Culture

Trailblazer sees a much brighter life

By Wu Wencong (CHINA DAILY)
Updated: 2010-07-05 09:56

There is a special radio production center in Beijing named One Plus One.

It is unique because eight of its 13 staff members are visually impaired, including its founder, Fu Gaoshan, who relies heavily on a magnifying glass to get through his daily life.

Unlike most people with visual impairments, who go to schools for the blind, Fu got the chance to study computer science at a regular university.

While studying, he used his magnifying glass to see what was on the screen and resorted to a telescope to see what his teachers were writing on the blackboard.

In 2006, he and a friend founded the non-governmental organization Beijing One Plus One Cultural Exchange Center.

Since then, it has gone from strength to strength.

China National Radio airs the company's programs once a week. The shows are designed for both the blind and mainstream population.

The center's journalists have received professional training from the BBC and, in 2008, two of its staff members became the first fully accredited Chinese journalists with disabilities to cover the Olympics.

Q: What made you want to start a radio production center?

A: Radio is an important leisure tool for people who are visually impaired and has been since we were small. It is what I am most familiar with. Besides, everyone is blind in front of the radio.

Q: What was the biggest difficulty you have faced?

A: I don't have specific memories about a particular case because I am used to a life of difficulties. I consider hardships things people think they cannot handle. For me, there are no such things. I believe every obstacle we face has a way out, it is just we have not found it yet.

Q: What is the meaning of One Plus One?

A: It has two meanings.

The first is one plus one is more than two, which emphasizes cooperation. When we work together with a shared vision, we can achieve more than when we fight alone.

The other explanation stresses integration. Different groups of people, the visual impaired and the able bodied, integrate into one group where differences are of no importance and where mutual understanding can be achieved.

I like the second explanation better.

Q: What is the main challenge to the integration of people with visual impairments into the wide community?

A: A lot of people believe they should offer help to the visually impaired. However, when this help is only based on good intentions and not on understanding, it may appear weird to the people receiving the help.

One reason for the insufficient understanding is that many people set barriers for themselves when dealing with the visually impaired.

They keep reminding themselves they are talking to "the blind", but that is not the most important characteristic of the person they are talking to.

Another thing is the low visibility of people who are visually impaired, which causes the general public to view them in the same way as they did foreigners in Beijing in the 1980s - mysterious and strange.

Q: What do you think of the fact that most visually impaired people work in the massage industry?

A: First, it is good because visually impaired people have a stable job and can make a living. In the past, typical jobs for the blind were street art performance and fortune telling.

But it is also restrictive. If someone knows his only career choice is to do massages, he will have no incentive to pursue higher education or learn other things.

In the US and European countries, visually impaired people can go as far as state leaders and become lawyers, teachers and so on. There is much to be done in China.

Q: How would you advise people with visual impairment who want to start a career?

A: Accept who you are, what you have and decide how you can make the best use of your own qualifications. Get familiar with computers and the internet, and then all you need is to have faith in yourself.