China Focus: Internet integrates disabled people into society

Living with disabilities, Guo Hui never expected that an activity at the Internet, which he took up by using hazard, could help him get his lifestyles back on course.

In 2004, he became involved in a liquid-gas box explosion that burned 95% of his frame and disabled 8 of his arms. At that point, it became seemingly impossible for him to earn a living. But now, the use of his two fingers, Guo manages to earn about 5,000 yuan (approximately 726.Eight U.S. Greenbacks) a month by way of running as a web customer support group of workers.

The Internet has brought new hope to Guo’s lifestyles. Having stored money during the last two years, Guo is now able to have enough money podiatric surgical treatment in Beijing. “I am proud that now I can guide myself and I’m sure that my existence will get better.”

Guo isn’t always an exception. Now, more than 1,000 disabled human beings are running as on-line customer service workforce nationwide. By October 2018, a complete of 6,405 disabled humans were employed in similar on-line positions, consistent with China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF).

China’s booming Internet industry has now not simplest supplied job possibilities for disabled people like Guo however additionally provided opportunities for them to start their companies, allowing more disabled humans to earn their residing.

Zhao Mei is one of these entrepreneurs who, although disabled, controlled now not most effective to begin her own business however additionally help 35 of her disabled buddies locate jobs. She set up a webshop selling mops and brooms, with an annual enterprise extent of greater than 2.2 million yuan.

The Internet’s position in empowering humans with disabilities was highlighted in a guideline issued at the same time by using CDPF and different ministries of China in February 2018. The guideline has furnished strong aid for disabled folks that use the Internet to get a process or start an enterprise.

Statistics from CDPF and Alibaba display that on Taobao, China’s biggest on-line purchasing website, 174,100 on-line shops, selling approximately 11.66 billion yuan of goods from June 2018 to May 2019, are run by disabled people. Among them, 21,800 stores every succeeded in reaching over 30,000 yuan in sales in May 2019.

Besides imparting help in working for and beginning a business, China’s Internet industry has additionally strived to combine disabled humans into running in the Internet environment extra simply. “Internet plus assisting disabled people” and “barrier-free Internet environment” are the ones topics Internet businesses have targeted on in latest years.

Chinese e-trade large Alibaba set up an records accessibility technician group to assist disabled human beings to enjoy the offerings of its platform. Up till now, over 17,000 visually impaired human beings have run online stores on Taobao and some 597,000 visually impaired humans have experienced the ease introduced through online shopping. Tencent these days introduced that it has launched three AI technologies for accessibility, such as optical man or woman popularity (OCR), speech synthesis and photo-to-voice conversion, aiming to allow more groups and builders to construct a greater available and friendly records society for the disabled.

It is expected that by the stop of 2010 there were about 85.02 million humans with bodily or mental disabilities in China. Hu Xionghua, chairman of the Hangzhou affiliation of men and women with physical disabilities, stated in modern-day records society, the Internet will make contributions loads towards integrating humans with disabilities into society through supplying a barrier-free environment or, in other phrases, rebuilding “senses” for disabled people to help them get admission to records at paintings and in lifestyles.