General News
Discrimination and intolerance makes having a disability hard in Hong Kong
Despite a fall in complaints about discrimination, people with disabilities continue to face hurdles and intolerance in the community
Hong Kong-based writer Paul Letters was looking forward to taking his young son on a visit to the bird enclosure in Hong Kong Park recently when they were stopped at the entrance. A security guard told Letters, who is a wheelchair user owing to a nerve condition, he would have to get up and walk if he wanted to look around the aviary.
Such sheer insensitivity aside, there was a symbol posted at the gate to indicate that the aviary was accessible to wheelchairs. The men exchanged words and a supervisor had to be summoned before Letters and his four-year-old were allowed in. But by then the little boy was in tears, and dad wasn't far behind.
"I held back the tears," Letters says. "Once again my disability prevents my son from enjoying something which should be more accessible."
Additional Information
Country: Hong Kong
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Source: The South China Morning Post
When: 03/10/2014
