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much to be desired and some disabled cannot enjoy opportunities of participating in the recreational and sports activities. These complaints should be a subject of review by us.
At present, the activities organised by the UC cannot meet the needs of the disabled. Although we provide them with some price concessions. As a result, the disabled cannot enjoy municipal facilities, for example libraries, IGH and children's playrooms. The parents and social workers have raised these issues and we have not taken heed of their plight. For example, when some autistic children sometimes become emotional and shout suddenly in silent libraries, the parents feel embarrassed and have to take the children away. For some municipal facilities, such as indoor games halls, some management staff stop the disabled from entering and some of these facilities are even not suitable for the disabled. The disabled children also cannot enjoy some playroom facilities. In UC learning and training programmes, the instructors cannot take care of both the able-bodied children and the disabled children at the same time. So, although the parents hope that their disabled children can get enrolled, they have to give up eventually. I think the Council can consider short term measures. For example, the number of instructors can be increased to assist the disabled in learning, and some summer activities can be organised for the disabled.
For medium term measures, some areas can be designed in libraries, for example, on a trial basis for the disabled and parents to read there so that the disabled will not disturb others and the parents will not feel embarrassed and delighted to leave when incident occur.
In the long term, in planning facilities, we can consider providing certain installations which will cater for the needs of the disabled. Now, some voluntary agencies provide facilities for both physically and mentally disabled but because of limitations in terms of resources and venues, the needs of the disabled can't be fully met. I urge the Council to allocate more resources to provide recreational, sports and cultural facilities activities for the disabled and to formulate long, medium as well as short term policies so as to fulfil our commitments in the White Paper.
With these remarks, I beg to move.
MR. JOSEPH CHAN YUEK-SUT (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, the disabled enjoy equal civic rights. As they have a duty of voting in all the 3 tiers of the representative government, they have rights to enjoy resources of the society. In fact, the Council has already been taking care of the needs of the disabled and we have been serving them by making alterations to our facilities for example, public toilets so as to cater for their needs. Such work has been done under the leadership of the Chairman of the Urban Council. A variety of sports and recreational activities catering for different physical strength of the disabled is also provided.
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