How do you live in one of the world's busiest cities, but you cannot see?
Shot by Jiang Xiaowei. Edited by Li Qian and Jiang Xiaowei. Subtitles by Lu Feiran.
Editor's note
Shanghai has nearly 600,000 people with disabilities. This means nearly 24 out of 1,000 people in the city have some form of impairment. So, you could encounter one or more of them in any neighborhood, school or workplace on any day.
"Shanghai is a warm city," said Zhu Chenggang who lavished praise on Shanghai's efforts to "bring people with disabilities convenience and dignity" during the city's "Two Sessions" political meetings held in January.
Yes, they are not left behind. As Chinese President Xi Jinping noted, "The cities are built by the people and are for the people." Shanghai also focuses on people's needs amid its urban planning and development considerations.
Actually, Shanghai had started to create a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities in the 1980s, but it was just a small-scale campaign limited to main roads and nearly-built complexes. It wasn't until 2003 when Shanghai became the first in the nation to issue special regulations on barrier-free facilities, thus catapulting their construction into the fast lane.
Increasingly over the ensuing years, barrier-free toilets and elevators, wheelchair ramps and tactile paving (patterns marked on the ground for the blind) have emerged in public venues. Yet there's a lot of improvement still to be done.
To speed up barrier-free construction, on a par with more developed cities, Shanghai on August 11, 2021 issued its five-year plan to support people with disabilities, underlining the construction of a barrier-free city.
Specifically, Shanghai envisions providing overall accessibility for people with disabilities during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, highlighting improved designs and regulations on infrastructure and services.
One year has passed. How's it going? Shanghai Daily spent a day with a pair of blind twins – both accomplished baristas – to see what their life is like in one of the world's most populous cities.
Visually-impaired baristas Yin Tianbao (left) and his twin brother Yin Tianyou sit on a Metro train on their way to work.
Visually-impaired baristas Yin Tianbao and his twin brother Yin Tianyou spend nearly 75 minutes every day commuting from their home in Minhang District to the coffee kiosk they work at in Pudong New Area.
Both born blind, the brothers, 23, take a bus to the Metro line station, and then take two subways before walking through an underground passageway to the workplace. The brothers and their parents feel generally reassured about the long journey – as long as they can reach the bus station.
"The most difficult part of the commute is to walk from under our residential building to the bus station," said Tianyou. "So my parents – sometimes my grandfather – would walk us there as long as they have time."
The brothers live with their parents in a compound built in the late 1950s on Longwu Road. The compound doesn't have tactile paving, and a grocery store and a wet market in the compound make it even more difficult for the brothers.
"The passageways are quite narrow, and there are often cars parking here and there, not to mention trucks unloading in front of the wet market and the grocery store," said Yin Jingjing, mother of the twins.
The twin Yin brothers still rely on their mother to walk them out of their residential compound.
After leaving the compound, the brothers have to walk on the bicycle lane to the bus station because the sidewalk is occupied almost completely by shared bikes and trees.
"We generally feel safe but sometimes there are very fast mopeds delivering takeout," said Tianyou. "The big boxes attached to the mopeds might graze our arms."
When a family member is not with them, one of the brothers uses a stick while the other follows him with both hands on his shoulders. They said they don't much use the tactile paving on the street because it is often occupied and not well-connected.
However, sometimes obstacles on the roads, such as a tree, a pole or a streetside sign board, could be their guide. They would know where to turn when the stick bumps into an obstacle.
Waiting for the bus is another challenge for them. As 11 different buses stops at the Longwu Road Fanghe Road Stop, the brothers have to ask the driver which bus it is.
"We could recognize some buses according to the sounds of opening their doors, but not all of them," said Tianbao. "And if two buses arrive at the same time, we can usually only ask the driver of the first one, and the second one would be gone when we reach it. Once I waited at the stop for 40 minutes as I kept missing the bus. We hope that in the future there will be a station broadcast announcing when the buses arrive."
The twin brothers wait for a Metro train to arrive at the station.
Traffic difficulties are also encountered by people with other types of disabilities.
Qian Yudao, a human resources specialist in her 20s with physical disabilities, said she hadn't used a Metro line since she started to use a wheelchair in high school.
"The gap between the platform and the train car, for example, is a big challenge for me," Qian said. "It's almost impossible for me to push the wheelchair into the car all on my own."
The road condition is another problem. According to Qian, if she wants to go to a market near her home, she needs to traverse a long slope that is quite bumpy.
"The drop between sidewalks and streets is also a challenge," she said. "Sometimes I have to detour for a long time to find a slope so that I can get off the sidewalk and go across the street."
The Yin brothers climb the stairs together in the Metro station
But the disabled have found that some people are always helpful when they encounter difficulties along the way. Take Tianbao and Tianyou for example.
They can ride buses and Metro trains for free, and bus drivers will scan their offline venue code from a card that is hung on their neck. In the subway station, they go to the service center to get the code scanned again and then the staff open a special gate for them to get access.
"There are barrier-free elevators available in the subway stations, but we're used to going up and down the stairways," said Tianyou. "The tactile paving in the station is very friendly so we can easily find our usual spot to get on and off the train, ensuring we won't be lost after we get off."
Staff at Hinichijou Café, where the twins work, give them a helping hand as well. Before the kiosk opened, Hinichijou staff repeatedly guided the men to the bathroom in Times Square, the mall in front of which the kiosk stands, until they had learned the route by heart. Security guards in the mall also keep an eye on them and lend a hand if any emergency happens.
Yin Tianbao serves a cup of coffee as part of his daily work routine.
As for Qian, she feels that the city's barrier-free facilities are getting better.
"Now almost every building has a slope at the entrance for wheelchairs, and we have more barrier-free buses than before," she said. "Meanwhile, there are apps for the disabled so that we could know where barrier-free facilities are available. I feel that we're cared about."
More change is expected to happen in the future. Shanghai Metro, the operating company of all local metro lines, reported to the Shanghai People's Political Consultative Conference late last month that bridging plates will be used in metro stations. If needed, staff in the station will place a plate between the platform and the train car for wheelchairs, baby carriages and seniors.
Experiments have been carried out in parts of Metro Line 3 stations and have been well received.
The company said that up to the end of this year, 60 percent of stations in the city will be equipped with bridging plates. Passengers also will be able to contact the station in advance for the service.
