The requirements for using the "Travel with peace of mind" app have been extended to all catering businesses and listed premises. However, the Deputy Director of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Huang Shuxian said on Tuesday (December 7) that it will not be distributed in batches for "Travel with peace of mind" until next week. "The embossed plastic cover of the QR code poster, and it is recommended that the visually impaired bring their own plastic cover to the premises to assist in scanning the code.
On the other hand, the Chief Executive Carrie Lam met with the media before attending the executive meeting on the same day. He also pointed out that “we will further study the operation mode of catering business establishments later, or change category B into category C or category D, or provide more incentives for C Class becomes Class D".
Last month, the authorities stipulated that "safe travel" must be used to enter and exit public facilities under the jurisdiction of various government departments. This has attracted social concern that relevant arrangements have not taken care of the needs of the visually impaired. The emergence of braille rubber sleeves is precisely to solve this problem. However, the government continued to expand the scope of use of "Travel with peace of mind" before the distribution was completed.
Regarding the classification of restaurants and establishments, Carrie Lam only officially said three days before the measures were introduced: "As far as I know, because "Travel with peace of mind" is now fully used, the two categories of catering establishments A and B are no longer needed. Separate, that is, type A will become type B".
Visually impaired people use blind rods to explore the path, but the safe travel of graphic design makes it difficult for them to search and enter the premises.
(Profile picture)
There is still need to assist the visually impaired to scan the code
Even though there are opinions that "paper-fillers" still have a negative labeling effect on people with disabilities, it is easy for others to think that they are disadvantaged, but visually impaired people are also in the category of disability according to the government's definition, so they can actually rely on the same under the current arrangement. "Paper Filler" is used instead of "Travel with peace of mind".
Of course, the distribution of embossed rubber sleeves can always facilitate more people in need, but the expansion of "safe travel" arrangements in places where the progress is lagging behind seems to indicate that after more than a month, the authorities still have not fully considered the need for scanning codes for the visually impaired.
In addition, due to economic cost or display space considerations, some of the "Travel with Peace" QR code posters in individual locations are not all made according to the standard size, some are not printed in full color, and some are cut or obscured. The part of the poster that is not a QR code.
Therefore, the visually impaired may still run into trouble if they bring their own embossed rubber sleeves.
Hastily changed the classification of catering business premises
Even from the point of view of the person in charge of the venue, the authorities still have a lot of ill-conceived arrangements.
The original difference between the operation mode of A-type and B-type catering business establishments is that in addition to the number of customers, dining time and recorded data, there are still B-type establishment employees who need to undergo regular virus testing or complete vaccination every week.
However, until the Secretary for Food and Health instructed to formally gazette the cancellation of the Type A operation mode, the authorities did not make this request explicitly and publicly. Temporary arrangements for staff testing or appointments for injections in places changed from Type A to Type B may naturally result in inconvenient.
Category A restaurants in Causeway Bay said that they had no choice but to accept the new regulations. They frankly said that the small shops have limited staff and it is difficult to find out whether the customers are using them one by one.
(Photo by Liang Huanmin)
As the government "further studies" to convert Type B places into Type C and D places, officials will never be able to ignore the needs of the people in this way in the future.
Because the person in charge of category C and D places has more things to do, such as registering employee vaccination status and drawing a floor plan according to specifications to distinguish the range of customers, not to mention that the area of some restaurants is simply too narrow to be partitioned.
In order to avoid such hasty announcement of the cancellation of Category B next time, the authorities should draw up and disclose a specific timetable as soon as possible to avoid the affected persons from having only a short time to respond when the policy changes.
In the final analysis, the government's recent series of arrangements to expand the use of "safe travel" is that the biggest problem is that the advance plan is not comprehensive, which makes it unable to take into account the various needs of the visually impaired and the person in charge of the venue, and the authorities are above this. In addition, he is always unclear about the future deployment, making it difficult for all parties in society to make adequate preparations in advance. This practice can easily compromise the effectiveness of the epidemic prevention policy, and officials must correct it.
It is necessary to solve the implementation loopholes in the mandatory "Travel with peace of mind". False "Travel with peace of mind" poses risks to social security. "Travel with peace of mind" has repeatedly been criticized due to improper policy design.