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.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the