The Legal Environment Of Barrier-Free In China And International Comparison

Barrier-free environment is the basic precondition to ensure all members of society including the disabled and the aged to fairly share the achievements of material culture. The level of barrier-free environment is not only an important criterion to evaluate the quality of material life and spiritual life, but also presents the civilization level of a country or city. The barrier-free environment has got rapid progress recently with the supports of government and society, in particular, the success of Beijing Paralympics demonstrated our highest achievements in the construction of barrier-free environment, and is highly appraised by the international community. Although we have got significant progress in barrier-free environment, there are still some problems which should not be ignored. The establishment and execution of laws play an important role in the construction of barrier-free environment. Therefore, it's necessary to conduct the researches on the legal environment of barrier-free to promote the development of the construction of barrier-free environment in China.Firstly, the paper reviewed the development of berrier-free legal system in China: to review the characteristics of three phases in the development of berrier-free legal system; to analyze the current situation of berrier-free legal system in China; and to summarize the problems, which include imperfection of legal system, lack of superordinate laws, weakness of legal liability, and contradiction of local regulations. Morever, barrier-free environment and public barrier-free awareness in Beijing were investigated through field investigation and questionnaire survey.The field investigation of barrier-free environment found: New buildings, such as commercial buildings and subway facilities, are better than old buildings in barrier-free environment; Regulation of barrier-free enverinment construction is not comprehensive and explicit enough; Unreasonable occupant of blind walk way ia common , and public barrier-free knowledge and awareness are inadequate. The questionnaire survey of public awareness was conducted from five aspects: barrier-free knowledge, perception of necessity of barrier-free facilities, behaviors related barrier-free environment, perception of current situation of barrier-free environment in Beijing, and promotion of barrier-free knowledge. Futhermore, the paper analyzed the evolution process of barrier-free legal system in US, UK, and Japan, and summarized: their common characteristics of evolution process, including change of legislative idea, dominant status of fundamental laws, and the promotion of social communities; and their successful experiences in constructing legal system, clarifying duties of stakeholders, financial source, and public involvement. Finally, based on the main problems of barrier-free legal system in China and the current situation of barrier-free environment and public barrier-free awareness, three strategies were proposed with the reference of the experiences of US, UK, and Japan: change the legislative idea, consummate legal system, and improve the execution.