The head of a provincial vocational school for the blind who is a deputy to the National People's Congress has urged that more professional training and employment channels be open to blind people.

Xi Weijing, president of Anhui Vocational School for Blind People said that the "majority of vocational schools for the blind across the country only provide massage courses for students and greatly limit their job opportunities."

Xi said her school plans to open piano tuning and computer programming courses for blind students this year.

More educational resources should be offered to blind people to help them acquire other skills such as perfume modulation because they have keener sense of smell, she said.

"Blind people should live with dignity. They can prove that they can live well on their own," she said.