Why does Hong Kong Government need VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com?
According
to the “Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics feature article: Persons with
Disabilities and Chronic Diseases” published by Hong Kong Census and Statistics
Department in February 2009, it was estimated that there were about 431,000
persons with physical disabilities (restriction in body movement, seeing
difficulty, hearing difficulty, speech difficulty) in the investigation period
from November 2006 to December 2007. Due
to the population of disabilities is expanding, Hong Kong Government had
firstly introduced “Design Manual: Access for the Disabled in 1984”. The manual
was reviewed in 1997 and substantively became the Design Manual: Barrier Free
Access 2008. The aim of the manual is to “set
out the design requirements of providing proper access to and appropriate
facilities in a building for persons with a disability……”.
Even
through there was a guideline for those parties concerned for building the facilities,
the “Formal Investigation Report: Accessibility in Publicity Accessible
Premises” conducted by Equal Opportunities Commission in June 2010 showed that
it was still common to find the so-called barrier free public facilities where
the persons with disabilities were not able access the amenities due to other
physical and operational barriers.
The
following news (
) also shows that Hong Kong Government did not have the
full picture on building the public facilities for the person with physical
disabilities.
In the first case of the news, Hong Kong Government
spent about $4 million to renovate two public toilets for disabilities in
Sheung Wan. However, people have to take steps to enter to the toilets which
are not accessible for the wheelchair users. The Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department, in-charge of this project, claimed that the outside areas of the
facilities were not managed by them. The Transport Department responded that
they were not consulted and asked for advices on renovations.
The
other case also shows that the barrier free facilities are not helpful for the
disabilities. There are bus stop stand
built on tactile guide paths in Shatin Centre Bus Station and many obstacles
are placed on the paths. These make the blinds confused and bushed in using the
paths.
These
facts reflected that
- The departments of Hong Kong Government lack of expertise on building the barrier-free facilities
- No official channel for end users to provide suggestions and feedbacks on building the facilities
- The resources spent and put on the facilities were not fully utilized
- The persons with disabilities feel frustrated, disappointed and helpless on what Hong Kong Government did on the facilities
- The reputation and image of Hong Kong were impacted
Therefore,
Hong Kong Government should have to understand the needs of the disability in
order to well spend time and money in helping them to integrate to the society.
What is VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com?
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is
jointly owned by Hong Kong Government (Tri) and the Hong Kong Council of Social
Service (NGO) (Tick Tack). It is a platform to share the information of
facilities in the public area and services (for example rehabilitation
services, transport and access support) for the disability which are provided
by the Hong Kong Government, NGOs and the business organizations. It is also a platform for the general public
(especially the disabled) to share the feedbacks on using the services and
facilities. The mobile version (web and app) is available.
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is not
only limited to the disabled but also provides chances to their friends and relatives and the general public to understand
and help to review the facilities and the services for the disability. The ultimate aim of having
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is
to draw the awareness of caring the disabled from general
public and the business organization.
Why Virtual Collaboration is Needed ?
Easy to access & convenienceVirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com provides a convenient platform for the disabled and the general public. It can speed up the process of gathering of information from different parties concerned (eg. the disabled and general public). It can also decrease the searching costs of the users.
Providing more information with transparency to general public
The disabled and the general public can easily access the greater breadth of information about the disabled facilities and services. General public can monitor the use of the resources on the facilities and services for the disability.
Interaction
with the disabilities
The information will
be exchanged thru VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com to
all the parties concerned. The users
can
their
problems and identify their needs on the facilities and the services provided
by the government, NGOs or other organizations. Different individual
problems reported will also be handled. Any information of the newly launched
of facilities
and services
will be announced in VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com as
well.
Contents of the website
1.
What’s news
In this
section, VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
will provide
the most updated relevant information for the disability. It
includes the new and updated improvements of facilities and services to the
disability by the
government and NGOs, and the activities hosted by NGOs or other organizations. This helps the government
and NGOs to
deliver their news thru VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com for
the users’ reference in a faster way.
Also,
the government policies which related to the disabled (e.g. the Statutory
Minimum Wage and Disability Discrimination Ordinance) will also be included in
this part. The policies will be disseminated not only to the disabled but also
to the general public and the business organizations. It will remind the disabilities what
are their rights and interests protected by the government. The business
organizations can also access the information easily and take necessary actions to
fulfill the requirements.
2. Disabled Facilities & Services
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com will provide
the information of the facilities and services provided by the government, NGOs
and other public service providers (e.g. public transportations, shopping
malls, hotels and etc).
By
providing the information, the disabled and the general public can easily
search about the services and the facilities they need. It will lower the
searching cost for the user.
It is believed that
the information can be accessed by the general public easily and they can help
to monitor the use of those facilities and services. It will also encourage the
business organizations to provide more facilities and services to the disabled
as those information are easily accessed by the general public and raising
their goodwill.
3. Feedback Platform
As
mentioned, the government and NGOs provided many facilities and services but it
may not be suitable for the disability. Therefore, a platform for
collecting feedbacks
from the disabled and the general public in VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is created.
The feedback
platform will be
available on the website or the mobile version. As most of the people are now
using the smartphone, it is easy to take the photos or videos and then upload
by using the mobile version. When the users are not feeling comfortable with
the facilities or services, they can provide the feedbacks to VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com easily.
For those who are not able to use the online platform, it is encouraged their
relatives and friends or the Hong Kong Council of Social Service to provide and report
the feedbacks and problems for them.
After
receiving the comments, VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
will pass them to
relevant departments
of the government, NGOs or organizations to have the follow up actions. An
intern reply will be given within 10 calendar days. In case a substantive reply
cannot be made within 30 calendar days, VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
will update the progress to the users. The follow-up actions and improvements taken will
be shown in the “What’s news” section of the website.
Value added to Hong Kong Government from VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
As mentioned by the cases before, the
Hong Kong Government is willing to invest money in helping the disability to
integrate to the society by developing many different facilities in different places,
however, the cases shown us that they did not realize the NEEDS of the
disability and resulted in uselessness of the facilities. Through the VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com, it helps
the Hong Kong Government to understand the needs of the disability in order to
well spend time and money in helping them. On the other hand, VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
also provides a platform which is beneficial to the Hong Kong Government.
The values of VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
to the Hong Kong Government are as follows:
- Well spend the money and make sure the facilities or services are useful and helpful
- Save time
- Build trust
- Enhance image locally and internationally
- More comments for further improvement
- Announcement can be accessible by a wider community
- Better society
Well spend the money and
make sure the facilities or services are useful and helpful
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
is an effective
communication channel among the Hong Kong Government, the disabilities, the social
services organizations, and the public. All these parties can share their
ideas, comments and feedbacks in this platform. The most important thing is the
Hong Kong Government can consult the users at an early stage when planning to
build some facilities for the disability. It can definitely avoid setting up
some useless facilities as mentioned in the cases before. Thus, the Hong Kong
Government can well spend money and make sure the facilities or services are
useful and helpful to the disability. 
Save time
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is an information gathering and information
disseminating conduit, everyone can share the information easily through this
platform. The Hong Kong Government can save lots of time in getting, gathering
and disseminating information.
Build trust
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com is a linkage between the Hong Kong
Government and the disability. The Hong Kong Government can show their cares
and attention to the disability through this linkage. The disability, even the
public probably can feel the cares and attentions from
the Hong Kong Government over times, then the relationship between each other will become better, and thus it helps to build
trust to the Hong Kong Government. 
Enhance image locally and internationally
It helps the Hong Kong Government to enhance its image
locally and internationally, because the VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
shows a high degree of transparency of the Hong Kong Government. It also
shares the knowledge among the public and all over the world, which indicate
that it is an open Government.
More comments
for further improvement
Definitely, the Hong Kong Government can
interact with the disability and public directly through VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com. Then, the Hong Kong Government can
easily seek for comments and take the information for consideration of the
developments in the future in order to have continues improvement.
Announcement can be accessible by a wider community
The announcement of the Hong Kong
Government can be accessed by a wider community because everybody can access
the VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com easily.
Better society
Better society can be developed by VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com, as it helps to raise the public’s
responsibility, gain publicity of the Hong Kong Government and helps the
disability integrate to the society. As a result, more and more people aware of
the disability and devote more cares to the disability which lead a better society.
Strategies
for Virtual Organizing of VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com helps
Hong Kong Government in planning and building the barrier-free facilities and
designing the services for disabilities thru the vectors of Customer Interaction (Virtual Encounter)
and Knowledge Leverage (Virtual
Expertise) as suggested in Venkautraman & Henderson (1998).
Customer Interaction (Virtual Encounter)
For the
stage of Remote Experience of Products
and Services, VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com
acts as a platform for the persons with disabilities (customers) to get any
information about the facilities and services provided by government and other
service providers in public areas and commercial sectors in Hong Kong. The
photos or videos of these facilities and services are shown on the website. The
customers can have basic ideas on what the facilities and services are and can
see if they are applicable for them or other disabilities. By registration as
the members of VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com,
they can receive newsletters about the new information of the government policies, facilities,
services and etc for
the disabilities.
The customers can give feedbacks and
suggestions thru the website when they find the new facilities and services are
not “user friendly” for them. In VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com, the
customers have opportunities and challenges in dynamically customizing products
and services as in the stage of Dynamic. The intelligence thru the feedbacks and suggestions provided by the
customers allows Hong Kong Government (organization)
to create a real barrier-free society and help the disability to integrate to
the society.
Since
the feedbacks and suggestions will also be seen by other customers and further
information and ideas may be provided. It forms a Customer Community in VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com as an information-gathering and
information-disseminating conduit. The Hong Kong Government will follow up
and investigate the capacities for improvement upon receipt of the report of inadequate
facilities and services. The government can use their authorities to oblige the
service providers to make improvements if they are not up to the standards
according to the rules and regulations. The information shared by the community
can give rooms for the Hong Kong Government to improve the facilities and
services provided to the disabilities.
On the other hands, the government can also respond to the community’s
needs appropriately and
timely.
Knowledge Leverage (Virtual Expertise)
As the case mentioned above, the public
toilets were well renovated by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
but no expert advised them that it was useless to the wheelchair users as it
was required to take steps to access to the toilets. On the other hands, the Transport
Department also was not informed of the renovation would be progressed. However, by referring the feedbacks and
suggestions from the customers in VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com,
those departments of Hong Kong Government would have a full picture on
building the facilities and designing the services for disabilities. They will
be working as a Work-Unit Expertise. The
experts from the departments concerned can carry out the tasks (building and
designing facilities and services) in a work unit, to achieve performance improvement, will
not be achieved by individual departments.
The information gathered from the expertise
and customers will be dissected and given to the different departments
concerned of Hong Kong government. The data and ideas from the expertise will
be stored to a database treated as Corporate
Asset. These assets would be shared to all the Hong Kong Government
departments as reference for future development and policy-making for facilities
and services for disabilities. 
Besides gathering the expertise from
different departments of Hong Kong Government thru VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com, it can extend their expertise
network from all over the world which forms a Professional Community Expertise. Since the customers and experts
can provide their ideas, knowledge, suggestions and experiences on building/designing and using the
facilities and services for disabilities thru the website at anywhere, the Hong
Kong Government can border the professional knowledge across the boundaries within the government
body.
The VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com will
help Hong Kong Government to better understand the needs of the disabilities.
The resources will also be fully utilized to help the disabilities
to integrate to the society.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge management focuses on people who create and use knowledge;
processes and technologies by which knowledge is created, maintained and
accessed; artifacts in which knowledge is stored (manuals, databases, intranets,
books etc.). (Petrides, L.A. & Nodine, T.R 2003)
The Hong Kong Government can understand
the needs of the disability by well managing the
knowledge in VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com.
It helps to acquire, analyze, organize, codify, commune, utilize and
finally result in well spend time and money to help the disability to integrate
to the society by understand the needs of them through the knowledge.
In VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com,
the Hong Kong Government can acquire
the data and information they want in the early stage of a project, as the disability
can easily access this platform and share their comments. Then, the Hong Kong
Government can analyze the data and
information they get through VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com,
in order to find out those useful information. After that, they can organize the data and information in a
more systematic way for further interpretation. Then, they can codify the information to documentation
for supporting, which is converting the implicit knowledge to explicit
knowledge. Then the documentation created can be communed with the knowledge of the experts to see if the needs of
the disability can be fulfilled by the facilities or services developed by the
Hong Kong Government. After these processes, the Hong Kong Government can utilize all these knowledge in helping
the disability to integrate to the society. Result in well spend time and money and also the values to the Hong
Kong Government that mentioned before.
Conflict resolution between the Hong Kong
Government and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service
During the collaboration between the Hong
Kong Government and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, we had experienced
the potential oppositions or incompatibility in several areas.
We had experienced the misunderstanding of
communication thru virtual communication (mainly using the email). Also, both
parties are representing the government and different NGOs. We are having
different roles and positions which too much information (e.g. the duplications
of the role between the government and the NGOs, the duplication of the
services provided by both parties, the contribution for each parties and etc.) have to be considered. Those
factors are leading to the conflict.
To resolve the conflict between both parties, we are using
the collaboration as we both want to fully satisfy the concerns of both parties
and can be benefit to the disability. We are trying to find an integrative
solution when we are putting the benefit for the disability to be
the most important in our concerns. Moreover, we also require to
merge the insights from the different parties (i.e. Hong Kong Government, the
NGOs, the business organizations and the disability) from
different perspectives.
The outcome of the collaboration is that we
have improved the quality of decisions and have the provision of a medium for
problem-solving. Finally, we are having the VirtualHomeforTheDisabled.com for
sharing the information and getting the feedback on the facilities and services
for the disability.References:
Building Department of Hong Kong. (2008). Design Manual - Barrier Free Access 2008. Retrieved from http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/index_crlist.html
Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong. (2009). Persons with Disabilities and Chronic Diseases in Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp380.jsp?productCode=FA100059
Collaboration in Times of Crises. (2008). Partnership for Public Service.
Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong. (2010). Formal Investigation Report: Accessibility in Publicity Accessible Premises. Retrieved from http://www.eoc.org.hk/EOC/Upload/UserFiles/File/FI_Ass_e.pdf
Johnson, L. (2002). Does E-Mail Escalate Conflict? MIT Sloan Management Review, 44 (1).
Knowledge Management and Learning Organization (2012), Slideshare, Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/RajanNeupane/knowledge-management-and-learning-organization
Knowledge Management in Learning Organization (2006), Safari Books Online, Retrieved from http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/hr-organizational-management/9781904838326/chapter-6-knowledge-management-in-learning-organizations/chapter_6_knowledge_management
Stabell, C. B. & Fjeldstad, O. D. (1998). Configuring Value for Competitive Advantage; On Chains, Shops, and Networks. Strategic Management Journal, 19.
Venkatraman, V. & Henderson, J. C. (1998). Real Strategies for Virtual Organizing. MIT Sloan Management Review, 40(1), 33 – 48.
Zeng, M. & Reinartz, W. (2003). Beyond Online Search: The Road to Profitability. California Management Review, 55 (2).
殘廁梯級陣玩謝輪椅客. (2010, April 19). The Oriental Daily. Retrieved from http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20100419/00176_024.html
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