Sixth Tone
17th November 2016
For Blind Students, Braille Exams Pave Way to Higher Education
Traditionally limited to careers in massage therapy and music, China's blind are gaining access to greater educational opportunities.
by Zeng Yu and Wang Chengwei
Zheng Rongquan didn’t want to be a masseur or a musician. But in China, those who are born without eyesight have very limited career options and traditionally train in one of these two fields.
Zheng, however, was one of the first students who was able to take a different path. Last year, for the first time ever, blind students were offered the chance to take the gaokao — the national college entrance exam — in braille.
Having scored well on the test, Zheng, now 21, started studying education in 2015 at Wenzhou University in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. “This is what I want to do,” Zheng, now one year into his university studies, told “Sixth Tone”.