The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) held the award presentation ceremony of its inaugural Universal Design Award Scheme (the Scheme) today (1 November 2024) at the HKJC Auditorium of Hong Kong Palace Museum. The award ceremony served to recognise organisations with outstanding contributions in implementing universal design, and motivate more organisations to adopt such practices, with a view to enhancing the accessibility of Hong Kong. Officiating at the ceremony as the Guest of Honour was Mr Erick TSANG Kwok-wai, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.  Ms Linda LAM Mei-sau, Chairperson of the EOC and Dr James WONG Kong-tin, Chairperson of the Property Management Services Authority delivered the opening and closing speeches respectively. Altogether more than 300 guests attended the ceremony, including EOC Members, and representatives from the supporting organisations and awarded premises.

Mr Erick TSANG Kwok-wai, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, said, “Hong Kong is densely populated, with many buildings and roads built along mountains. We need to adapt to our situation accordingly and create more facilities to improve mobility for different people and enhance public convenience. The SAR Government is committed to building barrier-free environments, ensuring full participation in various activities for different people. We are highly supportive of the EOC’s efforts to facilitate the community to improve environments and facilities through promotion and public education, and thus enhancing Hong Kong’s accessibility. With recognition for the awarded organisations’ efforts, we hope that they will share their successes and best practices in creating accessible and inclusive environments with their partners and stakeholders, with a view to bringing universal design to the mainstream and further enhancing Hong Kong’s overall accessibility.”

Welcoming the guests and representatives of the awarded premises, EOC Chairperson Ms Linda Lam said, “We are truly excited by the enthusiastic responses from both public and private organisations to the first Universal Design Award Scheme launched by the EOC this February. The Scheme attracted applications from 104 companies and institutions for 270 premises, demonstrating that different sectors of our society recognise the importance of adopting universal design, and integrating the principles into their facilities and services, which would not only benefit the public and meet diverse needs, but also gives businesses competitive advantage. It also underlines the EOC’s longstanding effort to promote universal design and accessible environments. We are really thankful to all supporting organisations, and the various professionals and EOC Members in the judging panel, who helped us select the awarded premises.”

Ms Lam added, “Under the Scheme, a total of  281 awards are given out to premises spanning a wide range of sectors, including shopping malls, offices, restaurants, recreational and cultural facilities, and century-old heritage sites. These premises exemplify the best practices in universal design and are certainly worthy of reference.” Ms Lam continued, “Unlike typical architectural design awards, the Universal Design Award Scheme 2024/25 evaluates not only compliance with planning codes and design requirements, but also service provision, such as training staff on accessible concepts, offering wheelchair and stroller lending services for caregivers, and posting relevant accessibility information on websites or social media for visitors to review before their arrival. After all, the concept of universal design is to create environments and facilities usable by individuals of all ages and abilities. Other than hardware, we also need friendly services and an inclusive attitude to create an accessible community environment.”

“Hong Kong’s society is in urgent need of accessible and inclusive environment and facilities to address the rapidly aging population and increasing number of individuals with chronic illnesses and caregivers, and to create a supportive environment for raising children so as to encourage childbirth. We need to start preparing for the future by creating built environments and providing facilities and services that can support people with different abilities and at different life stages, ensuring that everyone enjoys equal opportunities to participate in society. At the EOC, we have set the promotion of universal design as one of the strategic goals in our Strategic Plan for 2024-2026. Riding on the publicity and educational impact of the Scheme, we will continue to promote the mainstreaming of the universal design concept and the exemplar cases through various platforms and activities,” said Ms Lam. 

The EOC’s inaugural Universal Design Award Scheme consists of five application categories, including: (1) Shopping Malls and Retail Space, (2) Office Buildings and Office Spaces, (3) Restaurants, (4) Buildings and Sites with Recreational, Sports or Cultural Purposes, and (5) Revitalised Sites. They cover spaces frequented by the public in daily life. The Scheme attracted applications from 270 premises, and after careful review by a judging panel consisting of experts from various sectors and EOC Members, 11 premises received Special Recognition Award, 120 premises received Gold Award, 133 premises received Silver Award, 13 premises obtained Bronze Award and 4 premises were recognised with merit awards.

The Special Recognition Award of the Scheme recognises premises with excellent universal design provisions and services. Notable measures include: providing a caring environment and a range of supportive services for breastfeeding women, families with young children, elderly, caregivers and persons with disabilities in the shopping malls, and installing Angel Boxes to facilitate the quick return of individuals with dementia who are lost; offering flexible and adjustable equipment in offices, such as desks with adjustable height, wider security barriers and automatic doors; providing facilities that can be used by people with different abilities and age groups, such as swings accessible to wheelchair users, in recreational and sports venues; providing charging stations for electric wheelchairs and foldable nursing bed in accessible toilet for adult diaper-changing; providing all gender toilets, tactile map on each floor and digital map equipped with accessible mode in revitalised sites. 

To encourage premises which encounter hardships in retrofitting existing facilities to meet accessibility standards, the Universal Accessibility Pledge was introduced for these premises to show their commitment in actualising an enabling environment. A total of 107 applications were received for the pledge, covering 290 participating premises.

Universal design advocates the consideration of the needs of everyone when designing environments or products, without the need for future modifications. The underlying philosophy is that accessible environments and facilities are not created solely for specific groups, but should be user-centric, benefiting individuals at different life stages and with varying abilities.

To promote the concept of universal design, the EOC launched the first How to Support Persons with Disabilities: Practical Guide on Universal Design for Catering Services and held a seminar titled “Application of Accessible Technology in Catering Services” last year. Other than the launch of the Universal Design Award Scheme 2024/25 in February this year, the EOC also organised the Accessible for All@Hong Kong Symposium in July to encourage various sectors to discuss how to enhance Hong Kong’s accessibility environment and facilities.

For the list of awarded premises under the Universal Design Award Scheme, please visit: https://www.eoc.org.hk/en/udas/ceremony.

For more details about the Universal Design Award Scheme, please visit: https://www.eoc.org.hk/en/udas.

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The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (1 November 2024) holds the award presentation ceremony of its inaugural Universal Design Award Scheme. Mr Erick TSANG Kwok-wai, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (fifth from left), Ms Linda LAM Mei-sau, Chairperson of the EOC (fifth from right) and Dr James WONG Kong-tin, Chairperson of the Property Management Services Authority (fourth from left) together with EOC Members officiate at the award presentation ceremony of the Universal Design Award Scheme.

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (1 November 2024) holds the award presentation ceremony of its inaugural Universal Design Award Scheme. Mr Erick TSANG Kwok-wai, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Ms Linda LAM Mei-sau, Chairperson of the EOC present certificates of appreciation to members of the judging panel and representatives of supporting organisations to thank their support to the Scheme. Photo shows Mr Tsang (front row, eighth from right) and Ms Lam (front row, seventh from right) joining the EOC Members and management team, members of judging panel, and representatives of supporting organisations.

A group photo of the guests and representatives of the awarded premises at the award presentation ceremony of the Universal Design Award Scheme.