Map will help city's disabled [ 2007-06-21 11:13 ] Finding handicap-friendly facilities is getting a
bit easier these days in Shanghai, just in time for this year's Special
Olympics.
An online map will soon be launched highlighting the location of
"barrier-free" facilities accessible to the disabled. A trial version of Jing'an
District has already been posted on the district's website, and a full version
will include the location of ramps and elevators, toilet facilities and service
agencies throughout the entire city.
Information for athletes on gymnasiums and lodgings will be added in time for
the Special Olympics, which begin in August.
Shen Jia, of the information center of the Shanghai Association of the
Disabled, said the digital map will also help authorities monitor facilities
claiming to be barrier-free. She said people are encouraged to photograph such
things as ramps or pathways that might be obstructed. She added that as new
facilities for the disabled are opened, they will be added to the
map.
(China Daily 06/13/2007
page 5)
Questions:
1. What is a "barrier-free" facility?
2. What does it mean that there is a "trial" version of the map online
currently?
Answers:
1. It is a facility which provides open and easy access
to people with handicaps and disabilities, such as ramps for use by people in
wheelchairs.
2. A trial version is a test version, one which lacks all of the features the
map will eventually have. It is an initial test version that the creators can
make changes to, and use to see if there are any problems or improvements that
they can make.
(英语点津 Linda 编辑)
About the broadcaster:
Matt Doran is an award-winning American newspaper journalist and an
undergraduate student at Albion College. He is currently a polisher for China
Daily Website and is on summer break from Beijing Foreign Studies University,
where he will resume his study of Chinese in the fall.
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