Plain Discrimination?

By: Tiffany Tan ASP Board Secretary

A mother and special child were asked to disembark the plane from HK to Manila due to a misinterpretation of their airline policy on not having 2 “special children” on the same flight.

Apparently, the flight attendant misinterpreted their airline policy on “person with mental illness” with “person with disability”.

Click here to watch video

The airline allowed the family to fly to Manila after more than an hour’s delay and has issued an apology for the incident.

What you should know:

1. The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons or RA 7277 Chapter 2 Section 34 states “It shall be considered discrimination for the franchisees or operators and personnel of sea, land, and air transportation facilities to charge higher fare or to refuse to convey a passenger, his orthopedic devices, personal effects, and merchandise by reason of his disability.”

2. IATA International (Air Transport Association) and its Member airlines fully support efforts to assure nondiscrimination and to remove barriers to access to travel for passengers with disabilities. Air carriers and airport managing bodies must ensure that their personnel has appropriate knowledge of how to meet the needs of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, and should where necessary provide training to that end.

3. Click here for Autism and Travel Safety Tips

If your company is interested to know more about autism or needs training on how to handle/understand children and families dealing with autism, please contact us at 7-903-5496 or write to autismphils@gmail.com.

Posted in: awareness