China's visually impaired engineers make technology easier to use

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The World Blind Union (WBU) has called for the world's 253 million visually impaired or blind to be recognized as equal members of society.

The call came as the world observes International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Sunday, December 3.

There are more than 11 million visually impaired people in China. Six million people are fully blind.

Shen Guangrong of Shenzhen is one of them. Nothing has stopped him from making a difference. He and others are part of a team helping visually impaired or blind to utilize technology better.

Team members at Information Accessibility Research Association are at work. /CGTN Photo

“I’ve always loved electronics,” he said. “My work here helps improve software and other Internet products for blind people."

Shen is an engineer at the Information Accessibility Research Association in Shenzhen, China’s first NGO dedicated to making information accessible to everyone.

Shen Guangrong listens to voice interpretations of his texts. /CGTN Photo

Cai Yongbin, the lead supervisor, lost his eyesight years ago in a fire. He expressed happiness over his role as a leader of a winning and like-minded team.

“We carefully select our visually impaired IT engineers across China, who not only write code, but also grasp the broad knowledge of the IT field,” Cai said. “Our team has won many awards for their hard work, and some have created their own software, apps and websites.”

The team members serve as consultants, who listen to voice recognition systems and apps designed to help blind people access and interpret data. They report bugs like mistranslated words or time errors to the gurus at Tencent, who can then revise their products and roll out new updates.

Cai Yongbin is recording data. He does not require a monitor. /CGTN Photo

They are real leaders in the Internet industry,” said Alice Li, a project director at Tencent.

“Their professionalism and expert suggestions for improvement have helped make QQ a leader in mobile information accessibility.”

“There is no end to improving information accessibility,” Cai said. “It is constantly being optimized via the user experience and improved by the engineers, and that will continue.”