Fort Cornwallis Food Court

Fort Cornwallis Food Court has been operating for many years. There are some very nice hawker food there. But unfortunately wheelchair users are unable to reach the place. Here are some photos I took when I checked that place on 13 Oct 2015.

If a wheelchair user comes from Light Street, the entrance is blocked. (See photos above).

You cannot enter from the public car parks. (See photo above).

Entrance from Jalan Tuan Syed Sheh Barakbah is also blocked. (See photo above). So no access at all entrances.

Udini Square

Udini Square is a newly opened shopping mall at Lebuh Tunku Kudin 3. It is just next to Tesco Gelugor. A friend told me there is a passage connecting the two buildings. So I decided to check them out on 16 Sep 2015.

A very visible accessible car park sign greeted us and this gave me a good impression (see photo above). The friendly guard guided our car to the car park. There were all together four accessible car parks. It is good that these car parks are completely separated from the general car parks. There will be no possibility of abuse. But since it is an open air car park it can be messy when it rains (see photos below).

Next to the car parks is a ramp. I had no problem using that ramp. But I didn’t like the fact that handrail is only installed at one side of the ramp. A ramp must always have handrails on both sides. I had also noticed a very sharp edge at one point and this could post a danger to the person who accidentally falls (see photos below).

Since the mall is newly opened, it was not fully occupied yet.  But as usual, I first made the point to check if this mall has an accessible toilet. And if it has, I will try to review the design of the toilet. I was actually quite disappointed with the accessible toilet when I saw it. Firstly, I didn’t like the grab bar that is fixed to the floor. And secondly the empty space beside this toilet bowl is too narrow (see photos below).

I hope the following photo illustrates my points clearly.

After checking the accessible toilet, I tried to find out if the lift of the the mall reaches the basement car parks.The lift did reach the basement (see photos below). And I think the car park next to the entrance is also a good location for disabled drivers’ car park because it is well shaded from the rain and sun. 

Before I left, I check the passage way that connected this mall to Tesco. The entrance to the passage could be easily found.

But if a wheelchair user tries to go to Tesco using this connecting bridge, the person will be blocked at Tesco’s end. (See photos below.) 

I left the mall feeling very frustrated that wheelchair users are again being discriminated. It is simply unfair that we are unable use the same facilities that other people enjoy.

Update on 26 Dec 2015

Some of the problems highlighted in the above post have been solved (see photos below.) I wish to thank whoever is responsible for making the improvements.

Two Hotels In One Building

St. Giles Wembly Hotel and Cititel Express were opened in Penang recently. Both hotels occupied the same building. St. Giles Wembly's entrance is at Magazine Road (Jalan Magazine) and Cititel Express's entrance is at Noordin Street (Lebuh Noordin). (See map below.)

The ramp to enter St. Giles Wembly is as shown in the photo below. The ramp appeared to be steep and there is only handrail at one side of the ramp.

The ramp to enter Cititel Express are shown in the photos below.

The multi-storey car park has a few accessible car parks and one of them was located next to the lift. (Photo below.)

The accessible toilet at St. Giles Wembly was located at the lobby and could be found easily. It was big and bright and quite expensively docorated. The only thing I didn't like was the location of the basin. (See photos below.) It is not good for people who use side-transfer.

The accessible toilet of Cititel Express was quite a distance from the lobby and hidden behind a wooden door. A friendly receptionist led me all the way to the toilet. We had to go up a ramp and then past a long corridor before we could reach it. Then we found that the toilet was locked and she could not locate the person who had the key. I ended up using the one at St. Giles Wembly.

I encountered an irritating problem when I was at the hotels. The floor from one part of the building to another part are often not jointed smoothly. The small front wheels of my wheelchair got stuck a few times and I had to "reverse" (moving back to front) so that I could use the big hind wheels to overcoming the problems. Here are some photos to illustrate my point.

Conclusion: All new buildings in Penang are beginning to have facilities for wheelchair users. This is a good trend. But the designs of these facilities still have room for further improvements.

No Disabled Access: Farquhar Mansion

I phoned Farquhar Masion 10 minutes ago and was told that the place is NOT wheelchair friendly. This post is for disabled people who may want to go there.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

No I wasn't referring to the famous movie by Clint Eastwood. I was referring to my impressions when I visited the new Royale Bintang Hotel of Penang on Jan 7, 2015.

The good thing about this hotel is that there were attempts to make the premise wheelchair friendly. It has a step-ramp at the main entrance. And I had no problem moving around inside the hotel. (See photos below.)

The bad thing is the hotel's accessible toilet. When I entered the toilet I was very surprised to see that the toilet floor is about 15 mm lower than the floor outside. That posed a problem when I wanted to leave the toilet. The small wheels in front of my wheelchair were unable to overcome the 15 mm height step. I had to reverse my wheelchair and exit back to front. (See photo below.)

The grab bar in the toilet was fixed in a wrong direction. I cannot understand how the designer could make such a fundamental error I really could not understand. (See photo below.) (Please refer to my post about designing an accessible toilet if you want to know how grab-bars should be fixed. The link is HERE.)

And what is the ugly thing -- keeping cleaning equipment in the accessible toilet. Imagine a foreign visitor entering the toilet. What will he or she thinks of this hotel or even Penang. Can't the hotel allocate a dedicated room for such storage and not use the accessible toilet to store such stuff.