“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,”
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."
Activists such as the chair of Accessibility for Ontarians with
“The fact of the matter is, air travel in
If an airline does not meet its obligations and a person has tried to resolve their problem and isn't satisfied with the result, they may file a complaint with the
The CTA faced a total of 28,673 complaints for the year up to
After investigating a complaint, the agency can issue a fine up to
Lepofsky says there are several levels to the problem that need fixing and that safeguards should be in place along with federal regulatory changes to increase accountability for the mishandling of passengers with disabilities and their mobility aids.
“No passenger without a disability would tolerate this kind of treatment,” said Lepofsky. “If you are a walking person and you had to worry every time you got on an airplane whether the airline would break your legs, (that) is not something that you would find acceptable.”
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