Speed up barrier-free construction, Shanghai delegation urges

The country needs to speed up formulating a law for the construction of a barrier-free environment to care for the disabled and the elderly, especially when China faces increasing challenges from aging, said a motion that the Shanghai delegation to the National People's Congress submitted on Friday.

It was the first time ever that a motion was submitted in the name of the entire Shanghai delegation. It submitted two motions in this way during the ongoing annual session of the national legislature in Beijing.

The deputies said there are 85 million disabled individuals and 240 million people aged 60 or above in the country. But in today's society, there are often some cases where these individuals feel unwelcome.

Such cases may include a resident in their twilight years taken to a bank outlet by family members to conduct facial recognition, and some barrier-free facilities are locked, blocked or do not work properly, they said.

"A barrier-free environment has been promoted in many parts of the country over nearly two decades and it's a good opportunity now to ensure the continuous and high-quality development of the country's barrier-free environment construction through legislation and meet the increasingly urgent need in this respect,"  the motion read .

The deputies said the central government deployed to speed up the construction of new infrastructure, such as 5G networks and data centers, in March last year, which laid the foundation for further strengthening of barrier-free construction.

Hosting major events, such as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2022 Asian Games and Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, also urged society to promote the high-quality development of barrier-free construction and ultimately improve people's livelihoods, they said.