The facilities for disabled people in Singapore

Last Friday I missed the bus which was directly from LT31 in NUS to Eton Hall. So there was no choice for me but to take another bus. I needed to reach the bus station first. If you have had such experience like me, you must know that I had to cross a overpass. The overpass is a little bit strange. It does not have steps like other overpasses. Two slightly-oblique slopes take the place of steps which make it a long way to go. As I was annoyed by such a long way, a person who sat in a wheelchair came down. I got to understand the design of the overpass. It is for disabled people.

In fact, such public infrastructures can be seen almost everywhere in Singapore. As for pavements, where there are steps, there is usually a slightly-oblique slope beside it. In terms of elevators, you can notice that the buttons are low enough for those disabled people to reach. Another example is washroom. Normally there are special washrooms for disabled ones. There are handrails beside the lavatory. It is convenient for them to use.

However, you seldom see these facilities in cities in China. The fact is that there are around 82,000,000 disabled people in China, but you can not even meet one of them in streets. As my own opinion, it is partly related to the lack of basic facilities for disabled people. Although there are special side walk for blind people in some cities of China, in my observation, many of the ways are taken up by bicycles or other things. Even in Beijing, they do not realize the lack of infrastructures for disabled people until they are going to open the 2008 Paralympic Games.

The planners of cities in China should learn from Singapore. There is a long way to go for the infrastructures in China.