Taiwan Exchange Tour for the Deafblind

15 service users, carers, interpreter and staffs from Resource Centre for the Deafblind, HKSB joined an Exchange Tour to Taipei, Taoyuan, Miaoli and Hsinchu, visited 5 visually impaired and hearing impaired NGOs and interacted with the deafblind of Taiwan.

Visited the “Taoyuan City Sound Shine Association” , showed us a special communication method named “Synchronous Listening”, the hearing impaired can receive the message of the speaker synchronously via the text typing. And our deafblind member and interpreter showed them our “Tactile Signing” too, they hence learning from each other.

Visited a visually impaired Organization “Taiwan Foundation for the Blind”. Our members bought many hand-made soap to support their visually impaired workers in Workshop.

Visited the visually impaired Organization and development centre at Miaoli, their Chairman showed us how to type the Braille on another’s finger back to spread message. It’s really brand new to us.

We have an exchange and sharing gathering with both the visually impaired and hearing impaired Organization in Hsinchu at the Hsinchu City Council with their visually impaired Council member Mr. Lin Yen Fu joined us as well.

Nearly came to the end of the Tour, members visited the Taiwan night market, and learned Taiwan history at the Discovery Center of Taipei, enjoying the Taiwanese cuisine.

At the last day of the Tour, members caught the opportunity to taste the Taiwan style by travelling the High-speed railway and created their own Pineapple cake.

“The Taiwan Deafblind Exchange Tour 2019” finished successfully, special thanks to the sponsorship from Dr. Karen Lee Memorial Fund and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, and the important role of communicators during the exchange, from guiding to environment description, it allowed the deafblind to experience even they are not able to see!   In the future, we will continuously to organize more similar exchange programme and enhance the interaction between our service users and others all over the world.