Damaged wheelchair renews calls for greater regulation of airline disability services

A disability activist whose wheelchair was severely damaged during a recent flight says mobility aids are treated no better than luggage, leading to renewed calls for greater regulation of airline disability services. Maayan Ziv says her wheelchair was rendered inoperable after an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv, Israel to attend the Access Israel disability conference earlier this month. Air Canada said that the airline offered to pay for the damages and sent a specialty repair person immediately to Ziv’s hotel. “Regrettably, in this case we did not meet our normal service levels. We did respond to this customer's concerns immediately at the airport, including arranging for a specialized wheelchair service to fix the damage,” Air Canada said. However, Ziv says that the mishandling of mobility aids happens all too often and that monetary compensation is not enough. "For me, that's the bare minimum. What about my time? What about the health of my body, and the amount of trauma that I still experience? Like, I'm not OK," said Ziv. "People with disabilities are experiencing this second-class citizen treatment, where our mobility devices are treated like baggage instead of extensions of our bodies, which is what they are."mActivists such as the chair of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, David Lepofsky, said that Ziv’s story is horrible but not surprising, as there have been a number of reports where mobility devices and passengers were improperly handled by airlines. “The fact of the matter is, air travel in Canada is not properly supervised, to ensure that it is safe and accessible for people with disabilities,” said Lepofsky. <br/>