Dogs can guide visually impaired in public

The Beijing Municipal Barrier-Free Environment Construction Regulation, which allows the visually impaired to be accompanied by a guide dog in public places and even use public transport, came into effect on Monday.

The regulation will be of immense help to the visually impaired, because guide dogs can help them navigate the streets and use public transport with less trouble.

Not letting guide dogs accompany the visually impaired is tantamount to depriving them of their rights.

Also, the guide dogs are chosen carefully, ensuring none in their family, within seven generations, has ever attacked anyone. In fact, there is no report of any guide dog having attacked people anywhere in the world.

The city authorities issued a regulation in 2015 asking the Beijing subway management to make arrangements to ensure the visually impaired could use their services.

But the latest regulation makes it clear that the subway management cannot prevent guide dogs accompanied with their masters from entering subway stations or boarding trains. Doing so will invite penalty.

In fact, some improvement in subway staff members' attitude toward the visually impaired was evident on Monday. When Chen Yan, a piano tuner, boarded a subway train with her guide dog on Monday, a staff member was there to assist her if required.

Apart from fulfilling their duty, some Beijing subway employees have also shown how caring they can be.

Allowing the visually impaired to be accompanied by guide dogs inside the subway is only one way of protecting their rights.

In 2004, the Beijing local government issued a regulation for the construction and maintenance of barrier-free public facilities in the city. The new regulation goes a step further, calling for creating a "barrier-free environment", particularly for the visually impaired.

To protect the rights of those with disabilities is part of the authorities' efforts to better protect human rights.