By Annet Nakanwagi and Tracy Oiko Acen,
KAMPALA
Is a business worth losing due to its staff’s sincere ignorance of sensitivity to special needs inclusiveness? In an unfortunate incident at Planet Water Park in Bunga – Ggaba that happened on Saturday, 1st July, 2023, a mother of five was dismayed as one of her children was called unhealthy for being autistic and therefore unfit to swim in the pool.
In a post the dismayed mother made on social media, she stated that much as her child is autistic, she can ably swim without aid. This was when the manager, only identified as Moses, approached her and asked her to leave the swimming pool.
“He said some parents were not comfortable with their children near mine because she is not healthy,” in addition to this, “He said my ‘normal children’ were welcome but the ‘unhealthy one’ needed to go.” She wrote.
According to the post, the manager only identified as Moses offered to refund her for the inconvenient said that he would refund the lady’s money so that she could leave because he was losing customers and that her other “normal children” were welcome but the “unhealthy one” had to leave the place.
“He was happy to lose five children customers I came with, to keep may be one customer or none because I actually received no complaints, nor did the pool attendants,” she said.
Questioning the manager’s sense of business, the mother said that they had paid entrance fee for 5 children and meals for 5 children and 2 adults.
In response to the occurrence, Planet Water Park on Tuesday 4, released a press statement apologizing to the mother for any distress caused. Management tinak, park stated that they are having their entire staff trained in specialised conflict management and hypersensitization focusing on handling people with special needs.
Aside from this, the park also expressed its sincere will to learn how to handle special needs customers by inviting the help of the mother of the autistic child in a bid to improve their business through inclusiveness of people with disabilities.
