The Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection (BSMI) cares about the aged and the persons with disabilities, and the accessibility in their daily lives and movements. It keeps promoting the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. Among these efforts, the "Universal Design Competition of Assistive Device for the Aged and Persons with Disabilities" and the "Campaign on Commercial Assistive Devices Friendly to the Aged and Persons with Disabilities" are held to gather new ideas and broaden the engagement of the public. The two competitions received 142 entries and 66 entries respectively and the awards ceremony was held on November 10, 2022 at BSMI and chaired by Ms. Yi-Ling Chen, Director General of BSMI, who was also invited as the guest of honor to present the awards to the winners. The ceremony was a huge success and the ingenuity and creativity of the participants are sure to bring new energy into the ever more full-fledged assistive device industry of Taiwan.

The BSMI, being in charge of national standards (CNS) development, has published 148 CNS for the design of assistive product. The CNS on "Interactive Information Service Stations (KIOSK)" will be published at the end of this year to provide guidelines for business operators to make their KIOSKs more accessible to people with disabilities. The BSMI has been working closely with the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre as well as other organizations with expertise in this area to develop relevant testing and certification capacity to ensure safety and performance of assistive devices.

The BSMI explained that the universal design competition of assistive devices this year featured the creative design embedded in "different user groups, different environments and different contexts," which will allow the universal application of the design to different groups of users without gaps. The campaign of friendly assistive devices, on the other hand, emphasized the actual feeling of the users. Manufacturers are encouraged to improve the friendliness of commercial assistive devices based on the user's experience. The BSMI hopes that these activities not only enhance the public's awareness of the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities to access the environment at the help of assistive devices, but also provide the assistive device industry with universal design principles and product safety guidelines to provide devices that are safe, well-designed and friendly to the users.

The BSMI pointed out that the competition this year was as intense as previous years. The 142 entries in the competition of the universal design were all good in their design concept. The scores of the work were close and "Eatogether," "ECH" and "SecureSwift" were awarded the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. For the campaign on friendly assistive devices, each of the 66 products had shown its consideration of the safety and convenience for the elderly and persons with disability in its design. 20 products were awarded because of their outstanding designs, which are targeted for people with mobility issues, physical disabilities, vision impairment, dementia or muscle weakness or the elderly. More information about the award-winning products is available at https://reurl.cc/z67Dde.  

The BSMI believed that the results of universal design competition and campaign on friendly assistive devices inspired the assistive device industry to devote more resources in R&D of their products by integrating creativity and innovative technology. It also encourages experts to contribute their knowledge and experience to this area to promote the welfare of the aged and persons with disabilities.

Responsible Division: Inspection Technology Division

Contact Person: Wu, Kuo-Lung, Deputy Director

Tel. (O): +886-2343-1829

Email:  tony.wu@bsmi.gov.tw