Thank you.
Honourable members of the committee, good morning.
My name is Maayan Ziv. I am the founder and CEO of AccessNow and the chair of the accessible travel journey technical committee for Accessibility Standards Canada.
Although I hold these positions, today the views I express are strictly my own.
As an advocate and a passenger with a disability, I speak from personal experience of repeated failures in our air travel system.
In September 2022, I travelled from Toronto to Tel Aviv. Upon arrival, I found my custom power wheelchair—which is essential for my mobility, health and independence—damaged beyond repair. This incident left me stranded, in pain and distress, and it forced me into a state of crisis management.
This marked the second time in my life when airline negligence resulted in my wheelchair being declared a total loss. Each occurrence has left me physically and emotionally shattered, with effects that linger and compound over time.
My wheelchair is not luggage, as we've heard today. It is an integral part of who I am and how I function. Without it, even temporarily, I face severe and far-reaching consequences.
There are no legal frameworks or protections that adequately acknowledge that a person's mobility device is an extension of their body. This critical oversight opens the door to ambiguous interpretations and lack of corporate accountability that leave disabled people vulnerable. As a result, we are forced to continually advocate to protect ourselves, our bodies, our dignity and our mobility.
When I shared my story on social media, my experience resonated internationally, capturing hundreds of millions of impressions and sparking the #rightsonflights movement.
Through this movement, thousands of stories have emerged that paint a stark picture of the consistent failures in air travel. These accounts reveal only a sliver of the trauma inflicted on disabled passengers and encompass physical harm, emotional distress, anxiety, abandonment and more. These stories are not isolated incidents, but a routine reality for travellers with disabilities. The stories paint a picture of a pattern of behaviour of negligence and discrimination.
The evidence of these systemic barriers is overwhelming.
I'd like to propose three measures today.
We must demand comprehensive and public reporting of every incident where a disabled passenger's rights are compromised, beyond the occasional story that captures media attention. Airlines must provide detailed, public data on all incidents affecting disabled travellers and our mobility devices—moving beyond anecdotal evidence and phrases like “tens of thousands travel normally” to a comprehensive accountability system.
We must implement automatic, stringent penalties that reflect the gravity of every incident where a mobility device is lost or damaged. Our current systems profoundly fail disabled people and place an onus on those in vulnerable positions to contend against billion-dollar corporations and fractured government entities.
It is unacceptable for airlines to dismiss the severe trauma experienced by disabled passengers with mere vouchers or hollow apologies. There must be immediate consequences every time for the violations of disabled passengers' rights.
Travel must also be standardized and predictable. Today, every flight I take feels like a negotiation to secure my well-being and my safety. We need standardized, enhanced handling and storage procedures for all types of mobility devices, with priority on keeping devices with the individual whenever possible. Comprehensive training for staff at all levels, including executive leadership, is crucial.
We need robust customer service policies and transparent action plans to address issues when they do and will continue to arise. We must guarantee consistent, respectful treatment at every single point of contact throughout the travel experience.
To conclude, we need a cultural shift towards greater empathy. No amount of documentation, wordsmithing or regulation can fully capture the humiliation and pain of being disregarded, mishandled or spoken down to, as if we disabled people are second-class citizens.
In no other mode of transportation are people forced out of their mobility aids or treated with such disregard. This dehumanization is in stark contrast to the values we claim to uphold as Canadians, and it must end.
Thank you for this opportunity to advocate for change. I look forward to answering your questions.