People with physical and mental disabilities as well as activists urged government officials yesterday to stand by their promises to create a handicap-friendly environment.
Although laws require accessible facilities in public places — whether government-run or privately run — many people with disabilities said they still found many such facilities lacking.
“Every citizen of this country shares equal rights and deserves to be treated with respect — this is what the government and politicians promised us,” May Lien (連美滿), founder of the Nook Association of Social Awareness, told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
“But in reality, disabled citizens are more often than not left out,” she said.
“When the government builds public toilets ‘for the disabled’ with doors that are too small for wheelchairs, or when an individual in a wheelchair finds himself or herself in a busy street with cars flying by at the end of a wheelchair ramp, how can we believe that politicians really care for the disabled?” Lien asked.
Free Universe Education Foundation chairman Dan Tang (唐峰正), who is paralyzed from the waist down and depends on his wheelchair to get around, agreed with Lien.
Tang said that the Taipei City Government is spending more than NT$10 billion (US$311 million) to organize the 2010 International Flower Exposition, “but as far as I know, there are no wheelchair accessible facilities in the under-construction venue.”
“It’s hard for those of us in wheelchairs to go to a concert or a movie because there are often steps in the venues,” Tang said.
In addition, besides people who have been disabled for the most of their lives like himself, about 12 percent of Taipei residents are senior citizens, he said.
“These people may need better access to facilities as well, and those who are in power must consider whether the facilities they build meet everyone’s needs,” Tang said.
Rights groups are planning to raise public awareness of the issue by holding an event at Liberty Square and Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office from 1:30pm to 8:30pm on Saturday.
The combination festival and demonstration will include a parade, a flea market, live music and other performances by the mentally and physically challenged.
“We want to demonstrate on Ketagalan Boulevard because it’s a place where everyone’s voices can be heard, and physically and mentally challenged citizens should not be absent from it,” Lien said.
League of Welfare Organizations for the Disabled secretary-general Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) agreed.
“We must be there so the people in power can see the difficulties that the disabled encounter in their everyday life,” Wang said.
“We will make it not only a demonstration, but also a festival, because we want to show everyone that disabled people are just like everybody else: We have talents to show, and we have joy to share,” she said.
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