Society

People with disabilities call on removed barriers

By He Dan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-17 08:18

Advocates say job seekers effectively barred from entering civil service

BEIJING - Government agencies should be open to potential employees who have disabilities, urged the 1,084 people who put their names to an open letter to the State Administration of Civil Service on Sunday, the National Day of Assisting People with Disabilities.

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The letter calls on the government to remove all discriminatory regulations that impede people with disabilities wanting to take part in the civil service recruitment process.

Four people who were rejected from applying for civil service positions because of their physical disabilities drafted the letter and collected the signatures of support, largely from other people with disabilities.

China's Regulation on the Employment of People with Disabilities stipulates that the proportion of people with disabilities among the total workforce at government organs and companies should not be less than 1.5 percent.

The petition urges government departments to strictly implement the policy and set a good example for other employers.

Yang Renliang was one of the drafters of the letter. He graduated as an English major from Guizhou University and has severe visual impairment as a result of albinism.

Yang told China Daily he tried to apply for a job last year at the education department in his hometown in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

He said he did not pass the physical examination that is part of the civil service entrance exam because he could not meet the eyesight requirement.

"Ordinary people can improve their eyesight by wearing glasses but people like me with weak sight can only see objects up close and glasses help very little," he said.

"I hate the fact that we are not judged by our abilities. We have some physical defects but that does not mean we are capable of nothing."

Lu Yiguang, dean of the Special Education College at Changchun University, said applicants with disabilities are often excluded from joining the civil service.

"It's impossible for blind people to take the written test that is part of the civil service recruitment process and there are no exam papers in Braille," Lu said.

People who are unable to speak are not allowed to become teachers because an oral test is a compulsory component of the teacher recruitment process, Lu added.

"Finding jobs for our graduates now is our biggest worry."

Lu said his college has more than 770 undergraduates with disabilities who have taken one of five majors that include special education, therapeutic massage and animation.

To improve the employment prospects of people with disabilities, the China Disabled Persons' Federation will offer favorable taxation policies to encourage companies and employers to hire them, said Cheng Kai, vice-president of the federation.

The organization aims to create 1 million new jobs for people with disabilities in urban areas during the next five years by providing more vocational training and other incentives, Cheng said.

Zhang Xizheng, a researcher from the Enable Disability Studies Institute, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization that focuses on improving the welfare of people with disabilities, urged all employers to regularly disclose information about their recruitment of people with disabilities, believing that increased supervision from the public will motivate employers to act.