I'm getting ready to leave Singapore. What an interesting city! It's a clean, modern, and developed city with a unique blend of Eastern and Western culture. Eating and shopping are the national pastimes and wearing shoes inside the home is a taboo.
The research here has been quite interesting as well. This is one country that could really benefit from an educational campaign about disabilities. There's a general lack of awareness about the needs of PWDs. One employee of a disabled persons organization mentioned she doesn't think the locals understand that wheelchair users can't use the escalator, which leads to a lack of courtesy, such as people refusing to make room for wheelchair users in lifts.
The truth is that no matter how accommodating legal systems or public spaces are towards people with disabilities, no one can experience their full effects without some public cooperation. A wide lift is no good if people won't let a person in a wheelchair in and an accessible bathroom stall is no good if it's used as a storage room. (A real problem)
On another note, I recommend anyone reading this invite themselves over to my apartment in future years, because all of this travelling has made me want to be a better hostess. I have a lovely host family here that was supposed to have me for a weekend and ended up inviting me to stay for the rest of the trip. Now my standards for hosting are set. If you want meals and rides and wifi and a comfortable bed my place is going to be the place to be.
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