An electronic city map highlighting "barrier-free" facilities
and other useful services for the disabled will be launched in
Shanghai this year.
A trial version of the map, covering the Jing'an district, is
currently available on the district's website.
"As the Special Olympics will be held in Shanghai this year, a
map of the whole city will be made available," Shen Jia from the
information center of the Shanghai Association for the Disabled,
said.
The map will include information on the location of ramps and
elevators, toilet facilities, as well as the position of service
agencies and offices for the disabled.
Specialist information for the athletes and information on
gymnasiums and lodgings will be added in time for the Special
Olympics, which starts in August.
Shen said the digital map will also help local authorities
monitor facilities that claim to be barrier-free.
"For example, if a ramp or pathway is blocked by a stall at a
market, we want people to take a picture of it and send it to us,"
Shen said. "In the future, we will be able to monitor such places
using GPS technology."
Shen told China Daily the software is available for
free download now. The map will be regularly updated to ensure it
contains the latest information.
"New places with facilities for the disabled open all the time,
so we will be constantly adding to the map," Shen said.
Help from various institutions and government departments will
be needed, to keep it up-to-date.
One downside to the map is that it is of no use to the visually
challenged, Shen said.
"We are struggling to find more ways to help blind people," Shen
said.
"At the moment, the Shanghai Association for the Disabled is
organizing the training of seeing eye dogs."
Chen Bin, a blind masseur, complained about the difficulty he
encountered at a bus stop in Shanghai.
"I waited for 40 minutes at the stop. Maybe my bus came and
went, I just didn't know, because there were no announcements to
help me."
Chen and his colleagues at the Yuejia Massage House hope the
public can offer a helping hand to the disabled.
"The ramp is there, but if people don't care about us, it's
really not much use," Chen Bin said.
(China Daily June 13, 2007)