Michelle Daley serves the people of the United Kingdom through the government advisory committee Equality 2025
Interviewed by Jo Couzens in Sky News Online she explains
"I'm advising the Government on disability equality and ironically I was prevented from doing my job properly. That type of discrimination is just not on."
"They told me: 'We can't allow you on this flight because you are a health and safety risk'."
She added: "It was just humiliating and degrading. Just blatant discrimination."
Source: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1310802,00.html
The incident is reminiscent of the cases of Rajiv Rajan on JetLite (formerly Air Sahara) and Sminu Jindal on Jet Airways and an unreported recent case of ten persons with deafness traveling together i the Philippines whose travel plans were disrupted by airline officials based on discriminatory practices.
In 2004 Equality 2025 was formed to provide the government with direct access to articulate informed individuals with disability in order to implement policy. The groups Statement of Purpose is downloadable here
. In the preface the genesis of Equality 2025 is explained:
1.1 The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit Report ‘Improving Life Chances for Disabled People’ set Government the challenge of delivering equality for disabled people by 2025. One of the problems the report describes is that disability groups and individuals are not well represented within policy development and that relations between disabled people’s organisations and Government, while improving, have been tentative and partial. A ‘National Forum for Organisations of Disabled People’ was recommended as part of the solution to these problems.
It appears that Michelle Daley in reporting this incident is following the prime directive of her resopnsibility to the government which states:
Most importantly,2.6 In everything that it does, the Network will seek to include and
articulate the views, experiences and opinions of the full and
diverse range of disabled people, especially the most
marginalised, disempowered or excluded groups and those who
experience multiple discrimination and those who do not identify
themselves as ‘disabled’.
In addition, she is i line with recent promises of European Commissioner Jacques Barrot, “I can guarantee you my full commitment to advance access of disabled people the transport system’, said the Commissioner.
Ms. Daley's actions are further fortified by the July 5, 2008 European Union's Regulation on the Rights of Disabled Persons and Persons with Reduced Mobility When Travelling by Air that is available for download here