President Tsai Ing-wen received winners of the 28th Visually Impaired Music Competition at the Presidential Office on December 7. She said the government is committed to eliminating disparities in cultural participation and to supporting talented musicians so that more moving compositions and performances will be appreciated by the public.
President Tsai also applauded staff of the Taipei Music Foundation for the Visually Impaired (台北市視障音樂文教基金會). She credited the contributions of the foundation, which has not only organized competitions over the years, also sponsored classes and established a platform of resources to assist the visually impaired in their musical pursue. She said that the endeavor gave inspiration to the society and it also reminded the government of its commitment to forge a friendly and accessible environment.
President Tsai pointed out that the government has been proactively delivering the rights guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, such as the legal recognition of sign language as an official language. Moreover, the National Health Command Center (國家衛生指揮中心) has been providing sign language interpreters at Covid-19 briefings to ensure that the deaf and hard of hearing are well informed.
Likewise, she said, the Ministry of Culture has been working hard in bringing about cultural equity, allowing disabled people to enjoy and participate in different arts and creative activities. She mentioned, in particular, that while attending a concert at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (衛武營國家藝術文化中心), she noticed that the route arrangements leading to the seats for the disabled were carefully designed.
The President asked Minister Lee, who was also present, to keep up the endeavor in eliminating disparities in cultural participation and to support talented musicians. She commended the winners for expressing their passion for life through music and wished them the best of luck in their musical endeavors.