Visitors still fake disability to get into line

• Source: Global Times
• [09:22 June 03 2010]
• Comments

Italian soldiers perform at the Italy Pavilion on Wednesday to mark the country's national pavilion day inside the Expo Park at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.  Photo: Xinhua

By Ni Dandan

The head of the Italy Pavilion urged organizers to get tough on visitors wrongly taking advantage of a special bypass line as he noticed a surge in the number of people in a wheelchair waiting to get into the structure Wednesday as the country celebrated its national pavilion day inside the Expo Park.

"The lineup at the passage designed for people with a disability, the elderly and young kids has been getting longer and longer, increasingly being used by people who do not qualify for this queue," Beniamino Quintieri, commissioner-general of the Italy Pavilion, told the Global Times Wednesday. "They are selfishly just trying to cut down their waiting time by disadvantaging the very people who need this line."

His concerns come weeks after a visitor made an online complaint and formal request to organizers to look into the matter of visitors posing as people with a disability to get into the special lines at pavilions meant to give groups like the elderly shorter waiting times.

Organizers have since called on staff to comply with stricter ID checks when providing wheelchair rentals in the park, the supply of which was recently doubled to 2,000.

"Visitors need to show their ID cards or social security cards to prove that they are above 70, or they need to show a disabled person's certificate," Hong Hao, director of the Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau, told reporters on Tuesday.

But many visitors continue to complain that others are still getting into these lines by faking a disability, or unfairly squeezing in line with those that have one, with pavilion staff turning a blind eye to the practice.

Organizers are also being criticized for allowing pavilions to make their own rules on the matter. Some visitors charge that because structures like the Spain Pavilion only allow one visitor to accompany the person who qualifies for the special lineup, while others like the France Pavilion allow two, a lack of clear direction is making it easier for visitors to con their way into shorter queues.

To this end organizers have said this week that they are working on a unified plan for all pavilions to adhere to prevent people from taking advantage of the system.