Barrier-free environments in China expanding

Aug 1, 2020 is the eighth anniversary of the implementation of the regulations on the construction of a barrier-free environment in China.

In the past eight years, China's barrier-free environment construction has seen great development. Related policies and standards have been improved, and the accessibility level of urban and rural environments, information, and humanistic services for people with disabilities has been improved.

Support poverty alleviation for people with disabilities

For many people with disabilities, some activities such as going to the toilet, turning on the lights, washing and cooking become very difficult because of the lack of barrier-free environments. For impoverished families with disabled members, trivial matters take up a lot of time and energy, which makes it harder for them to escape poverty.

China Disabled Persons' Federation sought subsidies of 833 million yuan (about $120 million) for the barrier-free renovation of approximately 238,000 impoverished families.

From 2016 to 2019, a total of 4.35 million disabled people nationwide completed family barrier-free renovations, including for 550,000 poor and severely disabled families. The coverage rate has increased from 9.6 percent in 2017 to 40.7 percent in 2019. More impoverished persons with disabilities are living a convenient and comfortable life, and are more motivated to get rid of poverty.

Meet diverse needs of people with disabilities

The importance of meeting the diverse needs of people with disabilities by building barrier-free environments is increasing.

The CDPF has issued several notices to state the working principles, content and safeguard measures of barrier-free renovation for families with disabled members especially poor and severely disabled families, and provided a reference for the renovation work in various regions.

The CDPF Vice-chairman Lv Shiming said that the CDPF will further expand the coverage of barrier-free renovation and improve its level for people with disabilities.

Benefit more people with disabilities in barrier-free environment construction

In addition to family barrier-free renovation, the concept of barrier-free environment construction has broader application. From school, office, transportation, to various public services, the concept of a barrier-free city is gradually taking shape.

Compared with the improvement of the level of hardware and software for barrier-free environment construction, what is more gratifying is that the regulations on the construction of barrier-free environments have made the concept of "barrier-free" more popular, indicating that society cares more and more for people with disabilities.