Breaking the "curse" of employment for the visually impaired. Establishing an audiobook production company.
Visually impaired girls are the "protagonists" in the audiobook world
The screen recording software reads the content of the e-book with the robot sound at 3 times the speed. After the anchor hears the robot sound in the headset, he must repeat the previous sentence into the microphone at a normal speed while simultaneously remembering the next sentence in his heart. To "one mind, two uses".
Turning words into sounds is the daily work of Ma Yinqing's team.
This is a special audiobook production company with a team of more than 20 members, of which 3/4 of the employees are visually impaired like Ma Yinqing.
In February 2019, Shanghai Yinqing Culture Media Co., Ltd. was established, and the team members have expanded from 3 initially to more than 20 now.
In 2020, the company's total revenue is close to one million.
growing up
The silent girl is a "little transparent"
In 1994, a baby girl weighing only two catties was born. Ma Yinqing, who was born prematurely, was placed in an incubator. Excessive oxygen intake caused her retinopathy and lost her light since she was a child.
In kindergarten, his parents were doing business in Hangzhou, and Ma Yinqing stayed in Shanghai, "wandering" at the homes of his grandparents and relatives and friends.
As a result, she became less interested in communicating with others, "I want everyone to notice me, but I don't know how to express it."
The grades are medium and she is not talkative. In elementary school, Ma Yinqing was a "little transparent" in the class, and she was frustrated because she did not get the attention of teachers and classmates.
"I would pull her pigtails for girls, and for boys, I would fight him wisely. In short, there is no fight that I can't win." When it comes to fighting with classmates, Ma Yinqing is energetic.
Called to the office by the teacher to "drink tea" and criticized by parents and teachers face to face, Ma Yinqing found that being a "bad student" seemed to get more attention.
But this kind of attention did not give her a sense of security. After being called by parents several times, Ma Yinqing began to feel "boring."
Become a "protagonist" in the world of audiobooks
"You are very suitable for the heroine of my script, do you want to try it?" Ma Yinqing's performance was praised by a teacher in the junior high school textbook drama competition. In a confused manner, Ma Yinqing was "caught" and entered the school drama club. Contacted drama and radio drama.
"Everyone's focus is on me. Everyone can see and hear me. It feels great." She enjoys the feeling of being noticed on the stage, even if she can't see the stage.
After discovering his talent and interest in radio dramas, Ma Yinqing began to upload some of his dubbing works on the Internet.
At that time, she didn't know how to use screen-reading software. She could only listen to one sentence, write one sentence in braille, and finally read it out by touching the braille.
It takes two hours to copy a 20-minute recording.
Uploading works takes a lot of time and energy, and the number of clicks is not high. "But doing these things is very happy and a sense of accomplishment."
In 2014, Ma Yinqing stepped into the university campus. She did not give up her hobby of dubbing while learning Tuina massage. Knowing that audiobooks began to rise, she began to try to record audiobooks.
Slowly, Ma Yinqing came into contact with some part-time channels for audio production.
Ma Yinqing remembered the scene of receiving her first part-time salary very clearly-it was a full-length story. It took Ma Yinqing more than half a year to record it. After receiving her salary, she immediately went to Taobao to order a lot of snacks. , "I can also make money from audio books!" This let her see another career possibility for the visually impaired.
"I am not a long-lasting person, and I have always been interested in things I like for three minutes." Ma Yinqing has been exposed to "Sound" since 2010, and it has been ten years now.
In the world of audiobooks, she found a feeling of being a "protagonist".
Now, "visually impaired" and "inspirational" have become Ma Yinqing's labels. She does not dislike these labels, but she never feels that she is an inspirational model.
"I'm just a little hardworking, but also happens to be very lucky, able to use what I like as a career." For a visually impaired girl, encountering "sound" in this era is her lucky starting point.
Start a business
Break the professional curse and set up "Yinqing Voice" studio
"The visually impaired people will do massage in the future." As far as I can remember, Ma Yinqing has heard such words from teachers and elders more than once.
According to Ma Yinqing’s mother Xuan Liying’s idea, Ma Yinqing, who is studying Chinese medicine professional massage, can enter a community hospital to be a massage doctor after graduation, or the family can help her open a massage shop with money. "Anyway, with the massage technique , She will never starve to death."
Besides Tuina, what else can I do?
Ma Yinqing has been pondering his way out since his sophomore year.
She couldn't get any pleasure from those acupoints and meridians. "My hands are too small to do massage." Ma Yinqing stretched out her slender hand and said.
While studying Tuina at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ma Yinqing also made audiobooks part-time and accumulated a lot of experience.
Can you try to find a job in audio production?
Nearing graduation, Ma Yinqing received an interview invitation from an audiobook production company.
On the resume, she did not deliberately mention her "special", and she felt that not seeing it did not affect her work in audiobooks.
But she was also prepared to be rejected.
The two rounds of interviews went smoothly. The two sides agreed on a salary-a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, and asked her to go back and wait for the final result.
"It's not that difficult for the visually impaired to find a job." Ma Yinqing breathed a sigh of relief after the interview, and then went home to "show off" to her mother that she had found a job.
Two months later, Ma Yinqing, who had not waited until the admission notice, contacted the company's human resources department via QQ.
"I'm sorry, the leader may not be suitable for this job considering your situation." When the screen reading software read this sentence, Ma Yinqing was overwhelmed. She asked about the reason, and the other party called to explain that this position needs to work in the company, the leader I find it inconvenient for the visually impaired and it will be difficult to communicate with colleagues.
"He hasn't seen me, so how come he feels that his visual impairment will cause inconvenience to my work?" Ma Yinqing was angry and aggrieved when he hung up the phone, crying on the table where he usually recorded audio books.
She didn't plan to "accept her fate" and began to figure out other ways. Now that she is familiar with the production process of audiobooks, she opened a studio and did it herself!
In June 2018, the "Yinqing Voice" studio was established.
When the studio was established, Ma Yinqing's mother Xuan Liying was the first to vote against it.
In Xuan Liying's view, in addition to physical exertion, starting a business has to bear huge psychological pressure and the risk of failure. She does not want her daughter to be an "explorer".
"I must try, or I will definitely regret it." Ma Yinqing was determined.
After repeated persuasion by her and her father, Xuan Liying compromised and took out 20,000 yuan as the start-up fund for Ma Yinqing's studio, "Let her go bump, she will come back if it hurts."
From zero business with zero income to one million yuan in annual income
The studio was established, but the reality is far less simple than Ma Yinqing imagined.
Although she understands the audiobook production process, she has no experience in operation and management.
In the first time, Ma Yinqing said to herself that it was normal for the studio to be unable to receive orders when it was just established.
This state lasted for a month, and anxiety began to hit. "What to do if you can't receive the order" became her "torture" every night before going to bed.
After getting the chance to audition, he sent the demo to the company, but was rejected by the other party. This scene appeared more than once in Ma Yinqing's dream.
But Ma Yinqing did not give up.
After sending an audition sample to a company again, Ma Yinqing received an invitation to cooperate.
A few days later, Ma Yinqing boarded the high-speed train to Hangzhou-she was going to sign the first contract.
Xuan Liying had something that day and couldn't accompany Ma Yinqing to Hangzhou. After sending her to the high-speed rail, she instructed the crew in every possible way to ask them to send her daughter to a taxi when they arrived in Hangzhou.
When she got downstairs in the company, she called, "I am not familiar with this place, can you come down and pick me up?" After seeing Ma Yinqing, the other party knew that she was a visually impaired person.
The contract was signed smoothly. The moment Ma Yinqing pressed his handprint, the stone in Ma Yinqing's heart finally fell to the ground, "Studio, alive!"
The studio is on the right track, and Ma Yinqing has a new idea, "I can do this. Can other visually impaired people also work?" In February 2019, Shanghai Yinqing Culture Media Co., Ltd. was established. The team The membership has expanded from three at the beginning to more than twenty now.
In 2020, the company's total revenue is close to one million.
"Is this speed okay?" In the office at the end of December 2020, Ma Yinqing was helping Fan Junzhe, an employee who came for an interview, to use screen reading software.
"How can you understand such a fast speech rate?" Fan Junzhe, who has never used a screen reading software, can't understand the "fast" robot sounds in the software at all.
Fan Junzhe said that it was a friend forwarded to him a report about Ma Yinqing, which showed him new opportunities.
In his sophomore year, he suffered from retinitis pigmentosa and his eyesight fell precipitously. “The daily trivial things such as walking and going to class suddenly became unfamiliar and difficult.” How to get a job was a real problem before him, a professional in environmental planning. After graduating, he tried to learn massage for two months, but he fell into a deeper confusion. He was thin and not suitable for this business. "I rushed to Shanghai from Qiqihar, hoping to be in the'Yinqing Voice' There is a new beginning."
future
"I'm not'fire' enough, but I want more people to see it"
"You are hot!" the reporter who came to interview said to Ma Yinqing.
But she felt that she was not "hot" enough.
After the establishment of the company, many media came to interview Ma Yinqing and her team. At most, she would accept interviews from 4 media a day.
Ma Yinqing does not reject media interviews, "If more people learn about me and my team, more people will see the 18 million visually impaired people behind them."
A visually impaired person from Mudanjiang once talked to Ma Yinqing about the inconvenience of going out. There are no barrier-free facilities in small cities. Because he can't see it, he is often refused by taxi drivers. It is almost impossible to go out like a normal person. An extravagant hope.
"They are not unwilling to come out, but they can't."
As a child, Ma Yinqing was unwilling to come out.
The invisible world means the unknown. Coupled with staying in someone's home for a long time, Ma Yinqing is afraid of communicating with strangers. "There is a natural fear of being bullied."
In order for Ma Yinqing to overcome this fear, her father deliberately took her out to stroll around, attend various parties, and let her get to know more different people.
"When others say hello to me, I can only bite the bullet and answer." After communicating more with the outside world, Ma Yinqing found that talking to strangers is not that scary.
Now Ma Yinqing has become a person who "can't be idle". In the eyes of assistant Wang Jiang, Ma Yinqing "loves to join in the fun, wherever there are many people, she will go wherever there are."
Ma Yinqing said that there are also some visually impaired friends around him who are unwilling to tell others that they are visually impaired. "Visually impaired is like a label for the weak. Everyone will subconsciously classify you as a disadvantaged group and look at you with sympathy."
She had such worries.
From kindergarten to high school, Ma Yinqing attended schools for the blind, and rarely had the opportunity to meet able-bodied students.
The audio book gave her the opportunity to communicate with the "big world".
Because of the audiobook, Ma Yinqing met a group of like-minded friends on the Internet.
When I was in college, Ma Yinqing suffered from insomnia for two nights when I had to "face the foundation" with these friends.
Lying on the bed, a series of questions circulated in her mind: Do you want to go?
If they know that I am visually impaired, will they dislike me?
Would you look at me with strange eyes?
"How do you usually look at your phone?" "Do you use a blind cane when you go out?" After seeing Ma Yinqing, everyone's first reaction was curiosity and did not regard her as a "special person".
She found that what hinders the visually impaired group's integration into society is not only the prejudice of the outside world, but also the visually impaired people's own fear of the outside world. "I need to actively integrate with everyone instead of waiting for everyone to accept me."
Ma Yinqing said that "being seen" is very important for the visually impaired group, and even for the disabled group as a whole. "If we can let everyone know that the disabled are actually valuable to society, and it is not a trouble to society, then everyone will change. Stereotypes of disabled groups."
Heartfelt
I hope I can be treated as an ordinary person
“I’m going to start a business and I’m visually impaired. There’s actually not much to do with the two.” Ma Yinqing doesn’t like other people linking her entrepreneurship to “visually impaired.
In her view, this connection seems to exaggerate the difficulty and sadness of the visually impaired.
What she hopes is that she can be regarded as an ordinary person on the road of realizing self-worth.
This version of the text and pictures / Ji Jiawen