Shanghai Builds More Facilities for Disabled

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 ◆ Shanghai Builds More Facilities for Disabled

To make life easier for Shanghai's half a million disabled people, the city is planning to make its facilities, from apartments to parks, more accessible.

Officials say Shanghai will start by upgrading its residential complexes to make them more user-friendly in a series of steps to be completed by the end of next year. The city will invest 300 million yuan or 36 million US dollars in the next four years.

First on the list are 1,500 housing blocks within the Inner Ring Road, where renovations will be completed by the end of this year. In addition, the city plans to upgrade another 3,670 public facilities to better accommodate the disabled. By the end of 2006, 25 per cent of all sidewalks will be equipped with facilities like ramps and walkways for the blind.

The Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation estimates there are approximately 520,000 disabled people in the city.