Los Angeles, April 26 (IANS) Hollywood actress Marissa Bode, who is known for her work in ‘Wicked’, recently opened up on the discrimination that she faced as a differently abled person.
The actress posted a video on TikTok claiming she was recently barred from a Southern Airways flight because of her wheelchair, reports ‘Variety’.
She said, “I was denied boarding a flight because I’m disabled. I wish that were clickbait. I wish that were false, but that is what happened”.
As per ‘Variety’, she explained that she was having trouble locating her virtual ticket before boarding her flight to Pennsylvania. When she asked the crew for assistance, they informed her she was not allowed on the plane because of her wheelchair.
She continued, “So I got to the gate, and I was like, ‘Hey, could you help me locate my boarding pass?’. And the two people at the gate look at me, and they are like, ‘Can you stand?’ And I said, ‘No’. And they said, ‘I’m sorry, but because of that, we’re going to have to deny you boarding’. They proceeded to tell me all the planes within this airline have stairs to get on the plane. Wild. Never heard of that before”.
She added, “I was like, disabled people are not an afterthought. Why, knowing that disabled people exist, which y’all clearly often forget, do you choose not to update your planes? And I was like, ‘This is blatant segregation’”.
Southern Airlines’ contract of carriage states that “customers must be able to ascend and descend several steps to board the aircraft”.
The contract also states that because the Southern Airlines’ planes hold “28 or fewer passengers”, it is exempt from providing mechanical lifts, a requirement set by the Air Carrier Access Act.
–IANS
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