HKU Bulletin January 2011 (Vol. 12 No. 1)

HKU students have long enjoyed a reputation as proactive campaigners on all sorts of issues ranging from democracy to human rights. Now a team of students from Social Work and Social Administration are taking up the battle for a barrier-free environment. Hong Kong may be regarded as the culinary capital of Asia, boasting more than 11,000 restaurants, but not everyone gets to enjoy the delights of hassle-free dining out. For those restricted to wheelchairs the choices are rather limited thanks to a woeful lack of consideration for individuals with a disability. Recently a team of students from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration launched a research project to highlight the difficulties encountered by the physically handicapped when dining at local fast food restaurants. The research resulted Students’ Campaign for Wheelchair Diners CEDARS’ inclusion policy extends beyond students with learning difficulties and physical disabilities to members of the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA). “This is a group that advocates for and addresses issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons,” says Dr Eugenie Leung, Director of CEDARS’ Counselling and Person Enrichment Team. “I have set up my office to be gay friendly and we make sure students are aware of this.” Indeed, Michael Lam, a postgraduate student in the Faculty of Law and a member of QSA, says CEDARS has been very supportive of all their events. “But we are still facing problems. I think there’s still a fear, maybe people fear telling others that they are gay or lesbian because they fear bullying or discrimination,” he says. Queer Straight Alliance Moreover, he finds the culture at HKU quite different to that of the UK where he studied for seven years. “In the UK, the attitude to safer sex is much more open because they know that students nowadays have sexual contact and not talking about it or not providing the sexual tools they need is counterproductive. On UK campuses they have a corner with the leaflets and condoms so people know where to get them if they need them. But here there’s no place for that and the University clinic refused when we asked them to set up a similar corner.” “What we are trying to do is something that needs to be addressed. We are not talking about promoting sexual behaviour, but trying to pass on the knowledge and the tools for people to be more careful. In promoting sexual inclusion and diversity we need to start with the university community because students are still a little bit cautious of revealing their own identity to other people and if the university can perhaps talk about it and make it clear that they are supportive of sexual identity this might help. It’s true that CEADRS is very open but I think you need more than one department to reach out.” With over a hundred members in Hong Kong the QSA’s objectives are to provide a safe social platform for members to communicate with each other and to educate the public on sexual identity and sexual diversity. “Last year we had a pride week on campus but this year our objective is to focus more on career and personal development for our core members,” says Michael. from a skills laboratory project during which the students, working with the people with a physical disability, encountered these inadequate facilities first-hand. They assessed 70 fast food outlets for accessibility and convenience and found not one of them met the requirements laid out in the Buildings’ Department’s Design Manual 2008. The students chose to highlight the issue in a press conference. “Barriers encountered by wheelchair users when they dine out, became the focus of our press conference,” says Kelvin Lai Kwok-kin, who recently graduated from the Department. They found the most common barrier was the cashier and food counters were far too high while the fixed nature of tables and chairs made it virtually impossible for people in wheelchairs to eat in the restaurants. Although 35 restaurants at the main entrance 80 per cent of them did not provide ramps for wheelchair users. “What we learnt from this is not to underestimate or overlook our influence in society,” says Kelvin. “Although we were only undergraduates, we found we could still promote change if we had a mission.” “At first, we did not consider writing up and publishing a full research report but with good feedback from the other parties we decided to organize a press conference presenting the officially published research report.” “Since its publication we have continued working with the co-operating organization and have held further meetings on negotiating with the fast-food corporations and also trying to involve the governmental parties in providing a barrier-free environment for wheelchair users.” Cover Story The University of Hong Kong Bulletin 17 January 2011