In recent weeks, TKU students have been surveying disabled facilities across the entire TKU Tamsui Campus. They have done so for a very specific purpose. The students are designing a road map of the best, most user-friendly routes to be taken by physically disabled students at the Tamsui Campus. They are creating a “map for the disabled”.

The project is a part of the students’ community service courses, currently taken by four classes of freshman. The person in charge of designing the courses, Yang Xin-ge, explained that “the Tamsui Campus consists of several slopes and hills, which can be difficult for physically disabled students to negotiate. So we have specially invited physically disabled students to come and provide suggestions”. One of the students to be invited was 3rd year Chinese Literature student, Yang Guo-shi: “I hope to help plant the seeds of change, so that future disabled students are able to more easily get to class”.

One of the students involved in designing the road map, Zhou Yu-chen, exclaimed “thanks to the community services classes, I have had the chance to see the campus from a different perspective and to understand how difficult it is for disabled students to get around”.

The students recently presented their initial findings during their community service class. Yang Xin-ge stated that after finalizing the “map for the disabled”, the information contained therein will be provided to the appropriate departments and colleges. For example, the Center of Resources for the Blind can use the information to help disabled students navigate the fastest route to their classrooms or other campus-based destinations; while the Office of Academic Affairs can organize special pathways and facilities to minimize the difficulty disabled students experience in getting to class.