Blind Passengers Sue United Airlines Over Check-In Kiosks

Nov. 2, 2010— -- A trio of blind airline passengers frustrated by a lack of easy check-in options have filed suit against United Airlines, claiming the airline has refused to use decades-old technology to aide their visually impaired customers.

"A lawsuit is a last resort," said Michael May, a California business owner named as one of the plaintiff's in the suit. "I like to use the carrot rather than the stick, but when the carrot doesn't work you're left with no alternative."

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California by the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of May, Michael Hingson and Tina Thomas.

The trio claims that United's ticketing kiosks, installed by the thousands to reduce the airline's labor force and make the check-in process faster, are impossible for blind customers to use independently and that the airline has stonewalled them on upgrading the technology.

"The machines use exclusively visual computer screen prompts and touch-screen navigation to guide a customer through a transaction," the lawsuit claims, noting that no translation service for the blind exists.

And when the gate changes or travel delays force ticketing adjustments, "I have to rely on strangers or try to hunt down airline personnel," said Thomas, a substitute teacher and a member of the U.S. Paralympic judo team. "It takes longer while everyone else … it takes 10 minutes and they're done."

"I would like to make a change in the way passengers are treated when we fly," said Thomas, 41.

Baltimore attorney Daniel Goldstein, outside counsel for the National Federation of the Blind, said the technology for voice-prompted kiosks has been around longer than the kiosks themselves.

"Basically what it requires is text to speech software that will enable non-visual control," Goldstein said, "and that's been around in one form or another since the late '60s."

Goldstein said the NFB has been in talks with United since May 2009 about either retrofitting their current machines or accelerating the schedule for replacing kiosks to get upgraded machines into the airports faster.

"For awhile we obviously thought there was an interest in resolving this, but that did not prove ultimately to be case," he said.

The airline's merger with Continental, he said, was one of the reasons the Federation was given as to why the airline couldn't make such a major commitment.

United Airlines declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but issued a statement reading, "United Airlines is committed to providing quality service to all of our customers and to remaining in full compliance with the Air Carrier Access Act. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind."