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Study shows best places for physically challenged

Taoyuan County and Kaohsiung City are among the friendliest areas toward the physically challenged in terms of public infrastructure and facilities, a study by the Construction and Planning Agency shows.

Last summer, the agency launched a project aimed at creating an obstacle-free environment for physically disabled people nationwide. As part of the project, it formed a task force of experts and members of several civic organizations, including the Eden Social Welfare Association, the Republic of China League of Welfare Associations for the Disabled, the National Association of Architects and the Ministry of the Interior's Architecture and Building Research Institute.

The task force then dispatched personnel to each of the country's 25 cities and counties to conduct the survey between Aug. 20 and Sept. 7 last year.

Agency officials said that because of differences in terms of scale of resources and stage of development, for the study the regions of the country were divided into three categories -- urban areas, townships and villages, and remote areas and outlying islands.

For metropolises, Taoyuan County, Kaohsiung City and Taipei City came out the top three places respectively as the most friendly toward the physically challenged.

In the townships and villages category, Kaohsiung County, Taichung County and Ilan County were ranked the top three friendliest, while in the remote areas and outlying islands category, Lianchang County was the friendliest, followed by Kinmen and Penghu County.

Two areas were found to have less-than-adequate public facilities for the physically challenged: Yunlin County, which scored 47.33 out of a possible 100, and Hsinchu County, which scored 58.17.

Agency officials said that the study will be sent to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics for reference and will be used in adjusting fund allocations to government programs aimed at creating an obstacle-free environment for the nation's physically challenged people.
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