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According to a study by National Council of Social Service in 2016, 62% of people with disabilities that were surveyed reported that they do not feel included, accepted, or given opportunities to contribute or reach their potential by society.

A 2017 study made by a non profit organisation, NVPC, found that there are no places that create opportunities to engage the public with disable people. It also found that many old buildings in Singapore are not wheelchair accessible. Ramp access, where available, is often inconvenience with ramps being too high or having too many turns. While there are some disabled-friendly vehicles such as buses, not all bus stops or pick-up points on their routes are equally accessible.

This PDF showcases the findings made by a non-profit organisation, it covers a wide aspect of the problems that disabled people face, from the economical issues to the laws against care takers. The most interesting part of this, however, would the part that outlined the difficulties of transportation and how the physical environment is not tailored to accommodate them.

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Source from Ministry of Social and Family Development (Nov 2018)

This gives a sense of the age groups and their respective sizes.

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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-hard-and-heart-part-of-inclusivenes-for-the-disabled
This article talks about the public views into interacting and handling with disabled people. It talks about how important it is for us to integrate them into society better. This article gave us a good understanding of the current attempts to integrate them, and how effective they are, which based on the article is a pressing issue that needs more attention.

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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/sporeans-dont-walk-the-talk-on-special-needs-kids
This article highlights the problems that special need kids face. One aspect that was interesting was the fact that they gave statistics on how the general public thinks and acts towards these kids. While this was eye opening it didnt target the masses as the physically disabled were more towards the residential population.

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This PDF showcases the findings made by Lien Centre for Social Innovation, which is a non-profit organisation, in association with Singapore Management University Change Labs. Similar to the previous one it covers a wide aspect of the problems that disabled people face. we felt like this paper was more in-depth and covered a wider range of issues.

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People with Physical Disabilities in Singapore_ Understanding Dis

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Currently, more than half of our public buses are wheelchair-accessible and the intent is for the whole fleet to be wheelchair-accessible by 2020.

LTA has also mandated that all new bus stops be designed for barrier-free access. Presently, 95% of our bus stops island-wide are already barrier-free accessible.

With the installation of ramps and additional lifts at 16 MRT stations completed in 2011, more than 85% of existing MRT stations, including the new Circle Line stations, have at least two barrier-free access routes.

Lifts have been installed at six pedestrian overhead bridges next to MRT stations to improve barrier-free accessibility to major transport nodes, with another 41 lifts to come.

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1. Hello we are students from SP Design School conducting a research to further help people get to where they want a lot easier and we are wondering if we could do an quick interview, 5 min or less, about your daily travelling routine.

2. May you tell us your name?

3. May we ask who did you come here with?

4. How did you get here?

5. What are the difficulties you/ your
family/ guardian face along the journey? (hint by giving examples of less ramps, problematic apparatus)

5a. (If accompanied/ to accompanied), May we ask if you are always required to assist when out with this person?

6. Side question, do you commute by public transport often, if so how often/not often?

7. What are some of the issues that you encounter during your commute on the public transport? (Hint on apparatus and bus stop/ mrt facilities)

8.Do you think the Singapore government has done enough to help cater to people who use such apparatus?

9. If you could change one thing about the apparatus/facilities, what would it be?

10. BONUS: Are there instances where facilities or apparatus become faulty and hinders you from reaching where you want to? If so, do elaborate

END: Thank you for your time, we appreciate you giving us great information so we can further improve the quality of life for everyone, have a great day

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1. We could focus on improving the apparatus used by the people who are physically disabled.

2. We could alter and enhance different services that are already provided by the government in and around public transports.

3. We could tackle the social aspect and educate the general public to better empathise fellow disabled people when they encounter them in public.

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Analysis on the bodystorming conducted on the 16th of January 2019. I had been task to empathise with the physically disabled by simulating someone on crutches and a wheelchair. During the initial stages in school, I had used the crutches. Traversing the school was hard, climbing stairs, unnecessarily using ramps that wasted a lot of time. Throughout this whole journey, there were always peering eyes from the students, a possibility of showing sympathy. The armpits were not comfortable as pressure was always exerted on them. Afterwards, I was swapped into the wheelchair, arms were sore due to the need to ‘paddle’ oneself around. Accessing the MRT was a little hectic, tapping in and out whilst wheeling in, getting on board the train whatsoever. Throughout the journey, people wither gave looks or avoided eye contact. One man was hogging the wheelchair spot on the train, after giving way, the man stayed quiet still.

-Danial

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Group Names:
- Chai Qi Xuan
- Scott Lee
- Donovan Ooi
- Danial
- Ryan
Our Group Name? :)
X To The Power Of D

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Social Integration

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How can we improve mobility of the physically disabled in Singapore?

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We need to assist the physically disabled in improving the mobility around Singapore because to integrate them into society and enable them to go and do whatever, whenever they want.

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What do we need to find out?
The struggles that faces the physically disabled everyday, as well as how difficult it is get get around from one place to another. Is there a potentially easier way for them to get around?
Why is it important that we find that out?
We must first understand their daily life and the problems they face before we can find ways to help them. We need to understand how they get around and their opinions and feeling regarding how effective it is.
Who has the information we need?
Those faced with physical disabilities, as well as the general public.
How do we go about getting it?
Observation- See how friendly different methods of transportation are to the physically disabled. Also observe how the physically disabled moves around, and how the public reacts and accommodates to the physically disabled.

Shadowing- Following a particular physically disabled person will allow us to understand the struggles and steps they face getting from one place to another. This allows us to pick up more detail observation and traits that we might have missed by doing an overall observation.

The discovery Interviews- A more direct and possibly in dept view into the eyes of the physically disabled. From this we can hear their opinion and first hand feedback.

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Introduce ourselves
1.  How are you today?
2. Could you tell me a bit more about yourself, such as your name, age, and interests?
3. Could you tell me more about the things that you like to do everyday?
4. How often do you use public transport on a daily basis
5. What kind of transportation would you say you use the most?
6.Whats the biggest problem that you have faced in your daily commute?
7. What kind of improvements that you think could be made to aid in your daily routine?
8. (Disabled) Do you feel that you are not being treated the same as everyone else when taking public transport? If so, could you explain or describe an instance.
9. (Disabled) What are your opinions on how the government is attending to this issue.
10.(Public) What are your opinions on how the government is doing enough to aid those with physical disabilities in terms of transport?
11. (Public) Do you think its fair for people with disabilities to receive special treatment? If you think so..../ if not why?
12.(Disabled) Have you ever been scrutinized by the public, if yes how?
13. (Disabled) Do people treat you like an outcast when taking public transport, what kind of actions/behavior do the show towards you.
14. (Disabled) Has there ever been a instance where you refused to go out in fear that the transportation system would be of inconvenience to you, what form of inconvenience do u face
15.  Is there anything else you would like voice out in regards to public opinion and transport based around the physical disabled?
16.  Have you got interviewed by another person? (Ranges from student to news reporters)
17. (Relating to question 16) Can you recall the worst or best experience you had as an interviewee

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We did this so that we would be able to get a certain sense of how those who are disabled travel around the country. For me, we had a lot of difficulties and obstacles to overcome. I had tried out crutches for the first time so it was tiring to use it. Also there are some ramps are too difficult for us to push ourselves or use the crutches to walk past. We also had places where there were no ramps at all and that we had to carry them or take a way longer route. For us, the worst part is the stress that we had. We were already perspiring just 10 minutes after we started, and at the end our arms were already tired. Holding the crutches for so long is really taking the toll on my body, just from Singapore Poly to the MRT station Also there was some emotional problems that i encountered today. When we entered the MRT, there was an elderly aunt who actually lent her seat to us, thus making me feel super guilty. There were also many people staring at us, which caused me to feel very embarrassed. For the way the people treated us, it was a mixed reaction. The middle aged and a few elderly people treated us nicely, giving up seats and letting the way for us to go through in lifts and on trains. However, the teenagers and students did not give much attention to us and did not give way, instead walking in front of us when boarding the train.

-Chai

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Today my role was to be disabled and my route was from design school to Jurong East Mrt and back. For the trip to Jurong East, i was using crutches and it was my first time using one so it was quite hard for me to get use to it. When using the crutches it was quite hard as it placed a lot of pressure on the arm pits. One side had the rubber sponge but it was missing for the other side. Honestly, the rubber sponge only helped to a certain extend as it started to hurt after a while but was more effective than not having the sponge at all. For movement around the school the only problem was going up and down the steps as i had to balance myself and go either up or down. When i was at the mrt gantry, the problem i faced was trying to place my wallet back to my pocket after i tapped as i didnt know how soon would the gantry closed thus i had to use the crutches while holding my wallet which was challenging. When  boarding the train only an elderly woman offered her seat to me which happened to be the priority seat. It was to an extend emotionally/mentally challenging as i didnt know if she should have the seat even if i was really injured, I felt guilty as she also needed the seat. However the others on board tried not to notice me when i boarded either losing their eyes or looking away. The next problem i encountered was when i had to alight. Since i was using crutches it was had to stand up to stand next to the door while the train was nearing a stop thus i had to wait for the train to come to a complete stop before standing up. Furthermore Jurong East is very busy and even though it was not peak hour there were already a lot of people trying to exit the train, resulting in taking very long to alight. We went down by the lift ad it was not easy since the crutches did not allow me to bend freely thus i hand to position myself to press the button. Fortunately there was an elderly couple that assisted me in getting in the lift by holding the door and the same when i exited the lift. Overall using the crutches was very exhausting and even though i was not under the sun i was sweating profusely. For my trip back i used the  wheelchair. At the lift getting in was easy but getting out was hard as i had to rotate 180 degrees in order to face the door and exit, given the small space in the lift and other people using it it was hard to maneuver myself out. Trying to board the train was one of the hardest as the train that stopped was higher than the platform and furthermore the gap between was hugh (maybe because of perspective). Instead of rolling over the edge, the front wheels got stuck in the gap resulting in Chai and Scott having to lift me in the wheelchair up and over the gap and onto the train which felt embarrassing. Alighting and going through the gantry was without a problem. Now I had to head back to class. We went back by the most wheelchair friendly route but it was still challenging. As a non-disabled person i thought ramps would solve the problem of people using the wheelchair but mistakes were made. Although the ramp was a better alternative than the stairs it was exhausting going up. Two problems i faced were the incline and the probability of rolling back. The wheel goes both forward and backwards freely and on long slopes it is a problem as i had to push the wheels forward and hold them to prevent myself from rolling back.

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Today we borrowed a standard wheelchair and a pair of crutches from school. Using a method called body storming we placed ourselves into the shoes of those that we wished to study. Roleplaying as a disabled person allowed us, first hand, to grasp the struggles that they faced in their daily commute. Straight out of the gate, trying to get to the MRT station proved difficult. We weren’t sure if it was due to us not being familiar with using such aids, but we quickly found out how much of a hassle they were in terms of getting around. Firstly, having never used crutches before it was surprisingly painful, especially on the armpits. Following this, another surprising revelation that we discovered was how hard it was for one person on a wheel chair to go up and down a ramp without any aid. Previously, it was assumed that ramps allowed the physically disabled to get around quick and efficiently. This was not the case. They took time to travel up and down and required lots of energy. After a few attempts we realized how easy it was to lose momentum and slowly roll backwards.

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Excluding all the external factors and actions that unfolded throughout the whole experience of being either in a wheelchair or in crutches, there are more individualistic problems that one faces whilst operating such apparatus that aids the physically disabled. Initially I was assigned the crutches to traverse the school to see how these people overcome regular obstacles such as curbs, turnstiles and stairs; to my surprise, even ramps were sometimes an issue, the elevation was making hard to use the crutches yet holding the handrails would take a longer time than just holding the handrails up the stairs. Not to mention the actual apparatus itself, it’s more utility based than comfort (according to the crutches that was given to us from the SD office). The poor excuse for comfort lies in the padding of the crutches, supposedly to be tucked under your pits, which was detrimental, both to my pits and my comfort. Easily sweaty, it makes every step excruciatingly uncomfortable. Another flaw of design is that the padding for the pits are easily removed and thus we were given one without a padding which made EVERYTHING a lot worse. These design flaws may allow us to further improve and produce a solution.

Afterwards I was swapped into the wheelchair, the whole experience was catastrophic to say the least. Amidst from the peering eyes, judgmental looks or the subtle assistance from here and there, there are flaws within the wheelchair (Given from SD office) as well. The wheels were unable to move through ramps that easily, be it upwards or downwards. Slopes were a common enemy as traversing upwards required A LOT of energy trying to wheel myself. Not only that, going downhill is much worse as you can’t really stop or regulate the speed and there will always be a chance of falling, backwards or forward. Wheeling it in general was a pain in the ***, figuratively and literally. The seat made my bottoms hurt and made my back sweat since there was little to no ventilation back there. If we were to focus on the comfort, brakes, handling and front wheels, we are surely able to create a solution that would benefit disabled travelling ANYWHERE.

Moving on to primary research, we conducted an observation on how people interacted on a bus using the POEMS method that we had learnt. One thing that we had observed was how people reacted when when a wheelchair-bound person was helped onto the bus with the aid of the bus driver. Interestingly enough, no one was able to get onto the bus as the front door was still closed during this procedure.  We have also noted that there was mixed reactions on how they would react to him. While people gave space for him to go up on board,  they did not do it in a very gracious manner

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No. 1- Our first attempt at sorting out our findings. The only issue is that all our information at this point was based on secondary research supplemented with our body storming. At the end the feedback we got was that the information was not very clear and that the insights were expected and didn't present any new angles.

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Through our secondary research we were able to understand and gain some insight into what are the government initiatives to aid the physically disabled. We were presented with facts and statistics that would otherwise be impossible to gain through primary research such as conducting interviews. For example, the Ministry of Social and Family Development released a statistics regarding Singapore's prevalence rate of person with Disabilities. These findings were crucial as it gave us a wider scope of the current situation and also helped directed us when forming our question later on. Other sources, such as the reports and studies made by Singapore Management University  on the subject of disabled people in Singapore, also gave us a good head start as we were able to review their collection of data from people that they had already interviewed, while understanding the issues from different angles. From these research we were able to identify two main issues facing disabled people, one being how society treats and views them, which based on our findings were disappointing. Second, how the environment isn't suitable for those who are physically disabled, and how it makes their life harder in terms of transportation.

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-choose a specific target group

-infer more into the information
gathered. Get personal stories from physically disabled people

-interview disabled more instead of general public

-link insight and possible paths back to project statement

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Our second attempt was more defined in terms of layout. Adding in the new information that we gained from interviewing the general public we were able to separate the information into three categories.

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The first category was the physical properties of the equipment used.

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The Second category was the environmental factors

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The third category was the social aspect

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-The standard equipment to aid the disabled does little to provide comfort to the user. To improve the user experience will come at a cost

-While the government is taking actions to help the physically disabled get around, not all are practical solutions as it still creates problems/inconveniences them.

-No one was there or offered help when a disabled person was having difficulties commuting.

-More people gave way not so much because they empathise and wanted to aid the disabled and instead more so in fear of being seen as inconsiderate.

-Singaporeans tend to show discrimination against the physically disabled. However, the elderly were more open to sympathise.

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J8YJWISfIXt1u7BckJ_XK1Gvmxu_EftBzvL5zFPZ1so/edit?usp=sharing

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From the feedback given to us after the interim, we have made the changes and improvements so settle the feedback. We have targeted the group toward those that are wheelchair bound.

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Using coloured sticky notes, we were able to categorise our data into a manageable and organised manner. Once we compiled our findings together and sorted it out, we realised that our data can be categorized under 3 main points. The first point being the equipment used to aid those with physical disabilities, the second point targeting the environment and services provided and finally our third point being the social stigma and approaches towards the physically disabled. The benefit of allocating our data in such a way allowed us to see the bigger picture of the factors that affected our project statement.

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Believes that society has to play a part in helping the disabled. He also feels that disabled people should have facilities suited for them.

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We are tasked to create personas based our project, we are to target the audiences at both ends of the spectrum, thus we focused on those who are disabled or not disabled, and also if they are concerned with the everlooming fact of transversing as a disabled person.

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we ran into some technical difficulties as we did not know from the start that the presentation was only 5 min long. The presentation we did was supposed to be 10 min long so we had to take away a lot of the script to ensure that it will be able to fit within the given time frame.

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We need to assist the physically disabled in improving the mobility around Singapore, to enable them the freedom to traverse.

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<< interviewee 1 >>
The front wheels are too small, when boarding the MRT there is a lot of difficulty as there is a gap between the train doorway and the platform this the smaller front wheels tend to get stuck. They would have to try to going in/out backwards as it is easier

The wheelchair should be able to go higher so that those using it will be able to see what they are ordering or looking as some counters are not low enough for people on wheelchair to see.

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After ideation we are to gauge the ideas generated based on feasibility, cost efficiency and innovation. By scoring them, we are able to follow the best few ideas

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When we interviewed her, answers were very direct and straightforward.

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<< interviewee 2 >>
Problem boarding train too many people blocking/ not willing to give way

Since he uses a electric wheelchair there are instances where it breakdowns thus its a prob ( plus he travels alone )

Electric wheelchair not made to be pushed by the user(assumption that electric wheelchair does not require user to use manually thus the back wheels are small so it cannot be manually pushed like a normal wheelchair)

Sometimes when traveling, wheelchair breakdown midway so he needs other people to push him ( travels alone) public not always willing to help plus he has a bit of speech slur and ‘’spasm’’ so it may be a little bit intimidating.

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<< interviewee 1 >>
The front wheels are too small, when boarding the MRT there is a lot of difficulty as there is a gap between the train doorway and the platform this the smaller front wheels tend to get stuck. They would have to try to going in/out backwards as it is easier

The wheelchair should be able to go higher so that those using it will be able to see what they are ordering or looking as some counters are not low enough for people on wheelchair to see.

<< interviewee 2 >>
Problem boarding train too many people blocking/ not willing to give way

Since he uses a electric wheelchair there are instances where it breakdowns thus its a prob ( plus he travels alone )

Electric wheelchair not made to be pushed by the user(assumption that electric wheelchair does not require user to use manually thus the back wheels are small so it cannot be manually pushed like a normal wheelchair)

Sometimes when traveling, wheelchair breakdown midway so he needs other people to push him ( travels alone) public not always willing to help plus he has a bit of speech slur and ‘’spasm’’ so it may be a little bit intimidating.

<< interviewee 3 >>
had difficulties as there's only one wheelchair spot on the bus so there is a lot of time wasted when there are other wheelchair people waiting for the same bus.

MRT gantry is quite a distance from the lift. Requires quite a lot of effort and since it is at the train station there are a lot of other people that are leaving the station. Furthermore not all the people will give way so it very tight squeeze to get out.

Feels that the general public not very welcoming/accepting towards people on wheelchair so it quit difficult to move around in a crowd.

"There was an instance when i was boarding the buss and there were a lot of people blocking the wheelchair section and no one made way. So the bus captain had to help me onto the bus and request that those people give way."

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Donny’s

When asked asked the problems he faced when he took the bus, he mentioned that the delay and the time for the next bus tend to be long.

He felt that disabled treatments deserved their special treatments as it helps them go on with their daily lives as easily as possible

He mentioned that the public should not blame physically disabled people for bringing their wheelchair onto buses as they are like us trying to go on with their daily lives.

From the the interview, we were not really able to gather much insight on the problems as he does not seem local and may not have much experience with the situation at hand. However he was able to give some good pointers.

Ryan’s

Interviewee said that bus captains are actually already very gracious and willing to offer assistance to those who are physically disabled whenever they are seen getting on buses. When asked how the situation can be improved, he stated that the best which can be done is to have bus captains go the extra mile, for instance pushing the wheelchair-bound passenger up the ramp instead of just mounting the ramp and waiting for them to help themselves up.

When asked for his input on whether the govt was doing enough to help the physically disabled in Singapore, he answered yes, and went on to elaborate on how they have provided sufficient facilities in our neighborhoods for the less physically enabled and quoted a senior citizens corner as an example.

Danial’s

- Believes that government should provide more space for the disabled to use, educate people not having disabilities to move so that the disabled could receive space                                                                                                                                                               - Not fair for those with disabilities to experience this treatment, as they are not born this way, and they should be equally treated  - Singaporeans (majority) are very judgemental, discriminate those with disabilities without knowing what is happening to the disabled and believes sometimes as they are a nuisance                                                                                                                               -  From the interview, it tells she is quite clear about the situations. She is a frequent passenger of public transport , and she gives clear speeches of how she had experienced it as well as giving examples on how to help the disabled.

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Platform door 180 cm
Poster-poster 300 cm
Door to end of braille 90 cm
Door to barrier 15 cm

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https://prezi.com/p/t78qtnvwxozj/

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We need to assist the physically disabled in improving the mobility around Singapore, to enable them the freedom of seamless travel.

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our first concept was to create a ramp to help bridge the gap, our first idea, since we had not found the dimensions of the motor, were to house them on the left side of the ramp. This way we could keep the height of the houseing small enough that it wont be too noticeable.

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our final design, after some research, had lost the left housing that we thought we would need to store the motors. instead we found out that there were motors in the current market that were powerfully enough and yet small enough to fit without the need of the left housing. this made the design over all more sleek and less intrusive.