As a starting point, it is tiresome to have to prove over and over again that you have a disability, and to have to reapply every time for accommodation for each flight. We should develop an identifier number situation we can use at the check-in so that those of us with guide dogs, and people with other mobility aids, can check themselves in without having to go through a medical desk and spend an hour on hold waiting for help.

Every program, service or piece of equipment at the airport needs to be accessible to everyone with disabilities. All of us who are blind have had trouble with CBSA kiosks when trying to get our photos taken to prove our identity because we can't line them up. We have apps from the Canada Border Services Agency, that we have to use to take pictures of our passports, that are inaccessible, and there are various other things.

We need to have a group that looks at the travel experience from beginning to end, identifies the accessibility barriers and works with the airlines on the development of binding standards on the industry to break down these barriers.

The other piece is the CTA committees that talk about accessibility in transportation. CATSA needs to have the same thing for security. The differences in ability and training among the various contracting security agencies in the airports in this country are staggering, as are some of the questions we're asked as people with disabilities, like, “What do you need this piece of equipment for?” If they find a piece of equipment and they don't know what it is or how it works, they use that as an excuse to search you by hand, and, in my case, to ask me if I was carrying explosives. Other examples are, “Where do you work?” and, even better, “How much money do you make?”

This is our reality. These are the kinds of things that we, as people with disabilities, face.

Thank you.

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