More should be done to enhance sidewalk accessibility, disabled rights advocates said yesterday at a hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
“There are more than 16 government agencies that are free to ‘rape’ or trample over sidewalks, but we cannot find a unified government agency responsible for approving things,” Access for All in Taiwan project manager Chen Ming-li (陳明里) said, adding that regulations technically mandate a sidewalk width of 1.5m, but lack of space often leads that to be shrunk to 90cm, potentially creating problems for wheelchairs.
“When wheelchairs are opened up, they take up more than 68cm, so where are they supposed to go if some agency adds a light pole or a traffic light control box to a narrow band of pavement?” Chen said.
A lack of government action and slow progress were common themes from those who testified at the Internal Administration Committee hearing convened by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智).
“Over the past 30 years, I have been hit by cars three times,” said Liu Yi-yun (劉逸雲), a Republic of China Spinal Cord Injury Victims Association consultant who uses a wheelchair.
“As an electric wheelchair does not count as a ‘vehicle’ under traffic laws, I am actually liable if I am hit while going down a street instead of the sidewalk, but the problem is that sometimes I cannot use the sidewalk,” Liu said.
Parents Association for the Visually Impaired secretary-general Lan Chie-chou (藍介洲) called on government agencies to level pavements inside building arcades and reduce the number of arcade stairs, adding that blind people face huge obstacles crossing roads because of the absence of traffic lights with audio signals.
“People often assume that my guide dog can tell me when the signal turns, but the reality is that dogs are color blind. I have to pay attention to what I hear and order him to take me across the road when it sounds safe,” he said, adding that he has been trapped in the middle of the road numerous times after misjudging the situation.
Taiwan Institute of Landscape Architects president emeritus Monica Kuo (郭瓊瑩) called for a portion of the NT$880 billion (US$29 billion) “Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Project” announced by Premier Lin Chuan (林全) last week to be allocated to improving accessibility.
“The NT$1.5 billion [budgeted by the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency for accessibility] might sound like a lot, but after you sprinkle it among all the nation’s townships and cities, it is just the remainder of budgetary scraps,” she said.
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
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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