To be effective?, It's a "right" not a "gift"! How to create an accessible environment from scratch | living | rights
In China, there is a large population of people with disabilities, but they do not see much in their daily lives. After decades of practice in building an accessible environment, the National People's Congress has finally enacted legislation. How do these people with the most voice view this? Can we find the ultimate answer to the "must answer question" of social governance, which is the construction of an accessible environment?
"Accessibility": It is a "right", not a "gift"
Last year at this time, Liang Jiangbo became a graduate student at Tsinghua University. That year, he was 37 years old. The appearance of the emblem of Tsinghua University on the admission notice has been imagined by him for thousands of times. Entering Tsinghua University is a dream that has been planted since childhood.
On September 1st of this year, the Law on Accessible Environment Construction, which has attracted social attention, was officially implemented. This is the first specialized law formulated in China for the construction of accessible environments. The first article of the General Provisions clarifies that the legislative purpose is to "ensure equal, full, and convenient participation and integration of people with disabilities and the elderly into social life, and promote the sharing of economic and social development achievements among all members of society.". Liang Jiangbo also deeply felt this.
Liang Jiangbo: In the past, we fought for the right to education. For example, when I fought for exams, I had to tell them about my aspirations and what I could do. I wouldn't bring too much workload or so-called trouble to the school. Next is anticipation, hoping that he can feel everything I have expressed, and hoping that he can show kindness. But not now, this matter itself is the right I should enjoy. Of course, the extent to which it can be achieved may be something we need to constantly explore in the process of interaction.
In 1985, Liang Jiangbo was born into an ordinary family in Bengbu, Anhui. Due to the difficulty in treating congenital visual impairment, his vision gradually lost. At the age of 13, Liang Jiangbo completely went blind. After his parents inquired and worked hard, he began his study life in a blind school. Despite facing more difficulties due to visual impairment, he was still able to continue reading and preserve the seeds of his dreams.
Liang Jiangbo: My junior high school is in the Nanjing School for the Blind. Even now, the way out for many blind students is to study in a technical secondary school after finishing junior high school, and then learn a skill to learn acupuncture and moxibustion and massage. But I hope to go to high school and see if I have the opportunity to take the regular college entrance examination. Actually, I wanted to go to Tsinghua University at that time.
Although I had a dream of Tsinghua since childhood, it was never possible to achieve it at that time. In 2006, which was the year of Liang Jiangbo's college entrance examination, according to the policy at that time, visually impaired students who wanted to go to university could only take the single entrance exam and recruit students. There were a total of 1867 ordinary higher education institutions in China, with only two schools and three majors admitting visually impaired students nationwide.
In 2006, Liang Jiangbo was admitted to the Special Education College of Beijing Union University with regret to study acupuncture and moxibustion and massage of traditional Chinese medicine, which was also his choice that he had little choice. However, Liang Jiangbo was not satisfied and tried many impossible things along the way. If he likes playing musical instruments, he goes to learn the flute; He likes recitation and has obtained the Mandarin proficiency certificate; In order to exercise himself, he went to a blind restaurant as a waiter, worked as a telephone operator, hosted radio programs, actively engaged in social work, and attempted to provide audio books, music, radio programs, and other content for the disabled. He also obtained a first-class certificate in Mandarin.
As Liang Jiangbo continuously strives to break through various "impossible" situations, the social environment is also rapidly improving. In 2008, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Cause of Persons with Disabilities", which pointed out that "we should promote a modern civilized view of persons with disabilities that is' equal, participatory, and shared ', and eliminate discrimination and prejudice against persons with disabilities.". In 2011, the Ministry of Education added a special provision in the newly revised Regulations on Education for Persons with Disabilities, stating that "education examination institutions should make special arrangements for persons with disabilities to participate in various national examinations.".
On June 7, 2014, the first Braille college entrance examination paper was released after the resumption of the national college entrance examination in New China. Li Jinsheng, a candidate from Queshan County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province, also became the first visually impaired candidate to participate in the regular college entrance examination. Liang Jiangbo and others came to this day that he had always hoped for but could not reach. 29 year old Liang Jiangbo has been working for 3 years and is currently working as an editor and proofreader of braille books at the newly built China Braille Library. This news has excited him greatly and ignited his deeply buried Tsinghua dream once again.
If possible, don't give up. Starting from 2014, Liang Jiangbo decided to start preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. However, for visually impaired candidates, finding review materials is not an easy task. Due to the small number of visually impaired individuals participating in the postgraduate entrance examination, there are almost no ready-made braille review materials. Liang Jiangbo needs to first create his own review materials, which requires several times more time and energy than ordinary candidates. From the moment he put the postgraduate entrance examination on the agenda, he woke up at 5:30 in the morning and rested after 11 in the evening, spending all his time studying outside of work.
In 2021, he finally mustered the courage to call the Tsinghua Admissions Office. And I have received a definite reply that I can register.
After successfully registering, the teachers at Tsinghua University began preparing in advance for Liang Jiangbo's exam. The school has set up an independent examination room for Liang Jiangbo, and the content of the test paper is exactly the same as other candidates, consisting of a combination of braille and electronic test papers. The test paper, which was originally less than 3 millimeters thick for a single subject, has been transformed into a braille book that is nearly 5 centimeters thick, and the exam duration has been extended from 3 hours to 4 and a half hours.
In the end, Liang Jiangbo was admitted to the Social Work program of the Department of Sociology at Tsinghua University with a score of 379 in the initial exam and 445.4 in the second exam, finally realizing his dream of Tsinghua University. Liang Jiangbo once wrote this passage: "Dreams are like a seed. Even if there is no suitable soil in front of you, as long as you keep them, constantly water and fertilize them, there will eventually be a day when they break through the soil! At that time, you will find that all the efforts you once made will be fulfilled!"
In fact, in recent years, there have been more and more inspirational stories like Liang Jiangbo.
In 2023, 39 year old Dong Lina graduated from the Communication University of China as a graduate student. Her story is similar to that of Liang Jiangbo, who, through tenacious exploration, opened up their own path in life. In China, the visually impaired population exceeds 17 million. For them, the most effective way to receive education and obtain information is to create works in accessible formats such as Braille and audiobooks.
According to the statistics of the World Federation of the Blind, millions of books are published globally every year, but for visually impaired individuals, due to copyright and other issues, they are able to obtain less than one tenth. In order to address this issue, in 2013, member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization passed the Marrakech Treaty, aimed at providing opportunities for visually impaired groups to access and utilize works through copyright restrictions and exceptions, thereby safeguarding their equal rights to access culture and education. Although China was one of the first signatories of the treaty, it was not until 2022 that it was truly implemented due to the constraints of current copyright laws for a long time in the past.
In the chapter on accessible information exchange of the Accessible Environment Construction Law, which came into effect on September 1st, it is explicitly stated that "the state encourages publicly published books and newspapers to be equipped with accessible formats such as audio, large characters, Braille, and electronic versions, making it easier for people with disabilities and the elderly to read. Teaching material writing and publishing units are encouraged to write and publish Braille and low vision versions of teaching materials according to the actual situation of different educational stages, to meet the learning needs of blind and other visually impaired students." Perhaps in the future, this path will be smoother for those like Liang Jiangbo and Dong Lina.
In order to achieve his ideal life, Liang Jiangbo has to overcome various obstacles in his travels every day, on the one hand, hardware obstacles, and on the other hand, inner obstacles when seeking help from others.
According to data from the China Disabled Persons Federation, there are over 85 million people with disabilities in China, and some have likened this number to the number of people surnamed Zhang around you. However, in contrast, a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center in 2017 on the travel of people with disabilities showed that 73.2% of respondents rarely saw people with disabilities in public places.
Shao Lei is the Dean of the Institute of Accessible Development at Tsinghua University, and he was deeply involved in the entire process of formulating the Accessible Environment Construction Law.
Shao Lei: There are very few disabled people around us, and there are no disabled friends. This precisely indicates whether people with specific disabilities can participate in our living environment very independently and freely. Autonomy is a very important concept, and everyone hopes to be respectable, dignified, and able to decide their own actions. This is often used as a threshold or standard, a level to consider the achievements of our accessible facilities.
In fact, as early as 1990, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities stipulated that the state and society should gradually implement design standards for urban roads and buildings that are convenient for persons with disabilities, and take accessibility measures. However, today, if we take the frequency of disabled people appearing on the streets of Beijing as a measure, how should we view the achievements and experiences of over 30 years, and how will the lives of disabled people be improved due to the implementation of new laws?
Accessible environment: How to "go from scratch to effectiveness"?
The tactile paving is a passage for visually impaired people to walk. There are two patterns on the surface of the tactile paving according to the international standard. The long tactile paving is the guide to the direction; The dot shape is called prompt tactile paving, which means that the environment ahead is about to change, such as crossing, ramp, etc.
In 2005, News Investigation broadcasted "Accessibility" to explore the effectiveness of building an accessible environment in Beijing. In that year, it had been 14 years since the first tactile paving was built in Beijing. At that time, 1171 kilometers of tactile paving had been paved in Beijing. However, even so, visually impaired individuals still encounter many unimaginable difficulties when traveling.
In 2001, Beijing successfully applied to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In order to meet the accessibility requirements of the International Olympic Organizing Committee for the host city, Beijing's accessibility environment underwent a leap in development. But the problem of most facilities being useless has not been substantially solved.
In 2018, after more than 10 years of development, Beijing had already equipped more than 12000 buses with clear accessibility signs on their bodies, which were heavily put into use under the impetus of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. However, in recent years, news of a large number of accessible buses becoming mere decorations has not been uncommon. Having accessible facilities does not necessarily mean having an accessible environment.
Taxi driver: Running around the city in a wheelchair without any family to accompany him, it's inconvenient to go out, not just to cause trouble for others.
There are not a few people who hold such thoughts. As early as the last century, it was very common to define disabled groups with the term "disabled", and a large number of media and film and television works had a very singular portrayal of disabled groups. For a long time, the public's acceptance of disabled groups has generally not been high, and in the view of Dean Shao Lei, the "Accessible Environment Construction Law" has undergone a different transformation in essence and concept from the past.
Shao Lei: The reason why accessibility is a social issue is that it will always exist with the development of society. Since it is a social issue, people, needs, and society are changing, and the focus and difficulty of these issues are also changing. This matter is interactive, requiring the social environment to strive towards a goal and a value direction. On the other hand, people with disabilities themselves should also have the courage to participate in social life and constantly challenge this unequal and diverse state. The law gives you the right to participate, so I think this is a typical governance process where everyone works together to discuss and govern.
As President Shao Lei said, in the new law, we see the following statement: the state encourages construction units to invite representatives of people with disabilities, the elderly, as well as organizations such as the Disabled Persons Federation and the Elderly Association, to participate in activities such as soliciting opinions and experiencing trials in the planning, design, and completion acceptance of new construction, renovation, and expansion projects. In addition, organizations such as the Disabled Persons Federation and the Elderly Association can hire representatives of disabled and elderly people, as well as personnel with relevant professional knowledge, as needed to supervise the construction of accessible environments.
What does it mean to involve people with disabilities in the construction of accessible environments and encourage them to speak up for themselves? And what kind of changes can this transformation bring?
For a better accessible environment, for oneself and for everyone
In Beijing, there is a group of people who ride in wheelchairs every day, shuttling through the streets and alleys of the city. They specialize in identifying issues with accessibility facilities, and Du Peng is one of them. With the official implementation of the Accessible Environment Construction Law on September 1st, Du Peng also stated that he can work harder in the future.
Du Peng has been following the Beijing subway for almost 10 years. In order to make it more convenient for wheelchair users to travel on the subway, starting from 2014, Du Peng and his friends shook their wheelchairs and ran through 81 subway stations on Line 1, Line 2, Line 4, and Line 10. At that time, they summarized several major problems: incomplete identification of accessible carriages, lack of accessibility signs posted on dedicated wide gates and entrances to subway stations, damaged wheelchair fixing devices for accessible carriages, lack of subway station number notification at the accessible device, and incorrect accessibility information on the Beijing subway app. With the support of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation and based on their research results, the "Capital Accessible Travel Handbook - Subway Chapter" has been published, becoming a "travel treasure" in the hands of many disabled friends.
And such experiences are also being continuously replicated. In 2018, the first national accessible universal design training camp officially began, aiming to cultivate wheelchair users into professional accessible experience experts.
In fact, the accessibility design made by ordinary people instead of people with disabilities can easily lead to problems. In the words of disabled people, it's not inhumane, but ignorant.
With the development of the economy and society, promoting the construction of an accessible environment has become a must answer question in social governance. The implementation of the Accessible Environment Construction Law has received widespread attention precisely because an accessible environment is the expectation of everyone.
Yan Yuqiao is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University. In 1996, he was born in Zhengzhou, Henan. He was unable to walk upright since childhood, but his physical disability did not affect his studies. Due to his excellent academic performance, Yan Yuqiao was admitted to Beijing Normal University and successfully admitted to graduate school. In 2021, Yan Yuqiao was admitted to Tsinghua University with the second highest comprehensive score and pursued a doctoral degree. Although he had a smooth journey, he also felt a change in attitude towards himself from the outside world.
Yan Yuqiao: When I was in elementary school or when I was a child, I was often in a state of being rescued. The person who comes is, I think you may need something, and the starting point may be good, but there is no negotiation mechanism. Because each of us is a unique individual, even as a wheelchair user, I cannot fully speculate on the life scenarios needed by visually impaired individuals. The disabled also need to be deeply involved in order for us to be more effective, which is something I feel is very important.
In 2016, Tsinghua University established the Institute of Accessible Development. In fact, in recent years, many universities have placed more emphasis on research on accessible environments, and the concept of people-oriented has become more prominent.
Shao Lei: If we look at the current legislative status, I think the most important thing to break through is the issue of coercive force. The purpose of our legislation is still to protect individual rights. Whether it is effective in real judicial practice, whether judges can use it, and whether disabled, elderly, or those in need can fully utilize this law to protect their rights remains to be tested.
