Advocates warn of ‘gaping holes’ in accessibility law amid issues facing travellers

Accessibility advocates are speaking out about unreliable assistance in air travel, pointing to regulatory gaps and scattershot enforcement.

On a cool day in May at the Vancouver airport last year, Heather Walkus found herself stuck on the curb without assistance for nearly an hour.

Eventually Walkus, who is blind and living with multiple sclerosis, was guided to the Air Canada check-in counter and escorted to her gate, but her flight to Penticton, B.C., was delayed.

“I spent four hours alone in a wheelchair, blind, without anybody checking on me,” she said. “I couldn’t go to the bathroom. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t find anybody to help me.

“Then they expected me to be able to get up out of the chair and climb up stairs onto my flight. It was ridiculous,” said Walkus, who chairs the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

“It’s like I was parked luggage,” she said. You’re just dumped and left.”

Walkus is among the accessibility advocates speaking out about unreliable assistance in air travel, pointing to regulatory gaps and scattershot enforcement that can leave travellers with disabilities injured, stranded or demeaned.

Community leaders describe mangled mobility aids, seemingly untrained staff and a check-in and boarding process akin to a slow-motion relay that shuttles passengers from one point to another, who sometimes wait hours unassisted.

The criticism comes after Air Canada pledged to roll out new measures that improve the experience for hundreds of thousands of travellers living with a disability.