China has 8 million blind people, but only 200 guide dogs

2020-11-25 17:16:19   来源:TodayInteract   

 

At the age of 11, Yang Kang lost his vision due to a rare type of eye cancer. But he considers himself one of the lucky few among China's millions of blind people -- he has a guide dog.

 

Yang splits his time between living in Beijing with his wife and running a piano studio in his hometown Tangshan, a sprawling industrial city some 100 miles away.

 

His weekly journey consists of a high-speed train ride, two bus rides and three subway transfers through often-crowded stations. It would have been impossible for most blind Chinese, but Yang is blessed with a furry companion that guides him every step of the way -- Dick, a four-year-old Labrador.

 

Yang Kang takes the train with his wife and their guide dogs.

 

Guide dogs like Dick are so rare in China that Yang waited five years to get one. According to state broadcaster CCTV, China only had some 200 dogs in service as of April -- which makes them even rarer than the giant pandas.

 

The service dogs' scarcity is all the more striking considering the large number of people who could potentially benefit from their help. The China Association of the Blind estimates the country's visually impaired population to be over 17 million. According to the World Health Organization, eight million Chinese are completely blind -- roughly equal to the whole population of Switzerland.

 

That's one guide dog for every 85,000 Chinese people who have partially or fully lost their eyesight.
 

In comparison, about one in 50 blind and visually impaired people in the United States work with guide dogs. In Britain, over 1,000 guide dogs are trained each year for a total of 36,000 people who are registered as blind or partially sighted.

 

Dangerous streets

 

Navigating Chinese cities can be a daunting task for the blind to manage on their own.

 

A 2016 survey by the China Information Accessibility Product Alliance found that 30% of the country's visually impaired seldom leave their homes; only one in four regularly go outside by themselves, with the remainder mostly shepherded by family and friends.

 

Before Dick came along, Yang had to rely on his white cane to get around -- but he said it was difficult and dangerous to cross the multi-lane highways and navigate the numerous pedestrian overpasses and tunnels that make up the Chinese capital by himself. "I was in constant fear," he said. "The most terrifying thing is that I have no idea what the road ahead is like."

 

Yang Kang and his wife crossing a road with their guide dogs in Beijing

 

While much progress has been made in recent years, Chinese cities are still far from disabled friendly. Even in Beijing, accessibility is lacking in many places -- for instance, not all pedestrian crossings have audible traffic signals for the blind, Yang said.

 

Even when accessibility facilities are in place, they sometimes fail to serve their purpose. Most Chinese cities, for example, have tactile paving designed to guide the blind lining sidewalks along major streets -- as required by a law passed in 2001. But they are often unfriendly or downright dangerous to use. Some are built to zigzag down a street, while others lead straight into trees, lamp posts or fire hydrants. Many are constantly occupied by illegally parked cars, bicycles or street vendors.

 

Some tactile paving designed to guide blind pedestrians in China is built in a way that's unfriendly or dangerous to use.

 

"The 'blind paths' are basically impossible to walk on," said Yang, who gave up following them years ago. "They're not built or maintained with the convenience of blind people in mind."

 

The poor upkeep of roads, in general, often poses another hazard -- Yang once fell into an uncovered seven-feet deep manhole while passing through an old residential compound. Luckily he did not suffer serious injuries, and managed to climb out of it.

 

In China, manhole covers are often stolen to be sold for scrap metal. According to state media, there were more than 70 publicly reported injuries or deaths due to stolen or broken manhole covers between 2017 and 2019. The incidents are so prevalent that China's Supreme Court announced stricter punishments in April, subjecting those who remove or damage manhole covers in busy areas to the maximum sentence of the death penalty, when it leads to serious injury or deaths.

 

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Copyright © 2012- TodayInteract. All Rights Reserved.
湘ICP备2020018463号
Copyright Changsha TodayInteract Technology Co., Ltd