World News for Students of English

22-08-2014 15:00

Dubai has begun offering specialist wheelchairs that have been modified to allow disabled people the chance to enjoy bathing in the sea or in swimming pools.

The two armrests act as flotation devices and the user lays flatter and lower than normal to make it easier to change positions.

“So we are studying right now four parks in Dubai, and we’re changing actually the playground area according to that needs exactly for those who are coming with wheelchairs so they will be mixed with the normal children.”

Twenty chairs have been put out across Dubai’s two main beach parks and can be reserved and used for free, and by October they plan for at least 20 percent of areas in the country’s 80 parks to be equipped with entertainment facilities for disabled visitors.

“We’ll try to remove the wheels. It’s easy to remove the wheels because there’s a lock. When we remove the lock, the wheels will come out.”

The chairs are part of a specialist project to make Dubai more accessible for disabled visitors for the World Expo in 2020.

Difficult words: floatation (action of floating – moving slowly in the water), device (thing).

Source: www.itn.co.uk