WELCAB may sound like the name of a Hong Kong taxi company, but it's actually Toyota's offer of mobility to disabled drivers and passengers. Derived from a combination of 'welfare' and 'cabin', it comprises a range of purpose-built vehicles developed by Japan's top carmaker. In Singapore, authorised distributor Borneo Motors doesn't carry any Welcab models, but it does retrofit the front seat of a Corolla Altis sedan or Picnic multi-purpose vehicle with a Welcab mobility seat. The cost ranges from $3,500 to $7,500, and there are a few requests every month. But some Welcab models are carried by one parallel importer here. Toyota makes and sells Welcab versions of almost all of its production models in Japan. But for the local market, Richburg Motors has focused on the Porte, Estima, and Alphard Welcab models. Richburg sales manager Eddie Lo says that on average, his company sells about six to seven Toyota Welcab vehicles each month. The customers are mostly private buyers who have a need for such vehicles because of an elderly or disabled family member.
Richburg has priced its three models at between $84,000 and $200,000, including COE. The Welcab models typically command a slight premium over the ordinary versions. For example, the Alphard Welcab costs about $15,000 more than a standard Alphard. Toyota Welcab vehicles can be equipped for a variety of uses, such as the Welcab Friendmatic Seat model, Welcab Rotating and Sliding Front Passenger's Seat models, and Welcab Wheelchair-adapted model, among others. The Porte is the latest addition to the local Welcab range. Based on the Corolla platform, the Porte is a mid-sized hatchback with a unique electric sliding door feature, a la the Peugeot 1007. The Porte has only a single sliding door on the kerbside with a conventional hinged door for the driver. To aid ingress and egress, the sliding door is huge - with a capital H. A tall roof and a low floor further help to move things along. The Porte with Welcab specifications has factory-installed special equipment for the handicapped - its front passenger seat can be detached from the car and double as a wheelchair.
Power for the Porte comes from a 1.5-litre VVTi engine with 109 hp, and it is as easy to drive as any Toyota compact. Guided by the aim of offering easy mobility to all, Toyota has been instrumental in undertaking the development and popularisation of Welcab vehicles in its domestic market for a number of years. It is the market leader for such vehicles in Japan, with about 65 per cent of market share. Max power: 109 hp @ 6,000 rpm Max torque: 141 Nm @ 4,200 rpmHong Kong’s Top Site for Executives | Hong Kong’s Leading Property Site | Hong Kong’s Best Classifieds Dining Tables & Sets Outdoor & Garden Items Computers, Tablets & Accessories Mobile Phones & Accessories Toys, Games & Children's Literature Office Equipment & Stationery Displaying Page 4 of 9 Free Sultan IKEA mattress Free dining table to give away House plants - cactus Broken 500W Step Up-Down Converter Travel air head rest Support Hong Kong Business!
Video: Maddy: Questions I get asked in the playground Clown Doctors celebrate 20 years cheering up kids in hospitals What's the first day of school like for a new teacher? When Madeline Luk is in the playground, she gets inundated with questions from her peers."Do you want to go to the library?""Why do you have a back brace?""How do you make your wheelchair move?"Madeline has diastrophic dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism that affects joints in her body and her mobility.The six-year-old is a tiny frame; she's about 78 centimetres tall, her arms and legs are very short while scoliosis has caused curvature of her spine.But her disability does not stop her from tottering about the classroom at Pacific Hills Christian School in Dural, in north-west Sydney, or doing wheelies around the playground with her older sister Lana. Madeline is heading into year one while sister Lana is starting year three. "I like playing hide-and-seek and playing handball and I like playing in the library with my friends," Madeline said."
I need help going to the toilet and going up the stairs in the lift."I use my walker in the classroom and I park my wheelchair inside."Madeline, who is heading into year one, is one of three daughters to mum Nicole and dad Bernard.Eight-year-old Lana is able-bodied, while the youngest sibling Briella was also born with diastrophic dysplasia.The family were living in Hong Kong before issues with accessibility in the schools there prompted them to return to Australia before Madeline started kindergarten. Preparing for schoolMake contact with your school at least 12 months prior to your child starting school.Contact your local Department of Education and Communities office for support services.Be in regular contact with your child's teachers to discuss progress and any new issues that may arise.Source: A guide for parents of children with disabilityMore information: Transition to school "One of the major things was regarding the toilets," Mrs Luk said."Maddy can't use a disabled stall ... so she really needed something that was custom made for her and the school basically made a cubicle that will fit her unique body."
So she was able start school independently, even better than she was able to at home."She has her own little seats and her own desks that fit her body."Mrs Luk said the most important tip she had for parents of children in wheelchairs was to have continuous communication with the school."It's not just a one-time thing that you communicate," she said."You have to continue to make sure that their needs are being met and that you're on top of it all, which is a hard task."Just because a child is in a wheelchair, doesn't mean you put them in a box, that they have a checklist of needs. Each child is unique."When Madeline started school, Mrs Luk said a lot of time was spent educating the other students about looking out for her, particularly as she is so small and "easy to bump over". Nicole Luk is in constant communication with the school about Lana and Maddy. Yet one issue that the Luk family had not anticipated was how their eldest daughter Lana would be affected with the attention Madeline received when she started school.
Mrs Luk said Lana started to feel like "she was only important as a source of information about her sister"."Many students have never seen a power wheelchair before so it's very exciting and Maddy's wheelchair is very cool and loved by all the students," she said."We work with the school to try to ensure that my oldest is made to feel just as special and important, even though she doesn't have a disability."Particularly when you have disabled and able-bodied children attending the same school and the younger one comes along and is a novelty ... it is important to consider those issues."For new school parents, Mrs Luk said it was important to have an open mind."If it's something new for your child, then we as parents also have to learn with our child and not assume that we know how it will work and how it will look like," she said."We can prepare them and the school as much as we can but at the end of the day, just like any kid, we've got to let them go and let them figure it out by themselves."