Originally Posted by
jennstv1
I come from the HR world, so ADA came to mind as I deal with that all day long. I did read the Air Carrier Access Act and it did state something to the effect of providing accommodations to the visually and hearing impaired. What would be considered a reasonable accommodation, I do not know.
This is the portion the Congress and the courts tend to make it as ambiguous as possible. The rationale not to define "reasonable accommodation" is to ensure that any accommodations provided can be tailored to the specific disability, rather than being a standard. If "reasonable accommodation" is defined in certain ways, it can be viewed as the set standard.
Turning back to OP's issue - sitting together
would not be a reasonable accommodation. While OP is deaf, the deafness did not automatically mean OP can't communicate with others. At the same time, it did not mean an AA personnel can't communicate with OP. Last but not the least - even OP's spouse sat somewhere else, as soon as they were on the same plane, it did not mean the spouse can't move around to interpret for OP.
Bottom line - it was a service issue from AA. It does not worth the effort for a DOT complaint.