As many of us know, traveling is expensive. Something which is also expensive is an electric wheelchair. But for those with mobility issues, you could very well say that a motorized wheelchair is priceless—after all, such a device is the only way to get around for millions of individuals who have conditions that rely on wheelchairs to be independent.
And so, it is particularly frustrating that airlines have a habit of damaging these priceless pieces of equipment.
In September, Maayan Ziv was traveling from her native Toronto to Tel Aviv where she was to attend a conference about accessibility in Israel. Ziv, who founded a company called AccessNow, was born with Muscular Dystrophy and uses a custom-made wheelchair which she describes as the most empowering piece of technology in her life. “I see it as an extension of my body,” the disability activist says.
Yet, when it came time for Ziv to disembark from her Air Canada flight, she found that her $30,000 wheelchair had been severely damaged—despite having covered the chair in bubble wrap and “fragile” stickers.
“It looked mangled, like it had been squashed with heavy force. The entire frame, including the backrest and seat, was folded in half,” she recalls. “I asked the baggage workers what happened, but nobody could give me an explanation.”
This was not the first time that Ziv’s chair had been damaged by an airline. Similar incidents had occurred while she was a teenager, including American Airlines dropping her wheelchair from the cargo door of the plane onto the tarmac.
“Airlines deal with this sort of thing all the time, but I’m not sure they understood the monumental impact this would have on my life. My chair is basically my legs. Imagine getting off a plane in a new country to discover that the airline has bashed your knees in,” Ziv states.
After initially only offering a $300 voucher off her next flight, Air Canada has finally agreed to cover the cost of repair or replacement of Ziv’s chair. But due to it being specially customized to her needs, it could be a year before the tech entrepreneur gets a new chair.