Disability in the UK vs Hong Kong (Part I)
Each country and culture face unique challenges. As someone who grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to the UK to study, I realised that the ways the disabled community is perceived are very different in each culture, and so are policies made to aid the disabled community.
To better comprehend these differences, I will be writing two articles to compare disability policies and accessibility in the UK and Hong Kong. I will use Hong Kong as a control case to see the strengths and weaknesses of the two countries when comes to disability policies and how we can do better to improve the situation here in the UK.
To allow readers to have an understanding of the two countries’ social structures, I will first provide a statistical overview of the two countries’ populations and employment figures. Afterwards, we will start by comparing the accessibility of different facilities in the two countries. This will help us gain a sense of how well the two states are doing infrastructure-wise.
Population, employment and disability in the UK and Hong Kong
The UK has a gigantic population when compared to Hong Kong. According to Population UK, in 2021, the UK had a total of 56.191 million people. If we look at the same year in Hong Kong, the population is just 7.55 million.
Despite these differences in population, Hong Kong is actually much more overpopulated compared to the UK. Its territorial size is merely 1104 square-kilometre, while London as a city alone has about 1572 square-kilometre.
The population density can have a significant impact on how disabled facilities are designed and how many resources the government is willing to give to the disabled community.
When it comes to statistics regarding the disabled community, here’s a chart showing how the statistics from the two countries differ.
| UK | Hong Kong | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of disabled people | 14 million | 0.5 million |
| Percentage of disabled people in the country | 28% | 7.4% |
| Percentage of disabled people in the working population | 19% | 2.4% |
| Employment rate of the disabled | 52.3% (For disabled people from 16-64) | 19.7% (For disabled people over 15) |
| Disability Employment Gap | 28.8% | n/a |
Source: UK Family Resources Survey (Mar 2021); UK Labour Force Survey (May 2021); Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong (2021)
On paper, the UK consist of a much larger number of disabled people, as well as percentage of disabled people in the working population. One thing to notice is that the employment rate for disabled people in the UK is strikingly high when compared to Hong Kong.
While UK’s disabled employment gap is still around 28.8% in 2021, their overall employment rate of 52.3% is still much better than the 19.7% of Hong Kong. It might seem that Hong Kong’s low percentage of disabled people in the workforce might be a direct consequence of the small disabled community itself, but that is questionable.
Unlike the UK, Hong Kong makes use of the medical definition of disability. Society relies on medical diagnosis to classify whether one is disabled or not, instead of relying on the self-identification of the disabled (Gilson & Dymond, 2011). Hence, if we are counting on the different definitions, it is reasonable to suspect that the disabled population may be significantly larger.
As I have mentioned above, the two countries have a massive difference in terms of demography and geographical settings. This leads to a very good question, with so many different societal conditions, how do the two countries deal with accessibility in terms of infrastructure construction?
Accessibility and inclusion in Hong Kong and the UK
Jones at el. (2019) has argued that the UK does not have enough accessible facilities, which will result in the social and physical marginalisation of disabled people. That is certainly true. Despite now being a digital age, it is still necessary for employees, to attend meetings in person or to work in the office for a certain period of time. Not to mention social gatherings and political protests.
To make the picture clearer, we will focus on comparing the accessibility of underground transport and lifts available in the two countries. According to disabled-world.com, only 31% of the UK’s tube stations are fully assessable. This poses a serious problem for those with disabilities. Difficulties in accessing certain locations might limit the working and social opportunities of the disabled community.
However, the situation is drastically different in Hong Kong. Up till 2012, 86 MTR stations have accessible exits or lifts that allow wheelchair users to enter, while blind bricks are installed in nearly every single station. The accessibility is over 96% in general.
Since the Hong Kong government considered the railways as the backbone of HK's public transport system, by enabling nearly complete access to the MTR system, disabled people can reach most parts of the metropolitan area (Cheung & Lam, 1998).
On the other hand, there are obviously not enough accessible facilities installed in UK buildings. Most properties built in the UK pre-date accessible building regulations. A total of 17,711,250 homes were constructed prior to WWII. 53% of houses pre-date 1945.
When we consider lifts, there are 250,000 passenger and goods lifts in the UK, covering a territory of 243,610 square kilometres. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, there are close to 70,000 lifts, covering a territory of just 1,104 square kilometres.
In the UK, there are 1.02 lifts available per square kilometre vs 63 lifts in Hong Kong. This enormous difference is most likely due to the different landscape and urban planning directions of the two countries. While having lifts does not necessarily mean that the building is completely accessible, it at least guarantees that disabled people can enter buildings and workplaces.
The following is a simple chart to display the data in an easy-to-read format.
| UK | Hong Kong | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accessibility rate of underground transport | 31% | 96% | |||
| Number of Elevators | 250,000 | 70,000 | |||
| Elevators per square kilometre | 1.02 | 63 |
While Hong Kong seems to be doing a lot to increase accessibility, that is not the full picture. After all, to know whether one is simply ticking the box or actually dedicating effort to improving the needs of the disabled community, we need to understand the social context behind these data.
This data even raises further questions. Why has Hong Kong built so many buildings and created a transport network with inclusion in mind, yet so few disabled people are employed in the workforce?
What’s coming next?
In the next article, we will focus on the cultural differences between the UK and Hong Kong. These cultural differences are crucial for understanding why Hong Kong is doing so well in terms of infrastructure, yet so badly in terms of accepting disabled individuals as part of society.
Moreover, if you want to know how the UK and Hong Kong can change for the better and create a more inclusive environment for the disabled community, Part two will have all that covered for you in detail.
So, if you find this topic interesting and want to learn more regarding disability across the globe, be sure to stick around!
