A park in Sijhih City (汐止), Taipei County, drew criticism from activists recently because it bans wheelchairs.
Under the pseudonym Zuo Peng (左芃), the mother of a girl who depends on a wheelchair posted an article on her blog at the end of last month saying her daughter was blocked from entering the Sijhih Sports Park because she was in a wheelchair.
“One negative thing about this park that was built for the public is that it puts dogs and wheels in the same category. Dogs and anything with wheels — wheelchair, cart, buggy, bicycle, scooter or tricycle — are all prohibited from entering” as a sign outside the park entrance states, Zuo wrote.
“This is a typical case of discrimination and lack of awareness about people with disabilities,” she said, adding that while most people can leave their wheels outside the park, only people on wheelchairs are completely excluded.
Zuo said that when she protested to park administrators, they said it would look bad if there were wheelchairs in the park and suggested the complaint should be directed to the park’s designers.
Zuo said she and her daughter “left the place feeling discriminated against and humiliated.”
However, more humiliation came when she filed a complaint with the county government.
The county’s Public Works Bureau said the rule followed a set of Sijhih regulations on the management of parks and public spaces. It went on to say that the park was built to be “used by the regular public for sports purposes, hence the entries of pets and physically challenged individuals are not recommended, in order to ensure the safety of the regular public and the physically challenged.”
Zuo said the reply upset her.
“What kind of logic is it to say that people on wheelchairs would threaten the safety of ‘the regular public’ so the ‘regular public’ may stay in the park, while people on wheelchairs and pets should be kept out?” Zuo said. “I wonder what these officials, park designers and public servants have in mind when they think of people on wheelchairs? If this isn’t discrimination, what is it?”
Citing clauses in the Act for Protecting the Interests of the Physically and Mentally Disabled (身心障礙者權益保障法), which stipulates that people with disabilities should have equal rights using facilities in public places, Organizations for the Disabled secretary-general Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) said the county and city governments were violating the law and treating people with disabilities as second-class citizens.
“They should apologize and revise the park regulations,” Wang said.
County Public Works Bureau official Hsieh Wen-huang (謝文徨) said they replied according to regulation and had no intention to humiliate or to discriminate, and added the bureau would apologize to Zuo.
Sijhih City official Chiang Chang-liu (江長流) said the rule was made to protect the pavement on the tracks and promised to revise the wording of the sign to avoid misunderstandings in the future.
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
The US Department of State on Monday reaffirmed that US policy on Taiwan remains unchanged, following US President Donald Trump’s use of the term “unification” while commenting on recent trade talks with China. Speaking at a wide-ranging press conference, Trump described what he viewed as progress in trade negotiations with China held in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend. “They’ve agreed to open China — fully open China, and I think it’s going to be fantastic for China. I think it’s going to be fantastic for us,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to be great for unification and peace.” Trump’s use of the
RSS