Chapter 578 Three Major Demands and Three Major Policies

The so-called special roads can only help the blind, but it is also a great effort to protect the interests of the disabled.

In history, such roads would not appear until decades later. The early appearance of special roads is expected to improve the living standards and happiness index of disabled people in Australasia.

Sydney was the fastest to change, especially in the urban area, where special roads of about 40 to 50 centimeters were quickly laid. They have special colors and easily recognizable patterns. When stepping on them, there is a clear sense of discomfort, which makes it easier for the blind to identify whether they are within the scope of special roads.

After the special roads in Sydney were paved, Daisy Doddridge, the previous newspaper reporter, specially returned to the blind school that he had interviewed before and invited the blind child to walk on the newly built blind street in Sydney to experience the feeling of walking alone on the street.

Of course, although it is said that he is walking alone on the street, he is still accompanied by other people to ensure that there will be no accidents.

On the face of the blind child, a smile finally appeared, with the color of happiness.

As a special road of great significance to the blind, it soon entered the courses of these blind people.

The school for the blind will also build a demonstrative special road, so that many blind people can know the roads that allow them to walk on the streets in school, and it is also convenient for them to better identify the difference between ordinary roads and special roads.

Since mid-June, there have been more blind people on the streets of Sydney. These blind people walk on the special roads in an exploratory manner, and there are more enthusiastic people around them to pay attention to them to prevent accidents that may happen at any time.

This special road that allows the blind to walk out of their homes is also affectionately known as the Love Channel. It has been widely praised by a number of media and newspapers, and the blind community and blind families are very grateful.

But the establishment of special roads is not only good news. First of all, the cost of road reconstruction across the country, not only the corresponding design of special roads, but also the reconstruction of existing roads, the overall budget is too large, and the number of blind people in some areas is too small, so there is not much need for reconstruction.

The second is that special roads are easily occupied by other people or vehicles. Blind people cannot see, and if there are more dangerous obstacles ahead, the existence of special roads becomes the biggest danger at this time.

In response to these two issues, after consulting Arthur, the cabinet also made some improvements to the previous special road construction.

First, the scope and budget of special road construction changed from the original renovation of all cities in the country to the renovation of large cities with a large number of blind people.

In this way, the cities that need to be renovated at present are only large cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the capitals of each state, and small cities do not need to be renovated for the time being.

The municipal governments of these large cities can basically bear the cost of road renovation on their own, which means that the construction of special roads does not need to be borne by the government, which is good news for the government's finances.

And although the scope of special road construction has been reduced, it can still facilitate most blind people to go out of their homes.

After all, there are not many disabled people in Australasia, and even fewer blind people.

These people are generally distributed in major cities, or in small villages and towns, so there is no need to build special roads.

In response to the second problem of being too busy to be occupied, the government has specially promulgated regulations prohibiting anyone from occupying special roads at any time. Violators will be fined heavily or even face detention.

Moreover, any accidents caused by occupying special roads will be the responsibility of the occupiers of special roads. This is also a sword hanging over everyone's head, making them think carefully about whether occupying special roads is worth it.

To put it bluntly, it is just a 40 to 50 cm wide path. Occupying it will not bring any benefits, and you will face high fines or even imprisonment, and you will have to bear corresponding risks. This is completely uneconomical.

Of course, the occupation here refers to long-term occupation. If ordinary people just walk around, they will not be punished. The scope of occupation mainly depends on whether it will hinder the traffic on special roads and the length of time occupied.

While special roads are still hot across the country, these two regulations were quickly promulgated and immediately implemented.

Judging from the reactions from all walks of life after the promulgation of the two regulations, the public is quite satisfied with these two regulations.

In particular, the regulations prohibiting the occupation of special roads can ensure that there are no obstacles ahead for blind people when traveling, which is complementary to the special roads themselves.

After the problem of the blind is properly solved, the next thing is the previously hotly discussed issue of welfare policies for the disabled and improving the quality of life of the disabled.

The disabled population in Australasia can be roughly divided into three types: congenital disabled people, foreign disabled people, and acquired disabled people.

Currently, the first and third types are more numerous. The number of foreign disabled people is still relatively small, and most of them live in big cities, where their quality of life can still be guaranteed.

To put it bluntly, even if you are disabled, if you don't have a rich family, it is impossible to immigrate to Australasia.

At present, the price of an ocean-going ship ticket is still relatively expensive. Most disabled people immigrate with their families, which is a considerable expense for ordinary families.

Some families even sold their houses and used up most of their life savings just to immigrate to Australasia, which also cut off their hope of immigrating again to a certain extent.

For most immigrants, immigration is equivalent to a high investment. If they really can't make a living in the area where they originally lived, most people will not choose to immigrate.

Of course, there is also a kind of immigration with a strong purpose, such as the gold diggers attracted by the previous gold rush.

When the desire to make money is far greater than people's fear of unknown places, people will also have a very strong idea of ​​​​immigration.

For those who have acquired disabilities, in addition to those who have become disabled due to various accidents, most of the rest are soldiers who were disabled during the war.

These soldiers actually have a very generous pension guarantee. Their living supplies and living standards are no different from ordinary people. They have never expressed dissatisfaction with the government from beginning to end.

This is also one of the things that Australasia is doing better than other countries at present, that is, for those soldiers who were disabled in the war and retired soldiers, there is a very good pension system.

This also makes the Australasian army far ahead in terms of morale. With sufficient morale, the army's combat power will be stronger.

There are many rights that disabled people need to protect, which can be roughly divided into the right to education, the right to work and the right to a normal life.

The right to education is relatively easy to solve. Sydney and Melbourne already have a considerable number of schools for the disabled. In addition, other large cities are encouraged to build corresponding schools for the blind and the disabled, which can guarantee the right to education for most disabled people.

This investment is actually not large. After all, there are not many disabled people in Australasia.

Therefore, cities and governments are also moving quickly. Schools for the disabled in many cities have been put on the agenda and even approved by local city councils for funding.

The right to work is more difficult to solve. After all, ordinary people have huge advantages over these disabled people in most positions, and capitalists will not harm their own interests and deliberately recruit these disabled people.

Therefore, in order to guarantee the right to work of these disabled people and increase their income, we must find ways to build more jobs suitable for the disabled, or build some jobs that will not be affected by the disabled.

However, such cases are relatively rare. Most jobs still require healthy people, or even people who can do physical work, which is very different from the situation of disabled people.

In order to improve the living standards of disabled people, the government can only focus on another aspect, that is, to increase subsidies for disabled people accordingly.

This is left to the Royal Relief Committee. The Relief Committee can establish contacts with municipal governments, further clarify the number of all disabled people, and discuss with the government for certain subsidies.

However, it is probably some material subsidies to ensure that disabled people can live a life like ordinary people, at least in terms of food and accommodation.

There are also needs for normal life. Encourage the public to treat disabled people well, prohibit discrimination against these disabled people, and at the same time pay attention to some difficult aspects of disabled people, such as building barrier-free roads next to stairs, etc. This requires the whole country to promote it together.

Although a large part of these policies have just begun to be implemented or even planned to be implemented, it is already a great hope for those disabled people.

From the reactions of disabled people reported by various newspapers, it can be seen that this group is very grateful for the attention of the government, parliament and all Australasians, and this special group event has also come to a successful conclusion.

The disabled community is very grateful to the government, and the public is very satisfied with the result, which is a relatively good result.

Because Arthur spoke out in time in this incident, and the government and parliament responded in time, the public is still quite satisfied with the government, and the cohesion of the country has been improved invisibly.

This is actually very simple. The public can see the government's efforts and the government's care for the public, which is enough.

Perhaps the public does not want a perfect result, but the concern of Arthur, the states, and the city council members for the basic lives of the people, rather than empty talk.

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