Easier Access: Government Funds Project To Bring Cycling To Disabled

The CNA/Taiwan Focus is reporting on a new bicycle that will bring grater independence and mobility to the physically disabled (handicapable).

The bicycle, which is being produced by the Cycling and Health Tech. Industry R&D Center, with a NT$ 10 million subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs Dept. of Industrial Technology.

The three-wheeled tricycle is powered not with the feet but with the hands and users can carry crutches or walking sticks on the bike, according to the Cycling and Health Tech Industry R&D Center.

"When the bike is not in motion, the user can apply a safety brake to stop it from rolling away, " the Taichung-based center said in a statement.

"The bike can also go backward to allow greater flexibility in parking and general maneuverability," it said.

The center created the cycle, named "Freedom, " to help people with disabilities take part in the increasingly popular trend of cycling.

This prototype is a welcome addition to the severely limited means by which people with disabilities can become more mobile.

It Taiwan the number of access services are severely limited and people with both physical and mental disabilities are often reliant on family or a human aide for their mobility. Busses are not equipped with wheelchair access, there are too many stairs and too few elevators or ramps.

There is not a general emphasis in Taiwan on providing the disabled with the means to become independent. Often, people with physical disabilities are slotted into "reserved" jobs FOR the disabled.

During the eight years of Chen Shui-bian, I had hoped a greater effort would be made in the area of access services considering his wife is paralyzed from the waist down in a politically motivated assassination attempt. Sadly, as First Lady, Wu Shu-zhen was under such scrutiny and always defending herself from opposition attacks, she could hardly put her stature to good use.

I am also surprised, in a modern country like Taiwan, that there is such limited access. Even the chaos on the city streets is a passive form of discrimination.

I hope this new bike can herald in more technology to give Taiwanese with disabilities a means to become fully independent and pursue the activities others can enjoy so freely.