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The mother of an eight-year-old boy who was refused entrance to Funtasia water park because he is in a wheelchair has claimed her son has been left 'distraught' by the incident.
Therese Byrne from Sean Tobar in Clogherhead said she couldn't believe her ears when staff refused to allow Conor (8) into the centre where her daughter Ciara (11) was celebrating her birthday because he is in a wheelchair. (All three are pictured.)
However, Funtasia bosses have apologised for the incident. Funtasia Manager Andree McCarthy admitted the incident had happened and apologised for the mistake.
'Unfortunately, this is just one staff member who made a mistake on the day,' she said.
Therese Byrne could not believe that something like this could happen 'in this day and age'.
'Conor has cerebal palsy, which means he needs to use a wheelchair but he is a bright, intelligent, deep little boy. They are after knocking his confidence completely and now he thinks he is different.
'It was a horrible and humiliating experience for him to be told he had to wait outside while his sister's birthday party went on inside just because he's in a wheelchair. Conor has been left absolutely devastated by what happened.'
'I do understand how upset the family are and I'm very sorry about that but this is not Funtasia's policy, we don't discriminate against anyone, we are completely wheelchair accessible, we have ramps and lifts and Conor himself has been here before for bowling and parties,' stated Andree McCarthy.
She said the employee's stance in telling the family that no wheelchairs were allowed was 'totally wrong' and added he now realises his mistake.
'This is not something that will ever happen again and it has never happened before,' said Andree. 'Everyone was devastated by how Conor was treated. We would love to make it up to the family and we have offered to have another birthday party to make amends.'
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From The Drogheda Independent in Ireland:
