The "In-depth Research on Barrier-free City Construction" team measures the size of barrier-free facilities in public places.
In the square in front of a business district in Zhuhai, the paved blind road was interrupted.
Zhou Xuyang is a distinguished professor at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education.
Zhou Xuyang:
Engaged in barrier-free business for nearly 20 years, participated in the formulation of a number of national standards
Zhou Xuyang is an expert of the National Expert Committee on Barrier-free Construction and an expert of the Barrier-free Environment Construction Professional Committee of the National Association for the Development of Disabled Persons. He has been engaged in barrier-free work for nearly 20 years, and has participated in the formulation of many national standards such as "Code for Construction Acceptance and Maintenance of Barrier-free Facilities" and "General Code for Barrier-free Construction and Municipal Engineering".
May 19 is the 34th National Day for the Disabled, and the theme of this year's National Day for the Disabled is "Science and Technology for the Disabled, Sharing a Better Life". Since the promulgation of the National Law on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment in 2023, how has the participation of all sectors of society in barrier-free construction? What measures do the regulations put forward in response to problems such as the imperfect construction of barrier-free facilities and the lack of clarity of the leading department for barrier-free construction? Southern Metropolis Daily launched the "Interview with the Blue Book", inviting all walks of life to make suggestions and suggestions on the construction of a barrier-free environment, and jointly looking forward to a better future of "Love without Hindrance".
This interview is with Zhou Xuyang, a professor at Jiangsu Open University, a distinguished professor at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, and a researcher-level senior engineer. Zhou Xuyang said that since the promulgation of the "Barrier-free Environment Construction Law" nearly a year ago, the enthusiasm of the whole society to participate in barrier-free construction has increased significantly, and it is urgent for all localities to do a good job in information barrier-free construction by popularizing the concept of barrier-free, strengthening the supervision of the whole process of barrier-free construction. He hopes that the universal and integrated accessibility concept can be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and promote construction projects to meet the accessibility needs of different types of people.
Talk about creating work
The Disabled Persons' Federation and the Association for the Elderly actively participated in the supervision and experience, and the frequency was more than before
Nandu: What stage do you think the barrier-free construction in the mainland is currently in? How can the results achieved so far be evaluated?
Zhou Xuyang: Our country's first barrier-free construction standard is the "Code for the Design of Urban Roads and Buildings Convenient for Disabled Persons" JGJ50-88 issued in 1989, which is a ministerial standard, which is also the beginning of our country's standardized construction of barrier-free facilities. After years of development, in terms of stages, the domestic barrier-free construction belongs to scratch and from existence to excellence; From a national perspective, many large and medium-sized cities and coastal cities, including Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other places, have entered the stage of high-quality development, but there are still certain differences in the degree of development in various places.
In recent years, a lot of achievements have indeed emerged in China, and the legal system has been continuously improved, such as the "Regulations on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment" in 2012 and the "Law on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment" in 2023. This law is the biggest achievement in recent years, and it marks that the construction of a barrier-free environment in the mainland has entered the stage of rule of law.
At the same time, the cause of barrier-free has also received more and more attention from the whole society. I myself am a distinguished professor at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, which now offers a major in barrier-free management, and I am also involved in the construction of their major, and I have participated in the compilation of more than 20 professional textbooks. In general, the domestic barrier-free construction has developed from the construction of barrier-free facilities, to the construction of barrier-free environment, and then to the construction of barrier-free cities and barrier-free villages and towns, which gradually matches and coincides with the country's economic and social development achievements.
Nandu: In the nearly one year since the introduction of the "Barrier-free Environment Construction Law", from the feedback from all walks of life and your personal experience, has this regulation achieved the expected results?
Zhou Xuyang: Since the promulgation of the regulations, the enthusiasm of the whole society to participate in barrier-free construction has been significantly improved. Group standards, local standards, and local regulations for barrier-free construction are constantly emerging, and the establishment of national barrier-free construction demonstration cities (counties) is also in full swing across the country.
For example, since the "Tenth Five-Year Plan", the evaluation of national barrier-free environment demonstration cities has begun, and before that, each five-year plan was selected once. Now the state attaches great importance to the selection of "barrier-free cities (counties)", and through the improvement of evaluation methods, the work of creating a national barrier-free construction demonstration city has been carried out, and the selection is done every two years, turning it into an institutionalized and normalized work. The enthusiasm for the creation of declarations in various places is very high. However, because the new review method is more stringent, many places may not be able to pass the creation review even if they apply.
Recently, I am guiding the establishment of several cities in Jiangsu, and organizations such as the Disabled Persons' Federation and the Association for the Elderly will actively participate in the supervision and experience. We have also seen that after the promulgation of laws and regulations, the national procuratorate has taken the initiative to carry out public interest litigation on the issue of barrier-free construction, and many cities will also organize relevant supervision, experience, and carry out public interest litigation as a work task. Therefore, I think that the development of the past year may be faster than the development of the past two or three years, and the effect of the introduction of regulations is very obvious, even beyond our imagination.
Talk about the construction of blind roads
It is suggested that more information and intelligent means should be used to gradually replace the physical blind road
Nandu: The Law on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment provides for many matters, such as the construction of blind roads, specific to areas such as trunk roads and major business districts, and there are no mandatory requirements for other places, what considerations do you think this is based on?
Zhou Xuyang: There has always been controversy in society about the construction of blind roads. First of all, the construction of a road blind road requires more investment; Secondly, the blind road occupies a lot of space, a sidewalk is 3-5 meters wide, and the paving of the blind road to ensure the net width of the blind passage may occupy about 1 meter; Thirdly, if the principle of "blind road first" is strictly followed, the construction and management of blind road is actually very difficult. But looking back, there are not many people who actually use the blind road, which is also the problem that is reflected the most in the current society.
One of the problems I encounter the most is that in places where there is a concentration of demanders, the construction of blind roads is often not good, and where there is no demand, a lot of blind roads are built, and as a result, those who need to do so often complain because the blind roads are not smooth, and the average person feels that the blind roads have caused inconvenience to their walking. The Law on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment stipulates that blind roads should be set up in areas where barrier-free needs are concentrated, such as urban trunk roads and major business districts, and conversely, there is no need to set up blind roads in other places.
With regard to the construction of blind roads, I have recently participated in the compilation of barrier-free construction regulations in Nanjing, and also referred to the content of the first draft of the "Barrier-free Environment Construction Law", and my personal understanding is that in the process of urban road reconstruction, sidewalks with a width of less than 3 meters can be exempted from the procedure, and only the blind roads can be set up to remind those who need to pay attention to safety.
At the same time, I also suggest the use of more information and intelligent means to gradually replace the current physical blind lanes. For example, some cities in Jiangsu Province are making accessible navigation maps, and during the Asian Games in Hangzhou, a blind torchbearer used an intelligent navigation dog to navigate. In daily life, blind people usually have a relatively fixed range of activities, and if they are faced with long-distance travel needs outside this range, they often need point-to-point barrier-free services. If we can use information and intelligent means to do a good job in point-to-point services and expand the scope of activities of the blind, we can not only reduce investment, but also achieve better results.
Nandu: At present, some places are still facing the situation of who will promote the construction of a barrier-free environment. From your observations, what department do you think will take the lead, or in what way, will it be more effective and scientific?
Zhou Xuyang: In the previous Regulations on the Construction of a Barrier-free Environment, or the regulations and measures issued by various localities, the housing and urban development department was basically the leading department, because the construction of housing, roads, and public buildings was basically managed by the housing and urban development department. In the past, when everyone only paid attention to barrier-free facilities, most of the work was in the hands of the housing and construction department, but now it is different, transportation, home care, information services and other matters need to be barrier-free, and departments such as transportation, civil affairs, industry and information technology may have to undertake certain work.
At the same time, it is very expensive to carry out barrier-free renovation of construction projects, and we sometimes see that the corresponding funds in some places have not been fully implemented, and some units still hope to get subsidies in the transformation process.
Therefore, based on the current situation that barrier-free construction involves a wide range, many responsible departments, and funding channels need to be clarified, the "Barrier-free Environment Construction Law" does not clearly stipulate that the housing and urban-rural development department should take the lead, but proposes that the government should coordinate and supervise and guide the relevant departments.
Personally, I think that barrier-free construction should be led by local government offices. Departments such as transportation, civil affairs, housing and construction, etc., are all relevant functional departments of barrier-free construction, and everyone has an equal status in government agencies, and the government office can coordinate these departments. On the basis of following the principle of "government-led and departmental coordination", I think it is also possible to set up a leading group for barrier-free environment construction, or set up an expert committee for barrier-free environment construction, and each locality can decide which department to place this group based on the responsibilities of its own functional departments.
Talk about standard writing
The General Specification sets out "millimeter-level" requirements for facilities to enhance their binding force
Nandu: As a participating expert in the compilation of the "General Code for Accessibility of Buildings and Municipal Engineering", what do you think is the biggest improvement of this code compared with the previous standard?
Zhou Xuyang: From the compilation team established in 2016 to the introduction of the General Specification in 2021, I participated in the whole process of compiling it, and it can be said that every word and data has been tempered. Compared with the previous standards, the "General Specification" has made clear requirements for the safety, systematization and functionality of barrier-free facilities, and its biggest progress lies in the improvement of the implementation of the "General Specification", because the "General Specification" is a national standard that is enforced in the full text, and the whole process of the construction project is strictly implemented, and the review of construction drawing design documents must also be reviewed in accordance with all the provisions of the "General Specification", which plays a good guiding role in the construction and renovation of barrier-free facilities of the construction unit, design unit and supervision unit.
At the same time, many provisions of the General Specification have been meticulously detailed to the "millimeter level". For example, in the past, the "Barrier-free Design Code" required that the height difference between the curb ramp and the roadway should not be greater than 10mm, but later we found that it was still inconvenient for some wheelchairs with small wheels to go uphill, so when it came to the "General Code", it was required that there should be zero height difference between the curb ramp and the roadway.
In addition, in the past, it was common to have barrier-free toilets and elevators built in the premises, but because the barrier-free passages were not accessible, those who needed them could not reach the premises smoothly. Therefore, I think it is very important that the General Code specifically proposes that there should be barrier-free circulation lines between urban roads and buildings, as well as between buildings and buildings.
Nandu: Many people have commented that the previous barrier-free construction standards covered more comprehensive content but had fewer mandatory provisions, and the "General Specification" was not so comprehensive in content, but adopted full-text mandatory standards. Can you talk a little bit about what kind of considerations are you based on?
Zhou Xuyang: This reflects the development process of the reform of our national standard system. For example, in the Code for Barrier-free Design of Urban Roads and Buildings issued in 2001, some mandatory provisions may cover several detailed clauses, and the overall mandatory requirements are not many, but in the Code for Construction Acceptance and Maintenance of Barrier-free Facilities promulgated in 2011 and the Code for Barrier-free Design promulgated in 2012, it is felt that the mandatory provisions should not be set too much, so the mandatory provisions of this standard have become fewer. In order to further enhance the implementation of national standards, the General Specification implements full-text mandatory standards, which is of great significance for comprehensively improving the level of barrier-free environment construction in the mainland.
The compilation process of the General Specification is problem-oriented, focusing on the possible problems in the construction of barrier-free facilities, and the use of full-text mandatory standards is also a microcosm of the reform of the national standard system. In the past, the binding force of the standard was not high, and no one implemented it, so in recent years, not only the accessibility "General Specification", but also many general specifications have been promulgated to adopt mandatory provisions, just to enhance the binding force of the standard. We will also look at how the technical specifications of developed countries and regions are done, and how we do them, maybe our binding force is not as strong as theirs, but compared with our previous standards, the introduction of the "General Specification" is indeed a big step forward.
Talk about experience and learning
At the same time, the compilation standard also indicates the supporting testing methods, and the provisions are more detailed and enforceable
Nandu: What is the level of barrier-free construction standards in the mainland? Which countries or regions do we work in a similar way?
Zhou Xuyang: The compilation of the "General Specification" adheres to the concept of "benchmarking the international and combining the domestic", and I personally think that it should be at the middle and high level in the world. Because many provisions are set with reference to the standards of developed countries and regions, combined with our actual situation, if the "General Specification" can be strictly implemented, our barrier-free construction level will gradually reach the international advanced level.
The United States, Japan, Europe and other developed countries and regions basically began to promote barrier-free construction from the 60s to 70s of the 20th century, and we started to build, it should be the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century. I feel that Chinese mainland belongs to the Asian model, which is very similar to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.
For example, I have been to many places in the United States and Canada, but there are no blind lanes in these places, and after further investigation, I know that we are studying Japan in this area. Japan is an aging society, and their barrier-free facilities are indeed relatively good, but they want to do everything at once, and we may still take the opportunity of holding large-scale international events and creating barrier-free demonstration cities to gradually improve.
Nandu: What are the experiences of other countries and regions that are worth learning and learning from?
Zhou Xuyang: For example, the barrier-free construction standards in the United States put the atlas and the standard provisions together, which is more intuitive and accurate. In the United States, while compiling standards, it also indicates supporting testing methods. For example, the rainwater grate on the barrier-free passage, we originally required the width or diameter of the hole to be no more than 15mm, and later changed to no more than 13mm with reference to the American standard, the detection method of this article in the American standard is to take a small ball with a diameter of 13mm and roll on the rainwater grate, and the ball is unqualified if it falls from the hole, and it is qualified if it does not fall.
For another example, in addition to special athlete training venues, we rarely see disabled people swimming in swimming pools in China, because there are no regulations specifically about this matter, and few swimming pools do corresponding construction, but according to American regulations and standards, public swimming pools must build a swimming pool for people with disabilities.
The standards of other countries and regions are also very detailed, such as Japan, when they study the size of barrier-free facilities, they ask different people to experience how the disabled and the elderly use barrier-free facilities, and which size is more suitable for them.
It should be noted that the accessibility standards of many western developed countries are promulgated by the judicial department and the government, and the standard itself is a law, and the enforcement is stronger, which is not the same as us, our standard is a standard, and the law is a law. In general, there is still a certain gap between us and the international advanced level in the implementation of laws and regulations, standards, and the level of detail of the provisions.
Talk about promoting construction
Strengthen universal publicity, whole-process supervision, and do a good job of information accessibility
Nandu: What do you think are the more prominent difficulties and blockages in the mainland's current promotion of barrier-free construction?
Zhou Xuyang: I think there are three main problems that are more prominent at present.
The first is how to popularize the concept of barrier-free. Many people do not understand the meaning of accessibility, and even some people do not know what accessibility is, so it is necessary to take extensive publicity and education measures to improve the concept of accessibility in the whole society. For example, the Jiangsu Disabled Persons' Federation recently took the lead in producing a short animation film on barrier-free construction, with one or two minutes per episode, a total of more than a dozen episodes, so that the people can be more aware of what barrier-free is.
The second is how to strengthen the supervision of the whole process of barrier-free construction. I have been involved in the barrier-free construction acceptance of construction projects for a long time, and I feel that this is a big problem. Recently, we have done a research project on the management of the whole process of barrier-free environment construction in Nanjing, and it is proposed to clarify the responsibilities of the government and various departments, and at the same time clarify the main responsibilities of all participating units in the whole process of barrier-free facility construction and renovation.
The third is how to do a good job of information accessibility. With the development of science and technology, information accessibility should be continuously improved and strengthened, such as the development of barrier-free navigation maps, or the use of intelligent assistance technology to help people in need to solve problems such as barrier-free travel and home life. I believe that only when these three problems are solved can we meet the needs of the disabled and the elderly for barrier-free travel, home life, social services, and information exchange.
Nandu: From the perspective of professional scholars, what are your expectations for the construction of a barrier-free environment in the mainland?
Zhou Xuyang: Originally, we always said that because the government cares for the people and the disabled, it should do barrier-free construction, but daily travel and participation in social life are people's rights, and it should also be the government's obligation to do a good job in barrier-free construction. There is no place that people with disabilities and the elderly can't go to, and things that can't be done, this is barrier-free.
I once traveled to the United States, ate at a fast food restaurant, and wanted to go to the bathroom. I saw that this restaurant has a bathroom, which is equipped with a toilet, and the grab bar, handrail, and call button next to it are all complete, which can be used by ordinary people, the elderly, and the disabled. Isn't that what we call "generic"?
So I also hope that the universal and integrated barrier-free concept can be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, for example, we have built a toilet, it is a barrier-free toilet, people with disabilities and ordinary people can use it, we have built a road, it is everyone can walk. I think that true accessibility is that all roads and buildings are more age-friendly and more suitable for everyone in need, rather than being built for a certain type of people, which is the highest level of accessibility.
Now that the aging of the population is accelerating, and the expectations of people with disabilities for accessibility are gradually increasing, we must "protect people with disabilities and benefit everyone". We have done a number of barrier-free development planning and renovation plans for cities, and I personally estimate that through 5-10 years of efforts, a number of barrier-free demonstration cities will emerge across the country, which is worth looking forward to.
Nandu Survey No. 286
Co-ordinator: Wang Jinghao
Written by: "In-depth Research on Barrier-free City Construction" research group
Members of the research team: Zhang Jingsong, Zeng Quida, Wei Ruijia