The above picture was taken on the subway's platform. It is a seat for blind people to sit in while they wait. This brought up the question from my friend of "but they can't see, so they can't find the seat." While I do know that some legally blind people can see a bit, her question was still valid.
However there is another reason why this seat is not needed, and that is because of how well the subway staff treat blind people. When a blind person enters the mrt station, a subway staff member will escort them to the platform and wait for the train with them, and make sure they are safely aboard the train. Then at the stop the person is going, a staff member will be waiting to help them off the train and escort them out of the station.
It is quite a helpful service, and one that is not given to anybody else (injured people, old people, young children). It is a great touch of kindness in what I assume must be an otherwise horrible city for blind people to navigate. The uneven sidewalks, the lack of sidewalks in most places, thousands of scooters zipping along on roads, alleys, and sidewalks. The streets of Taipei are not nice for any type of pedestrians.
