Air Canada’s transport of wheelchair was ‘unorganized mess’: Accessibility advocate

Last month, accessibility advocate Maayan Ziv’s wheelchair was badly damaged on an Air Canada flight to Tel Aviv.

Despite thoroughly wrapping the device in bubble wrap to ensure it would arrive safely, Ziv said the damage was “appalling” and severely curbed her ability to attend the conference she was travelling for, which was focused on accessibility in travel and tourism.

Air Canada provided her with a temporary replacement and offered to cover the cost of damage to the chair, valued at $30,000. Ziv said it could take anywhere between six months to a year to repair or replace.

She told CityNews that while there was no public apology or accountability, Air Canada reached out to her privately to ensure her flight back home would be more comfortable. They upgraded her ticket and staff was appointed both in Tel Aviv and Toronto to ensure everything went smoothly.

After three weeks of travelling, Ziv took a 12 hour flight back to Toronto, only to be faced with more distressing news from staff at baggage claim.

“I arrived in Toronto to be told that my wheelchair was never loaded on the flight. And after the amount of trauma and hardship that I’ve been through already, getting this news has been just one more blow,” she said.

Ziv said she asked the Air Canada assistant assigned to her what could have gone wrong, but she had no answers.

“I was in shock. I was angry. I couldn’t believe that after all of this ordeal, there was still such an unorganized mess,” she said.

Despite the shock, Ziv said she gathered herself and proceeded to fill out a lost baggage form and spent four hours at the airport trying to figure out where her wheelchair might be.

During the process, she remembered that she had placed an air tag on her wheelchair before leaving Tel Aviv — a tracking device made by Apple which helps track and find personal items.

“It was at that time that we could physically see that my wheelchair was on the tarmac at Pearson. It was my information, in my own phone and the air tag that I used to help the airport staff track down where my wheelchair was and eventually get it to me,” she said.

In a statement, Air Canada told CityNews:

“Both Ms. Ziv’s mobility aid and the one we provided to her on a temporary basis arrived safely on her flight. Ms. Ziv’s temporary mobility aid was delivered to the gate for her immediate use upon arrival. There was a temporary delay in retrieving her second chair, in part because these devices are quite heavy, in excess of 400 lbs, and can require extra time to unload and deliver to customers.”

However, Ziv said that is not what she was told at baggage claim.

In a video posted to her Instagram, Air Canada staff can be heard telling Ziv “unfortunately your mobility aid didn’t get loaded … it was never loaded on the flight.”

She said if it wasn’t for the air tag, she would have had to leave the airport without her wheelchair, further delaying its repair — making an already bad situation worse. The temporary replacement she was given is not customized to support her sufficiently and she is in a lot of pain.

“Every day that I’m without the proper support, I am suffering,” she said.

“My wheelchair is my form of independence. It is my mobility. Without my wheelchair, my life stops.”

Even though she was eventually able to locate her wheelchair, Ziv says the entire process was badly mishandled and caused unnecessary duress.

“The whole thing is just a very messy, unorganized form of managing crisis,” she said. “The carelessness that it takes to tell someone, ‘sorry, we left your independence and mobility in another country,’ — that in itself is an extremely traumatizing event to go through.”

Ziv said she is “furious” that she and others with accessibility needs are still facing discrimination after years of advocacy and the story of her broken wheelchair going viral.

“Air Canada is as clueless as all the airlines it seems when it comes to properly caring for customers with disabilities … Since my story broke, I’ve heard from thousands of people all over the world who experience these issues … this is a global, systemic issue. I’ve heard of people who have not been able to seek medical attention because they were not able to get on a flight and go and meet with a doctor who specialized in their field. I’ve heard from people who have missed business opportunities to advance their own personal careers, and I’ve heard from people who’ve just decided not to travel out of the fear of my story being something that would happen to them as well,” she said.

Ziv said the fact that Air Canada connected with her “personally, quietly” after her wheelchair was destroyed to try and make her trip back smoother is simply not enough.

“I’m looking for accountability and I’m looking for real change that impacts every person who flies within Canada at the bare minimum,” she said.

“I don’t want words. I want actions. I don’t want this to ever happen again. I’m terrified to go onto flight.”

Ziv is once again calling for systemic change in how people with disabilities are treated. She says despite the passing of the Accessible Canada Act (ACA), the country has a very long way to go in that regard.

“The ACA is so new that we don’t really have really cutting edge, forward thinking standards that are going to hold airlines accountable. I think that there are many people responsible for seeing change happen, but most importantly, as always with social justice, it’s advocacy and it’s stories like mine and thousands of others who are coming forward now and demanding justice [that have to bring it to the forefront.]”

Citing a statement by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Ziv says failing to support people with disabilities and their mobility devices, whether they be damaged or lost, is a human rights issue.

“This is very much a traumatizing and discriminatory experience that people with disabilities go through. We’re not talking about an inconvenience. We are talking about the lives and human rights and safety of people with disabilities,” she said.

“The way that people with disabilities and their mobility devices are handled is no different than luggage, and that in itself is extremely problematic. My wheelchair is not luggage. My wheelchair is what provides me health, mobility, and independence. And it is not the same thing as someone losing their suitcase.”