Visually impaired students given chance to take gaokao at last(2)

The school has six education departments including pre-school, primary school, high school and a vocational training school. Over 200 blind students are studying there.

Zhang said she doesn't see why it should be so difficult for blind students to take the gaokao as they study the same curricula as mainstream high schools. Over 95 percent of their students go to college, mostly special education colleges.

But still, many blind students, who were told they would do massage when they were little, do see the gap between them and other students.

Having their voices heard

Cai, now an editor of Some People, a magazine that focuses on promoting disability issues, wants to prove blind people can do more than just massage, and more importantly, he wants to raise expectations among blind students' parents.

Last month, Cai introduced his magazine to blind students and their parents at the Special Education College at Beijing Union University.

"Doing massage might sound like a stable job, but it doesn't fit everyone," Cai said. "Their parents have no idea how capable their children are."

Many who refuse to bow their fate also try to have their voices heard.

Last October, ahead of the International Day of the Blind, a group of blind activists performed an art protest in front of Beijing's education authorities to call for access to the gaokao.

Last year, some blind activist also protested in front of a Pizza Hut restaurant against its online video that featured an image of a blind shrimp ball. In Chinese, the word "shrimp" is pronounced the same way as "blind."

Now, many blind people said they felt relieved that they finally had their voices heard. On April 8, on behalf of some 100 parents of blind children, Li sent a thank-you letter to the local authorities for allowing their children to take the gaokao.

Still, it is not certain how many blind students will take this year's gaokao. But it will have a significant influence on the younger generation of blind students, Yang said.

"Now they see hope. Those who are studying in pre-school or primary school will have enough time to adjust their studies to prepare for the exam," Yang said.

College or no college

Those five years in college meant little for Cai. He joked that after graduation, he will probably have to work for blind people who did not go to college and instead started massage businesses earlier.

"College certification is no more than a piece of paper," he said.

But Zhang Lei disagrees. "College education gives them a new way to see the world and it helps them improve their skills."

There are less than 10 special education colleges for blind students across the country. Each of them recruits about 200 blind students each year. Most major in massage or music. The number is far from enough to meet the needs of the blind population.

But while special education colleges may fill a need, growing numbers of blind students say they want to go to normal colleges and be treated the same as other students.

"Special colleges isolate you from others, they think you are so incapable that you need special care," Cai said. "We want to tell people that we are as ordinary as they are."

However, no one is sure when mainstream colleges will be ready for them.

Teng Xiangdong, Party Secretary of the Beijing Union University College of Special Education, told the Global Times that it would be a long time before mainstream colleges can accept these students.

"They need to equip colleges with special access equipment, special tables, Braille textbooks and assistants, all of these cost money," Teng said.

He added that special colleges are also taking measures to meet the students' needs such as tailoring majors and increasing their employment rates.

Zhang said the technical problems can easily be solved, but attitudes toward blind students would be more difficult to change.

"The country is heading in the right direction, but it takes time to get there," She said.

Some are not content to patiently wait for reforms to aid blind education, so they take a shortcut: studying abroad.

Zheng Jianwei, a blind student from Chongqing, started to learn English in 2008. Three years later, he spent 12 hours finishing 100-page exam for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). He scored 6.5 and got an offer from the UK's University of Essex in 2013, the Chongqing Daily reported.

The British Council, the UK's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, reportedly provides more "humane" services for blind students by offering them papers with larger, textured fonts and giving them extra time to finish the papers. Moreover, a sample paper will be provided ahead of the exam to see if the student feels comfortable of taking it. However, the high tuition fee in the UK bars many blind students from going.

Cai also wanted to take the exam. But he had difficulty reading the exam paper even with bigger fonts. To take the exam he will have to learn Braille.

"But it feels good to have choices," he said.