Unseen Exams

ENLIGHTENMENT: Students at a school for the blind in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, learn about sailing and ocean navigation on October 14, 2013 (LI ZIHENG)

There are few majors for blind students to choose from. Zhang Ping, a 31-year-old visually impaired person in Shanghai, said that in his city, only the Special Education Department of East China Normal University and the Social Work Department of Shanghai Normal University admit blind students.

Zhang added that his college classmates had diversified interests, such as computer programming, dubbing, mathematics, literature and music, but they could only major in the fields offered by the above two universities.

Zhang studied psychology at the Special Education Department of East China Normal University, but his primary interests are computer programming and English. So he taught himself computer programming and translation. Now, he works as a customer service representative for an online store at Taobao.com.

Although the current education system for the blind can help them make a living, it also hinders them from pursuing other personal interests, the anonymous teacher in Beijing said.

Independent study

An alternative to get credentials without enrolling in universities is to self-study and pass higher education self-learning exams. A student needs to pass a series of exams, usually over several years, to get a degree this way.

The right for the visually impaired to sit self-learning exams is also hard earned.

About 10 years ago, when Li in Henan applied to take the self-learning exams in traditional Chinese medicine, he encountered obstacles.

"At that time, the self-learning exams were not open to blind people … I lobbied the education authority for days, and eventually got their permission to register. During the exams, someone helped me by reading test questions and writing down my answers," Li recalled.

Before Li could pass all the required exams, however, the self-learning exams in traditional Chinese medicine were canceled and Li was forced to continue with his career as a masseuse.

Now, Li operates a massage store employing several blind persons. Yet he still wants a career change.

"I feel I am not different from others. I can do many of the things they can. Technology is so advanced nowadays that I can read books with a computer and get around with a mobile navigation system," Li said. He added that currently, he is interested in law and wants to study it in university.

Like Li, Dong Lina, a 29-year-old blind girl from northeastern Dalian City in Liaoning Province, is also pursuing her own dreams.

Dong once worked as a masseuse after graduating from a school for the blind in Dalian in 2003. Although she could make enough money to be self-sufficient, she was not content. She would like to be a radio host.

In 2006, Dong received broadcast training offered by the Beijing Hongdandan Education and Culture Exchange Center, and with recommendation from the center, she began her work as an online broadcaster for an Internet company.

In 2010, she won fourth place in a national competition for recital and was the only blind prize-winner. She was then granted an opportunity to take free courses at the Beijing-based Communications University of China.

To get her degree, Dong decided to take the higher education self-teaching exams. In 2011, when she registered to take the self-learning exams in broadcasting and hosting in Beijing, she was rejected because of her visual impairment.

After her application was denied, she received support from a lawyer and the public. Eventually, the Beijing Education Examination Authority decided to open the exams to Dong and to other visually impaired people.

Dong took the first of a series of exams in January 2012. She said that during the exam, a teacher read the test questions for her, and then she typed answers into a computer equipped with special voice-to-text software. The test papers were later printed and sealed before they were graded.