to hold educational events with Police

John Sidener tells KWTX, "I've been here in Waco many years. The police are not being helpful, there's been no improvement in that..Usually what I do when I pull over I immediately reach up to my placard that says I'm deaf and those kind of things that I get my drivers license and everything ready I'm hoping that I will avoid being shot." Sidener wants to see relations between the Deaf community and Waco police improve. KWTX has a video report.

Police Interactions with the Deaf in NC

With the death of a deaf man after a traffic stop in North Carolina, WTVD-TV "reached out to the sheriff's offices of Cumberland, Durham, and Wake counties, as well as the police departments of the city of Durham, Fayetteville, and Raleigh to ask about their policies and practices when it comes to the deaf community." Read their responses here.

Driving while Deaf

Inside Edition gets some driving tips for deaf drivers in this video.

Lawsuit: Hotel sued over Accomodations

A Southern California Travelodge is being sued by a New York woman who says she was not provided appropriate accomodations. Naomi Sheneman is deaf and says the hotel wanted to charge her for service dog before she was given a room and Sheneman's lawsuit says that's illegal. Her attorneys, Eisenberg & Baum of New York, released this statement:

It is disturbing in 2016 that people could actually be refused access to hotels on basis of their deafness. Our client has brought this lawsuit not only to redress the discrimination that already occurred, but to ensure that any other Deaf individuals that seek access to hotels with service animals will not be discriminated against. There is no excuse that Travelodge cannot be accessible to Deaf individuals with service animals. Their lack of awareness for the need to properly accommodate the Deaf community cannot continue.

Traveloge has not yet responded to the suit.

Rules Change for Deaf Truck Drivers

Deaf truck drivers will no longer be prevented from driving interstate rigs if they cannot speak English. That decision comes from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. A post in the October 1 Federal Register says they will be excepted from the rule if the driver can read and write English. You can read the guidance here.

Push in Congress for Inflight Movie Captions

Sen. Tom Harkin

Senator Tom Harkin decried the lack of captioning on inflight movies on the Senate floor this week. Harkin, the architect of ADA law, told his colleagues:

I have been trying for some time to get the airlines to provide closed captions on the movies on their airplanes. I can't understand why they don't do it. It doesn't cost anything. You can go to any movie now that's released and if you're hard-of-hearing or deaf, you can go up to a counter free of charges and get a pair of glasses that fit over your own glasses and you can read all the closed captions and follow the exact movie. Maybe you don't think it's a big deal, but if you're hard-of-hearing or your deaf, it's a very big deal.

" Harkin wants to add a measure to a Transportation bill that would require airlines to study the idea. Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who chairs the committee, says the idea will be considered. Read more here.

Airline note upsets deaf couple

A Texas couple is upset because of a note they got when American Airlines returned some lost luggage. Find out why a note attached to the luggage made them ask for an apology. Read the story from Indianapolis' WXIN-TV here.

Deaf man arrives on flight--in the wrong state!

Kenneth Brown was on his way to visit his brother in a Seattle hospital last week. But instead he wound up in Phoenix. Details on what happened on his flight from KNXV-TV here.

Cyclist Makes it to Washington State

Jacob Landis is making a bike ride of more than 10,500 miles to raise money for children who need cochlear implants. The 24-year-old has implants himself that he received at the age of ten. He started in Maryland and now is in Spokane. You can find out what unique thing he's doing on the way in a post where we first told you about his journey here.

CoCo's Letter to the airline

We told you earlier today about the trouble a deaf-blind Canadian woman had during a recent flight. She detailed what she went through in a letter here.  The Airline disputes her account of what happened. CTV offers those details in an article here.

CoCo: "How Air Canada Mistreated Me"

Here's a video of Coco Roschaert explaining in ASL what happened when she was kicked off a flight a week ago (no transcript). There's more on the story here.

Deaf Truckers Get Shot at Big Rigs

For the first time, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is granting an exemption to a test that prevents the deaf from operating commercial trucks. It's called the “forced whisper test." The person being tested must be able to hear a whisper from five feet away. The exemption is being granted to 40 drivers who are deaf. After two years, the Administration will reconsider whether to extend it based on how well the drivers perform. The exemption overrides any conflicting state laws and regulations.

TSA: No Deaf Harassment

The TSA says it never happened. The federal agency denies a report going around the Internet and passed around social media that a deaf student was harassed by agents last week at the Louisville airport following this year's National Association of the Deaf conference. A look at more than 100 hours of video does not support the claim, the TSA announced. The airport is small and there is only one security checkpoint. The original blog post claimed a TSA agent took candy out of a deaf students bag and called him a "f- deafie." The account where the claim was made was taken down by Tumblr. The complainer never identified himself.