A. Buildings and Environments 39. The NHRC has noted the following problems concerning the promotion of accessible buildings and facilities by the MOI. More than 40 years have passed since the promulgation of the Welfare Law for Handicapped Persons, an act that mandated that the government promote accessible facilities. Additional Articles of the Constitution of the ROC has also required the government to ensure the construction of accessible environments for persons with disabilities. Nevertheless, for a long time, local governments have used insufficient manpower and funding as excuses not to engage in such endeavors. Similarly, the MOI has yet to introduce projects with targets and deadlines and adopt strong oversight methods to effectively urge local governments to actively and increasingly engage in such endeavors. The government’s failure to actively remove obstacles in the physical environment, thereby hindering the promotion of accessible living environments remains the most criticized issue to date. (1) As of 2019, some cities and counties showed low completion rates in terms of improving the accessibility of their public buildings. Some cities and counties scored less than 30%, highlighting the inadequacy of the MOI’s oversight of local governments and lack of insistence that they implement improvement measures.28 (2) From 2016 to 2019, a total of 13 local governments did not submit annual subsidy applications to the MOI for leveling their pedestrian arcades. In fact, seven cities and counties did not submit such applications in any of the four years, revealing the limited impacts of the subsidy policies. No countermeasures have been proposed by the ministry to date. Additionally, some pedestrian arcades remain uneven even after leveling takes place, and persons with disabilities still encounter difficulties in moving along them.29 (3) The MOI amended the Regulations on Design Standards and Encouragement 28 29 According to Table 9.1 of the CRPD Second Report, as of December 2019, nine cities/counties failed to improve the accessibility of the facilities found in their existing public buildings, with a completion rate less than 70%. These cities/counties included Taipei City (50.6%), New Taipei City (47.6%), Miaoli County (51.9%), Changhua County (59.7%), Nantou County (67.0%), Yunlin County (39.7%), Chiayi County (63.4%), Hualien County (28.6%), and Taitung County (58.6%). For example, building-related laws and regulations mandate that pedestrian arcades be leveled and be at the same height as the ground on either side. However, no guidelines are in place to indicate whether the arcades should be at the same height as the ground on the building or street side. Also, illegal construction or landowners engaging in additional construction afterwards have resulted in pedestrian arcades being at disparate heights in three to four areas every 500 meters. 31