South China Morning Post
31st July 2013
Ying Wa Girls' blind top scorer to study in Chinese University
Blind pupil Tsang Tsz-kwan, who excelled in this year's Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examinations, has been accepted into Chinese University to study translation, the university confirmed yesterday.
Tsang, who has been blind from infancy and hearing-impaired since Primary 1, scored three 5** - the highest awarded in the exams - two 5* and a 4.
The 20-year-old graduate of Ying Wa Girls' School also suffers from a lack of sensitivity in her fingers, which forces her to read Braille with her lips.
School vice-principal Cho Kong-sang said Tsang and her parents were glad to know about her admission into the university.
"She will work very hard to strive for the best in this course," Cho said, adding that Tsang wished to lead a "quiet and normal" campus life and did not want to give media interviews.
A spokesman for the university said the student affairs office was in charge of making arrangements for students with special needs, including bus services, equipment designed for blind and hearing-impaired students and personal development counselling services.
Eric Tam Wing-cheung, director of the Polytechnic University's Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Centre, said the centre had developed a keyboard, lighter than a typical Braille typewriter, into which Tsang could input Braille that the computer would "translate" directly into words.
He said the keys had bowl-shaped fixtures so Tsang could insert her fingers and feel the keys better.
Tam said Tsang's case was referred to him and his colleagues in 2011, and they developed the keyboard for her last year. They were now working on developing a smaller and lighter version that Tsang could carry around, he said.
"As long as she agrees, we will continue to do our best to help her," said Tam.