CHINA> Center
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CHINA> Center
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Better opportunities needed for disabled in China
By Wang Qian (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-12-03 01:49 If he hadn't left for the US, Wang Ren, a 46-year-old blind Beijinger, might be working as a blind massager in a private clinic in the capital like thousands of blind Chinese today.
"In China, the career options are limited for the disabled, because they cannot receive normal education. Their fates are already sealed," Wang said. The decision to go to America at 23 gave him more than he imagined. He became a senior database engineer in Ansaldo-STS, a head contractor and turnkey provider on new rail developments. His world became vivid with sound after he went to America, where everything "talks to people". "My phone speaks, my laptop speaks, my oven speaks and all electronics talk to me, which is amazing," Wang smiled. Sounds not only tell the blind what's happening, but where the objects are located. America gave him opportunities to choose his life and also a comprehensive further education as a normal person. In China, graduation from the Beijing School for the Blind is the only highest education degree for Wang and becoming a blind massager is the "brightest future" for the blind. Wang could not accept such arrangement and learned math, physics and English on his own through five years of hard work. In 1986, he got the honor of being the interpreter for Kevin J. Lessard, president of Perkins School for the Blind where Hellen Keller studied, and he received an offer from the school after Kevin returned to America. After graduating from the Perkins School for the Blind, Wang studied computer science for two and a half years in the University of Pittsburgh. "Although America is quite developed, the employment rate for the disabled is still low at about 7% to 8%," he said, adding that as a blind job seeker, he was rejected man times because people just did not think he could handle the job. In one interview, Wang told a manager loudly that his biggest disadvantage is his blindness, but what’s worse is people's distrust after finding out he’s blind. His straightforwardness got his first job as a software engineer. |
