Making toys and rebuilding lives
Workshop helps people with disabilities move from charity-dependent roles to market-driven employment
Technology as a bridge
Cao runs the Sanlitun 3D Printing Digital Workshop for People with Disabilities, a venture that is barely a few months old. The idea is to use additive manufacturing to help people with disabilities — who often struggle for years to find steady jobs — become designers, producers or operators of small businesses.
This unique model that ensures people with disabilities get paid jobs in technology-driven industries has the support of charity groups and federations representing local people with disabilities.
The workshop has just delivered its first commercial order: 50 3D-printed blind boxes featuring the bear mascot of the Fairmont Beijing Hotel in Sanlitun. The boxes, which feature four seasonal designs and a hidden "hotel chef" figurine, were produced using about 30 printers donated to the Chaoyang district by CFDP-Leye — a social enterprise that helps people with disabilities gain employment — through the China Foundation for Disabled Persons.
Behind that milestone lies a story of reinvention, resilience and the hard work of turning high-tech tools into means of ensuring sustainable livelihoods.
