When Jacky Hsu visited Edinburgh, Scotland, he explored the city on handicapped-accessible tour buses. In Japan, he traveled with few difficulties, with the assistance of subway workers and detailed tour information.
Back home, however, Hsu -- who has infantile paralysis -- as well as more than 910,000 others with mental or physical disabilities, often worry about how to get to their destination.
The number of disabled people is expected to rise as Taiwan becomes an aged society, so creating a barrier-free environment no longer means just meeting the basic needs of the disabled community. It may also pave the way for the development of accessible tourism -- a growing market around the world.
"The number of potential tourists who require accessible attractions is increasing internationally. Many countries have been working on improving tourism amenities to satisfy the needs of the disabled community or the elderly, and we'd like to make Taiwan the next country with successful accessible tourism," Lin Wen-pin (林文賓), the head of Eden Social Welfare Foundation's development department, said yesterday.
During a press conference called to announce an international accessible-tourism conference organized by the foundation and Asia Pacific Disability Forum, groups for the disabled and elderly introduced the concept of accessible tourism, which aims to provide accessible and friendly services and facilities for the disabled and the elderly.
Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (
King, who is the head of the city's accessible environment promotion committee, promised to make Taipei one of the most livable places in the world.
"Creating an accessible environment is a task. What we do is to make priorities of facilities needing to be improved. Currently we are working on bridges and pavement accessibility, followed by parks and tourism spots in the next round," King said.
"Older people in countries such as Japan and the United States represent a high percentage of the traveling population. We hope that with the conference, Taiwan's travel industry will work with us to make elder tourists benefit from a vacation without obstacles or difficulties," said Wu Yu-chin (
According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior last year, the elderly make up almost 10 percent of Taiwan's population. When the disabled are taken into account, more than 17 percent of people in this country need a barrier-free environment.
Hsu said that in addition to facilities, availability of information about the accessibility of tourism spots, such as accessible guides for tourists or on the Web, is also important for developing successful accessible tourism.
The first international accessible tourism conference will be held at the Grand Hotel from tomorrow through Sunday. A total of 58 experts on accessible tourism and disabled groups from 10 countries will attend.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS