Picture provided by Ta-Tung Hospital

This article is first published here on 16th November 2023 and translated from Chinese to English.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 16 November 2023  –  The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been actively promoting plans related to inclusive medical care. In line with these recommendations, and as part of Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital corporate social responsibility efforts, the hospital launched the country's first accessible self-service payment terminal on 15 November together with members of Kaohsiung Association of Mental and Physical Disabilities.

Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital pointed out that the current height of self-service payment machines in general hospitals is about 170 centimeters, and most of them adopt design commonly seen in carparks, often with limitations in the user interface and high coin inlet position.

In order to build a truly barrier-free space, Ta-Tung Hospital specially commissioned the design of "HGR self-service payment terminal", which split the payment and collection into two parts. The result – reducing the overall height to about 120 centimeters complete with accessibility features such as font display magnification, audio guide, touch screen and other intuitive interface features. 

Ms Song, who has limited mobility said that in the past, whenever she makes payment at hospitals, due to the height of the counters, the staff often could not see the wheelchair users who wanted to pay, and sometimes they were even jumped in line. ‘With this new self-service payment terminal, which allows the transaction to be swiftly completed in just 3 minutes on an user-friendly design interface that meets my needs, I am glad that I can finally experience the convenience brought by self-service’, she adds.

Mr Fu Yinzhi, president of Ta-Tung Hospital, said that many people seeking medical treatment are in wheelchairs, have limited range of hand mobility, or are elderly. The introduction of the terminal is an important milestone in promoting barrier-free medical services. ‘Ta-Tung Hospital has long been paying attention to the needs of patients with disabilities and is committed to providing a more inclusive medical environment so that medical services can achieve "accessibility" and "approachability." ‘In the future, we will continue to introduce smart medical care, intelligent management and all-round medical care, hoping to become the highest quality comprehensive care community hospital, in safeguarding social welfare and achieving medical equality, and help shape Kaohsiung City towards a healthy and happy smart city’.

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