Breaking down barriers

Wearing headphones and tapping swiftly on keyboards, the programmers fill a room just like any common information technology office. But closer inspection will reveal how the IT engineers are concentrating on receiving codes transmitted via the headphones with their eyes shut.

The professionals are mostly visually impaired, yet their condition does not hinder their talent to understand the world through the binary language of zeros and ones.

"The world is large and choices are diverse. Being visually impaired should not mean we must confine ourselves to two commonly perceived paths, working in the massage and music industry," says Etong Information Technology company CEO Cai Yongbin, who is also a visually impaired IT engineer.

China introduced an accessibility construction law in June 2023, urging websites and mobile apps in sectors like social communication, lifestyle shopping, healthcare and transportation to gradually align themselves with accessible internet design standards.

Cai, with his visually impaired IT engineer colleague, is now working on the accessibility adaptation of mobile apps. "As long as our environment is barrier-free, there will be no disabled people in this world," Cai says.