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20th May 2016, 12:06 PM
#11
Infrastructure, education needed as use of mobility devices grows
Published by ST Forum, 20 May 2016
http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/le...-devices-grows
Assistive mobility devices (AMDs) facilitate personal mobility and aid users in independent living and social interaction ("Mobility scooters 'designed to be safe and stable'"; Wednesday).
Users must be careful to choose models that are suitable for their weight and build, to ensure stability of their vehicles during operation.
Overloading an AMD with passengers or cargo may destabilise the vehicle and render it difficult to control. Maintenance is also important for AMDs.
Users require proper training to steer and control AMDs correctly, including on uneven surfaces. Some users reverse unsafely.
In other countries, AMD users have crashed into pedestrians, including young children. Serious accidents included one frail senior who died after a collision with a powered wheelchair travelling at 6.4kmh, and an able-bodied pedestrian who became confined to a wheelchair after being knocked down by a mobility scooter.
Top speeds for AMDs may go up to 12kmh or higher. While many AMD users move at walking pace currently, the Government's decision to allow AMDs to travel at 15kmh on pedestrian paths may lead users, including less competent ones, to increase their speed, and create a demand for models with higher top speeds.
Several countries have guidelines for mobility scooters to give way to pedestrians on pedestrian facilities.
It would be nice if AMD users could yield to pedestrians who appear more frail than them.
In some countries, AMDs accessing public transit systems must meet specific requirements (height, length, width, weight, turning radius, type of wheels, dry cell/battery use, and so on).
AMDs must remain stable and must be able to secure their users well on moving vehicles during the course of normal travel and under emergency braking conditions.
MRT operators need to improve their on-train dedicated facilities for AMD users. AMD users who move into a cabin usually prefer to be near the doors and unintentionally hamper the movement of other commuters.
I have seen an incident where, to facilitate his exit later, an AMD user turned his vehicle suddenly without alerting commuters standing nearby and nearly hit one commuter in the process.
At bus stops, two or more AMD users usually wait at different spots for their buses. Bus-stop shelters could be resized to dedicate a space for AMD users to board and alight, so that bus drivers can pick up and drop off all commuters smoothly.
Enclosed facilities, especially foodcourts and supermarkets, need to widen the aisles to accommodate people with reduced mobility and AMD users moving together safely.
Tan Lay Hoon (Ms)
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30th May 2016, 12:13 AM
#12
Elder friendly facilities in NTUC
May 26 2016, ST
Now, senior citizens using wheelchairs can push trolleys - customised ones that can be attached to the wheelchairs - to pick up and pay for items in supermarkets if they want to.
Besides the wheelchair-friendly trolleys, there are call buttons at the supermarket entrance and along the rows of shelves, should help be needed. In addition, magnifying glasses are placed among the shelves so that customers can use them to read product labels. Shelves are fitted at a lower height so that wheelchair-users or seniors can reach for items more easily.
http://str.sg/4Jsk
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3rd June 2016, 11:15 AM
#13
LTA and four firms in transport app tie-up
Published by ST, 03 Jun 2016
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...ort-app-tie-up
Commuters will be able to plan their journeys using transport apps that have multi-modal options such as public transport, cycling, walking, and the use of personal mobility devices. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday it will partner four technology companies - Citymapper, Google, Hugo and Quantum Inventions - with the apps to be available from the end of the year. LTA will share transport data, such as the location of cycling paths and sheltered walkways, along with real-time information like train service disruptions, with the companies.
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19th July 2016, 11:47 PM
#14
New shuttle service at Gardens by the Bay launched to help wheelchair users get around
ST, July 19 2016
SINGAPORE - Wheelchair users will be able to enjoy free shuttle rides around Gardens by the Bay from July 20.
Sponsored by public transport operator SMRT, the eight new 22-seater passenger shuttles come with foldable access ramps at their rear, enabling wheelchair users to boardthe shuttle directly.
This is an upgrade from the current 14-seater vehicles plying the Gardens' shuttle route, which require wheelchair users to disembark from their wheelchair in order to board the service.
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21st September 2016, 11:32 PM
#15
Accessible Icon Project
The Accessible Icon Project is a redesign of the International Symbol of Access to a more active symbol that better reflects people with disabilities. The Icon has been embraced by organizations worldwide and was recently adopted as New York City's official accessible sign.
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4th October 2016, 11:44 PM
#16
Singapore plans to pilot autonomous wheelchairs, Mark Lim, Director of Government Digital Services said at Innovation Labs World.
“What if we could make the wheelchair move on [its] own?”, Lim said. “There is a proper use case for it, because today we have limited health care workers”, he added. “These nurses are more precious in doing their work – in taking care of the patients – than pushing them around in the wheelchair”, he said.
Lim’s team is exploring work with healthcare agencies to pilot this wheelchair, he revealed. The project is set to be completed by March 2017, and will combine computer vision, robotics, machine learning and cloud computing technologies. It is the first project from the new GovTech Agency that combines digital technologies with hardware to build new services for citizens.
The team is also working on a “smart walking stick”, he said, which has the “ability to track elderly who are very mobile, but [need] some support”, Lim said. It will use GPS tracking to detect falls and trigger alerts.
On the digital side, government is prioritising an API gateway to enable data sharing. “What we wanted to do was to really create this thing called the government API economy,” he said. The gateway would allow us to exchange data between different government agencies. It also allows us to exchange data with private entities and also individuals,” he said.
“The movement behind this was not building everything ourselves but allowing creative businesses to leverage on this to build a better business model”, he noted.
Lim highlighted the potentials of this platform: “A creative startup or even an individual developer could now make use of this. At the same time, maybe talk to the bank and integrate the bank API, and talk to real estate agents to integrate their API, and provide a seamless experience on their app”.
Citizens will get “a single, integrated experience because we provide different APIs for the different services to be consumed” – or what Lim calls “microservices”.
“We are moving towards a very strong, modern approach to microservices, versus full deployment of huge government websites and huge government applications”, he said.
Innovation Labs World is a festival of public service innovation organised by GovInsider. It was held on 27 September in Singapore.
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23rd January 2017, 01:09 PM
#17
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8th February 2017, 12:52 PM
#18
Taxi drivers face £1,000 fine for refusing to pick up wheelchair users
Date: 7 Feb 2017
Taxi drivers who refuse to pick up wheelchair users or attempt to charge more for transporting them could be fined up to £1,000 under new laws tackling discrimination.
The penalties will come into force from 6 April and will oblige taxi and private hire cars to take wheelchair users in their wheelchair if their vehicles are able to, as well as providing appropriate assistance. It will be an offence to charge any additional fare for the service.
The rules will apply across Britain for taxis and private hire vehicles designated as wheelchair accessible – including all black cabs in London and taxis in many other cities.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/...eelchair-users
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8th February 2017, 01:03 PM
#19
University students with special needs
Date: 04 Feb 2017
Video: https://www.facebook.com/ChannelNews...4329302942934/
Amid the nationwide push to be a more inclusive society, local varsities are ramping up their support for students with special needs.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...l/3471616.html
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8th May 2017, 12:16 PM
#20
Census to boost inclusiveness
ST, 28 Apr 2017
In Singapore, people with disabilities have been an invisible population for the longest time.
When Singapore was not as disabled-friendly as it is now, one hardly saw wheelchair users out and about because of a lack of amenities in places such as the MRT stations or shopping centres. And jobs for them were hard to come by.
The lack of data and statistics on disability contributes to invisibility, says the UN Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The paucity of data hampers planning for policies and services to improve the lives of the disabled, the UN says.
But things are changing here.
In the past decade, since the first national blueprint for disability services was launched, education and services to support people with disabilities have received a great boost.
However, for years, it has been a mystery how many people with disabilities there are here. The best available estimate is from a National Council of Social Service survey in 2015, which randomly polled 2,000 citizens and permanent residents.
It found that the prevalence rate of disability was 3.4 per cent of the resident population aged 18 to 49 and 13.3 per cent for those aged 50 and older.
But the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is now working with the Department of Statistics to find out the number of people with disabilities in the next census, in 2020.
It also hopes to uncover the type of disabilities they have, their age and their household structure.
The MSF says the data will enable government agencies to plan sufficient services for the different groups of people with disabilities, among other aims.
Data helps draw attention to problems and helps to identify gaps in policies and services. Definitive data on disability is especially crucial with an ageing population (the chances of having a disability increase with age and illness) and more children are diagnosed with developmental problems like autism.
It is high time to use our first-class data-gathering capability to shake off the invisibility of disability.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...-inclusiveness
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