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"Non-obstacle" bus stops help disabled athletes go easy(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-05-11 08:31A total of 115 bus stops in Kunming have been specially rebuilt for the disabled athletes, said Zhang Peng, an official of the organizing committee of the 7th Chinese National Games for the Disabled on Thursday. "It is also an effort tried out for the Beijing Paralympics in 2008," said Zhang. As all 15 sports of the coming Games, except table tennis and badminton, will be competed in nine venues scattered around Kunming, the capital of China's southwest Yunnan province, the hosts decided to rebuild the 115 bus stops adjacent to the stadiums and put up 37 new ones of the kind. In the project of "non-obstacle bus stop rebuilding", blind sidewalks have been paved and slopes have been constructed down the platforms of bus stops for the blind and those in wheelchairs. Additionally, electric bells instead of traffic lights have been put up for the blind at the pedestrian crossings. And safety islands in the middle of the crossings were specially designed to make way for wheelchairs. In April, Philip Graven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, spoke highly of the non-obstacle construction efforts made for the Beijing Paralympic Games. But in most Chinese cities, the situation is not so satisfying. "With only a few exceptions, most of the 2,300 platforms of bus stops in Kunming are designed for the normal people and are 30 centimeters above the ground, which are inconvenient for the blind and persons in wheelchairs," said Zhang. "The standard of infrastructures for the disabled may stand for the level of civilization of a city," she said. "After the Games, Kunming will go on with the non-obstacle construction, to make more disabled persons go around easily." |
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