The objectives of the Governor General’s Innovation Awards are to celebrate excellence in innovation across all sectors of Canadian society and inspire Canadians — particularly Canadian youth — to be entrepreneurial innovators.
The list of 2020 laureates, includes Torontonian Maayan Ziv. Maayan was part of our 2016 Agents of Change: Community Health accelerator with her Access Now app. Using crowdsourced information, the app connects people with ratings, insight and information on the accessibility features and status of businesses and experiences in over 30 countries.
In addition to being a social entrepreneur, Maayan is also an advocate and activist. She has recently launched this online petition after learning that American Airlines has created a new policy banning people using power wheelchairs from flying.
She says:
“Like many, I have personally had my wheelchairs damaged or totaled. I have faced extreme discrimination, emotional trauma and physical harm.
What the entire travel industry needs to do is redesign wheelchair handling and overall customer care for people with disabilities…not further isolate and discriminate paying customers.
I am calling for an immediate reversal of this new discriminatory policy by American Airlines, and further, a complete and comprehensive review of how American Airlines addresses customers with disabilities in designing new policies moving forward.”
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