Lawmakers Inspect Wheelchair Accessibility Issues at Taipei Main Station
Two lawmakers have toured Taipei Main Station in wheelchairs to see for themselves the challenges wheelchair users face when trying to get around the transport hub.
Accessibility Challenges at Taipei Main Station
REPORTER:
Disability rights advocates say Taipei’s main station is a tough place for wheelchair users to get around. To drive the point home—and push for better accessibility—they've brought lawmakers on a wheelchair tour of the station to see the hassles disabled passengers face every day.
-The signs tell us to go forward, right? - Yes.
You start to panic here.
REPORTER:
These two lawmakers are joining disability activists for a tour of Taipei Main Station, the capital’s primary transit hub. To get a true sense of what it’s like for wheelchair users, they’re in wheelchairs too. It's not long before they hit barrier number one—the escalators down from the lobby to the trains.
Kuo Yu-ching (LAWMAKER, DPP):
What does it say?
I have to get up here to see.
Open the phone box and make a call.
REPORTER:
Lawmakers Kuo Yu-ching and Chen Ching-hui come from opposite sides of the political aisle. But today, they’re in the same boat. Because until a station attendant picks up their call and helps them turn on the wheelchair ramp, neither of them is going anywhere. It can take up to ten minutes for someone to show up. Something that takes just a few seconds for people on foot turns into a lengthy hassle.
REPORTER:
There are elevators. But wheelchair users say finding them, even on station maps, isn’t easy.
Liu Chin-chung (THE LEAGUE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, R.O.C. (TAIWAN)):
Can you figure out where there’s an [elevator] symbol?
REPORTER:
And where there are signs, advocates say they are often far too low to the ground to be noticed, making it easy for wheelchair users to get lost.
REPORTER:
Wheelchair users say Taipei Main Station doesn’t adequately meet their needs.
Liu Chin-chung (THE LEAGUE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, R.O.C. (TAIWAN)):
I can see the airport metro is in front of me.
But can I get to it? No.
I have to cross a street and go down an elevator.
Can you find where you’re going by relying on the signage at Taipei Main Station?
You’ll never find it.
REPORTER:
Taipei Main Station is where local metro, airport metro, high speed rail and local rail lines all meet. Statistically, some 30,000 people with a disability pass through every day. Taiwan Railway says it’s taking suggestions for better accessibility seriously.
Wang Chao-hsien (DIRECTOR, NORTHERN DISTRICT OPERATIONS, TAIWAN RAILWAY CORPORATION):
We will review the situation
and shorten [staff] response times
so people don’t have to wait so long.
We’ll immediately launch an examination and evaluation
about signage and guidance to entrances and exits.
REPORTER:
Wheelchair users—and the lawmakers that have joined them today—hope the station will take these promises seriously, so that navigating one of Taiwan’s most complex transport hubs will be at least a little bit easier.
Joseph Wu and John Van Trieste for TaiwanPlus.
