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A Hong Kong restaurant director has said that inadequate staff training was to blame after a Paralympic athlete was barred from entering because of her wheelchair.
The comments came after boccia player Ho Yuen-kei, who won two gold medals at the Paris Paralympics, said in a post on social media platform Threads on Tuesday that she had tried to visit Thai restaurant Ayutthaya for dinner. The restaurant had a large entrance and was not crowded, she wrote.
Ho said the waiters had told her the restaurant had no space for her wheelchair as it would obstruct other people, even as she said her wheelchair does not take up much room when it is parked at the table.
Kenneth Ng, Ayutthaya’s director, told HKFP on Thursday that he had called Ho to apologise and assured her that the restaurant did not intend to discriminate.
Ng said he not there that day, but from what he understood, his staff had determined that Ho’s wheelchair was too big and that having her in the restaurant could cause obstructions and safety concerns, especially because waiters would be carrying hot dishes.
His staff were wrong to make that assumption, he said, adding that Ho should have been allowed to come in first and see what be arranged.
“I think this incident showed that our waiters’ knowledge and experience of serving people with disabilities is insufficient,” he said in Cantonese, adding that he would be enhancing training. He added that he was looking into other ways to make the restaurant friendlier towards those with special needs.
“I appreciate that Ho shared the incident on social media because it prompted us to reflect, and I hope it can get other restaurants to consider how to serve people with disabilities too,” Ng said.
The Equal Opportunities Commission said in response to HKFP’s enquiries it was “concerned about the incident but would not comment on individual cases.”
It said discriminating against somebody on the grounds of their disability was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, unless the service provider has “reasonable justification,” such as demonstrating “that providing such service would constitute unjustifiable hardship to the service provider.”
Ho clinched two gold medals at the Paris Paralympics this summer, one in an individual event and another in a doubles match. The city won eight medals at the Games, with Ho the only athlete to win more than one.
In her Threads post on Wednesday, she shared a link to her YouTube channel where she had some years ago posted vlogs introducing wheelchair-friendly restaurants around Hong Kong.
“[I] hope this unhappy dining experience can spark different stakeholders’ awareness regarding barrier-free facilities,” Ho wrote in Chinese.
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