Cocultural Communication :: Essays Papers

Cocultural Communication A co-cultural experience When asked to write this paper about a co-cultural experience there was one that jumped right in to my mind. My experience occurred right around a year ago while I working for United Airlines. I worked out of the Canton-Akron Airport so the planes we flew were smaller then the jets out of Cleveland and were propeller planes. One day while checking in passengers like normal for our 5:50pm flight my co-cultural experience came up to the counter to check in. She was probably in her 30’s and was with two of her friends. She was on her way to Chicago to be a guest speaker at a large conference. There was a few things that made this woman unique to me from first sight. First of all she was in an electric wheelchair. Secondly this woman was overweight. Third she appeared to be slightly retarded judging by her actions. And lastly this woman had no arms and no legs. When I found out she was flying to Chicago and not her friends, I recommended that she fly out of Cleveland and that United Airlines would provide her with transportation up to the airport. The reason I recommended this is due to the fact that propeller planes do not have jet-ways that you walk or roll out in to the plane on. But rather propeller planes have approximately 8 or 9 narrow steps that people have to climb up to get in to the plane. For people with disabilities that could not walk up the steps we had a straight back chair to carry them up the steps with. The straight back chair involved a guy at the top of the chair and one at the bottom carrying the chair while walking up the steps. A woman of her size though would be very difficult to carry up the stairs and the fact that the steps are narrow could come in to play also. After my suggestion her friends were very disgusted with me and walked away upset I could tell. No less than a minute later I had a phone call from a represenative of the Americans with Disabilities Act telling me that it was discrimination what I was doing. I explained to him the situation with the steps and that in Cleveland she would be able to roll right onto the plane through a jet-way. Cocultural Communication :: Essays Papers Cocultural Communication A co-cultural experience When asked to write this paper about a co-cultural experience there was one that jumped right in to my mind. My experience occurred right around a year ago while I working for United Airlines. I worked out of the Canton-Akron Airport so the planes we flew were smaller then the jets out of Cleveland and were propeller planes. One day while checking in passengers like normal for our 5:50pm flight my co-cultural experience came up to the counter to check in. She was probably in her 30’s and was with two of her friends. She was on her way to Chicago to be a guest speaker at a large conference. There was a few things that made this woman unique to me from first sight. First of all she was in an electric wheelchair. Secondly this woman was overweight. Third she appeared to be slightly retarded judging by her actions. And lastly this woman had no arms and no legs. When I found out she was flying to Chicago and not her friends, I recommended that she fly out of Cleveland and that United Airlines would provide her with transportation up to the airport. The reason I recommended this is due to the fact that propeller planes do not have jet-ways that you walk or roll out in to the plane on. But rather propeller planes have approximately 8 or 9 narrow steps that people have to climb up to get in to the plane. For people with disabilities that could not walk up the steps we had a straight back chair to carry them up the steps with. The straight back chair involved a guy at the top of the chair and one at the bottom carrying the chair while walking up the steps. A woman of her size though would be very difficult to carry up the stairs and the fact that the steps are narrow could come in to play also. After my suggestion her friends were very disgusted with me and walked away upset I could tell. No less than a minute later I had a phone call from a represenative of the Americans with Disabilities Act telling me that it was discrimination what I was doing. I explained to him the situation with the steps and that in Cleveland she would be able to roll right onto the plane through a jet-way.