Incentives for Shopping Malls to Install Tactile Paving to Aid Visually Impaired

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for National Development whether the Ministry will consider providing more incentives, including partial funding, for shopping malls to install tactile paving to aid the visually impaired.

Speaker, BCA’s Accessibility Fund (AF) provides co-funding for eligible building owners to upgrade their buildings with accessibility features. These features would also include aid for the visually impaired, such as tactile paving and information signage. For eligible private buildings, including shopping malls, the AF co-funds up to 60% of the construction cost for such features, capped at $300,000 per development.

More information on the AF, including how to apply for funding, is available on BCA’s website. BCA will continue to reach out to building owners to raise awareness of the AF.

Thank you, Sir. This feedback actually came from a visually-impaired person who came to a dialogue session. He was sharing how at the Yishun Integrated Transport Hub, it really is very good. And I tried it. If you close your eyes, you can walk there, following the tactile paving. But his question was, it is very hard for him to get to there, to use the tactile paving because at the Northpoint City, there is no tactile paving.

I understand we are encouraging the building owners to provide these for the visually-impaired but I am just wondering whether we can perhaps make it compulsory so that the visually-impaired can find it easier to get around.

I thank the Member for his question. Today, under our building accessibility codes, the new buildings will certainly have such accessibility features on board. The AF is to encourage older buildings to come on board. I know Northpoint City is probably an older building. There are certain limitations with buildings that did not come with such designs. When they undergo A&A, BCA will try to encourage as much as we can. But to enforce it on all buildings is quite difficult because many of these buildings may or may not necessarily have the design features or they were not purpose-built for these. When buildings are being designed, we understand the newer ones, like the Member mentioned, are better equipped to provide such tactile pavings.

For the older ones, to be fair to building owners, we will encourage them as they undergo A&A. They can still tap on to the Fund.

The Fund is quite substantive – 60% and up to $300,000. It is not a small sum either, to encourage more building owners to come on board.

To give an example, more than 90% of existing buildings in the Orchard Road shopping belt have already achieved barrier-free accessibility. Certainly, we can do more, and in the heartlands, especially, and see how we can make it better.