Deaf-blind Ottawa woman angry after ‘humiliating’ Air Canada flight | CTV News

Deaf-blind Ottawa woman angry after ‘humiliating’ Air Canada flight | CTV NewsAn Ottawa-area woman who is both blind and deaf has launched a formal complaint against Air Canada after a difficult trip to Alberta last week that she says left her frightened and humiliated.

Christine 'Coco' Roschaert is a 33-year-old motivational speaker who has travelled the world to advocate for the rights of the deaf-blind community. She was born deaf and lost most of her sight in her late teens through a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

Roschaert has taken more than 1,000 flights to 50 countries around the world for her speaking engagements. Those trips have included dozens of solo flights aboard Air Canada, in which she brought along only her white cane to guide her.

But the Air Canada flight she took last Friday from Ottawa to Edmonton traumatized her, she says.

Roschaert says she got through security and boarded her flight without a problem. But before takeoff, a manager with Air Canada walked up to her and told her she had to get off the plane.

“I thought I was being arrested for something, or that I was in trouble,” Roschaert told CTV Ottawa, speaking through her sign-language interpreter. (click the link above for the full story)