China to Allow the Blind to Take College Entrance Exams - Li Jinsheng

New York Times (Blog)

22nd April 2014

China to Allow the Blind to Take College Entrance Exams - Li Jinsheng

China’s Education Ministry has told its staff to provide more “humane” service in this year’s university entrance examinations, or “gaokao,” and allow disabled people, particularly the blind, to take part. Advocates said this was the first time that the state had clearly spelled out that the blind could take the regular university examination, and how.

Li Jinsheng, 46, who is blind, had long wanted to study law. He had waited years to hear the news of the policy change announced in late March. Excited, on Monday morning he completed a compulsory medical examination for the entrance exam and passed, he said. Now he’s deep in preparation for the exam in June.

“I feel good,” he said in a telephone interview. Like many blind people, Mr. Li was trained in massage and runs a massage parlor in Zhumadian, in Henan Province. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long, and now I can,” he said, adding, “If I fail the exam, never mind, I just have to try.”

China’s blind have long been shunted into special schools and professions deemed suitable for them, principally massage and music. As recently as last year the government refused to let them participate in the gaokao.

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