Every day countless handicapped Beijingers encounter obstacles. Photos: CFP

Getting from one point in Beijing to another can be frustrating—the heat, humidity, car exhaust, road construction, changing road names and confusing addresses. Now imagine the issues stacked against the disabled: Sidewalk ledges become daunting, stairs an insuperable barrier, and crossing the street a race against time. 

Every day, tens to hundreds of thousands of handicapped Beijingers encounter these obstacles. To address this, Beijing is becoming barrier-free. Although barrier-free design extends from offices to bedrooms, without easy, accessible transportation the handicapped are isolated, unable to go to work, school, shop with friends or visit family. Additionally, in accommodating the most handicapped users, i.e. wheelchairs-users or the blind, Beijing accommodates those with lesser handicaps, i.e. unable to climb stairs or with imperfect site. 

Barrier-free is the way to be

Originating in the 1950s, barrier-free design acknowledges that structures present previously unrecognized obstacles, and emphasizes the need to open access to everyone, including the handicapped. Becoming barrier-free involves massive alterations and additions. While changes are city- and site-specific, possibilities include ramps and elevators as alternatives to stairs and ledges, bus access for wheelchairs, Braille signs, and handicapped parking. 

Barrier-free efforts received a boost when Beijing hosted the 2008 Paralympics. Beijing focused on transporting disabled visitors, locals and athletes. The resulting public transportation overhaul provided wheelchair-accessible buses and subway personnel to assist the disabled. The same year the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Badaling became wheelchair-accessible, and a presidential decree enshrined blind and disabled people's access to public transit and required roads to be build according to modern engineering codes that consider handicapped needs. 

The rough road

Today, numerous amenities assist daily transportation for the blind. Most sidewalks have a line of raised tiles, known as tactile paving, which provide a path. When the path ends at a street crossing, the tile pattern changes to circular nodules, alerting the blind person. These nodules and bars even extend into the subway stations up to the platform edge. Buses and subways use auditory announcements to notify blind pedestrians and other mass transit users of upcoming stops and routes. 

However, challenges still exist. A blind pedestrian's tactile path can take sudden, unnecessary turns, making it difficult to follow. When crossing the street, the path may not immediately start again. The path can be filled with obstacles. When walking one block on Dongwangzhuang Road and Chengfu Street with closed eyes, feet treading carefully along the path, I walked into a bicycle, a metal wagon, several parked cars and mopeds and then lost the path when it curved around a manhole. Beijing's intersections lack the auditory "walk" signals that tell a blind person when it is safe to cross. 

Also, Braille information is rarely available in bus and subway stations. Guide dogs exist in Beijing, however they are not allowed into many indoor facilities and public places, including buses. 

Wheelchair-bound people have more assistance. Dating from the Paralympics, some buses are wheelchair-accessible. Subway stations have elevators or wall-based wheelchair lifts and extra-wide ticket gates to allow a wheelchair through. A handicapped person can even call for assistance with the subway (6834-5678). Beijing's sidewalks are sufficiently wide and even to allow wheelchairs to roll easily. When crossing the street, at least one sidewalk side usually has a ramp. 

But issues remain. Sidewalks can be obstructed with food carts, vendors, parked bicycles, parked cars, etc. While ramps are generally available on one side of the street, an associated ramp on the other side is often missing or blocked, requiring the disabled person to wheel themselves in the street to get to the nearest alterative. Although subway stations have elevators, some do not function, and not all buses are wheelchair-accessible. In addition, during rush hours, the subway cars may be too full to allow a wheelchair entrance. It can be hard enough to wedge oneself in while standing; a wheelchair impossible. Race to the curb

The elderly are not technically disabled, but they still encounter unique challenges. More than 18 percent of Beijingers are over age 60. Accommodations are imperfect but prevalent. The elderly are provided special seats in the Beijing subway, although they may have to oust the current occupant. Some experience difficulties with stairs, and can avail themselves of the same facilities for wheelchairs, where available. Elevated cross-walks can present a challenge, but older adults can try to stick to those with ramps and elevators. 

Crossing the street is a particular challenge for the elderly. Transportation codes vary by country, but most allow 1.2 meters/second when timing lights to permit pedestrians to cross. Studies show older adults may walk as slow as 0.39 m/s. Short light lengths coupled with wide streets and aggressive traffic force ordinary Beijingers to scurry across the lanes; slower pedestrians may find themselves out of time. 

No quick fix

Comparing other cities to Beijing is difficult because of the latter's unique confluence of size, historical layout and rapid development. Certainly Beijing laid tactile pavement better than urban Thailand, whose paths lead into trees or flower beds. Conversely, other countries—including Australia, Canada and South Korea—allow seeing-eye dogs greater access. Fences, lining sidewalks, separating traffic lanes, channeling subway users, and organizing parking lots, are certainly more omnipresent in Beijing than outside of China. 

Beijing's public transit system, with its accommodations for the disabled, elderly or illiterate, allow its citizens to be whisked about the city with an ease rarely seen outside of Europe and North America. And if sometimes facilities break down Beijing is hardly unique; Washington, D.C.'s elevators are frequently out of order. 

Engineering alternations are useful, but sometimes a Good Samaritan is required. On the No.42 bus departing at around 7 am every day in a small American city, I noticed regular riders always kept the first seat on the left free. This was because a blind man entered the bus every day at the same stop and sat in this seat. Fellow riders knew his schedule and made every effort to ease his mornings. Structural accommodations can only help so much. For a city to be truly barrier-free, its citizens must be aware and provide assistance to the disabled, from offering seats on the subway to the elderly, to not parking a car on the tactile pavement path. Perhaps the last hurdle to being barrier-free is removing the barriers in our minds.