Deaf Tan Ting passed the judicial examination after three years of hard work
She will become the first deaf lawyer in China next year
West China Metropolis Daily-cover news trainee reporter Li Maojia and Cao Yu
Can a deaf person become a lawyer?
Tan Ting, a girl from Daliang Mountain, Sichuan who has been deaf since she was 8 years old, wrote an affirmative answer with her hard work and perseverance.
After two failures, she finally succeeded—becoming the only one who passed the legal professional qualification examination among the more than 27 million deaf people in the country.
Today, Tan Ting is already an intern lawyer. After the one-year internship expires, she will officially become "China's first professional lawyer for the deaf."
For Tan Ting, the "long march" of providing legal services to the deaf community has just started. "(The deaf community) needs legal help too much. It is far from enough to have me alone or a team." Tan. Ting told Huaxi Metropolis Daily and cover news reporters that no matter what the outside view and evaluation, she will stick to it.
At Tan Ting’s workstation, there was a piece of memo paper sandwiched, and it was placed where you could see it when you looked up. It said: "I want to use these silent hands to bring justice to every silent voice. corner of!"
Passed the "First Exam in the World"
How difficult is it for deaf people?
When Tan Ting was 8 years old, she suffered from otitis media and caused neurological middle ear poisoning and completely lost her hearing.
In 2017, Tan Ting, who graduated from the School of Special Education of Chongqing Normal University, began to think about the direction of life. It happened to see on the Internet that the law firm of "China's first sign language lawyer" Tang Shuai was recruiting deaf legal service volunteers. With the idea of giving it a try, Tan Ting submitted her job resume.
Tan Ting and four other deaf undergraduates were selected by Tang Shuai into a law firm.
Under the spur of Tang Shuai, the five deaf students embarked on the journey to obtain legal professional qualifications.
In the end, only Tan Ting persisted in this hard fight.
Tan Ting told reporters that during the "Facial Examination", she got up at 6 am and went home at 11 pm every day. Except for the time for meals and rest, the time for reading is about 14-15 hours at the end of the day. Such days continue. For three full years.
For Tan Ting, the pain of studying is a "suffering" full of hope and a "suffering" worth persisting.
From a young age, Tan Ting was determined to "must study". In a special school, Tan Ting skipped from the second grade to the fifth grade, then jumped to the first grade after finishing the seventh grade, and then entered the university.
The poor family background made Tan Ting more sensible and could not live up to the hard work of her parents.
Before the third "law test", the news of her mother's serious illness made Tan Ting almost give up the exam, but her mother told her, "You don't live for me, you live for this society, you should do something right. Socially meaningful things."
On January 8, 2021, the results of the "Law Examination" were released. Tan Ting's name appeared on the list of passing the examination. This news made the mother in the hospital bed deeply gratified.
Insist on speaking out
Provide legal aid services for the deaf
"My name is Tan Ting, and this is the law firm where I work. My job is to provide legal consultation and assistance to the deaf community." Tan Ting introduced to reporters that her words are not easy to be heard and often need to be repeated multiple times. With the words, others can understand her meaning.
Determined to be a lawyer, Tan Ting, who had not spoken for 15 years, began to practice pronunciation with voice software. When communicating with others, she insisted on uttering her own voice so that the other party could understand as much as possible.
Although there are still obstacles in communication, Tan Ting has no feelings of discomfort or annoyance at all. Instead, she does her best to gain the understanding of others, and can even make jokes to adjust the atmosphere of the conversation.
"Oh, how come your 64G mobile phone is enough? I don't have enough 128G, so I really want to buy one with 1 T of RAM!" During the chat, I couldn't feel her "different from ordinary people" at all. Instead, it was Full of optimism and positive energy.
Tan Ting also found that in her work, not only there are barriers to communication with healthy people, but also communication with deaf people is not smooth.
According to Tan Ting, when studying in a special school, the teacher teaches standard Chinese sign language, but when receiving deaf clients, everyone uses natural sign language to communicate, and it is difficult to understand what the other party is saying.
"There is a big difference between Chinese sign language and natural sign language." Tan Ting explained that Chinese sign language strictly abides by the Chinese word order, while natural sign language is a sign language used in communication between deaf people in a natural state, which can express emotions. Widely used in the deaf world.
Therefore, in actual work, she needs to "communicate" and verify over and over again in order to provide help to the deaf.
"Many people will ask me why I want to be a lawyer? I may not know why I started, but what I want to do for them is the biggest motivation." Tan Ting said.
Dispel misunderstandings
Changing the status quo of the deaf community
At present, there are more than 27 million deaf people in the country. When they face legal rights protection, they often cannot get legal aid that suits them.
Because of their physical disabilities, deaf people have low legal awareness, and even many lack common sense of life.
This has also led to their difficulty in accurately expressing their intentions in the process of using the law to protect their rights and interests, which has led to their failure to accept completely fair treatment.
Tan Ting has received various consultations. Deaf people don't know what welfare policies they can enjoy. When they encounter problems, they don't know which departments they should turn to for help.
Even many deaf people don't know where to go for marriage and divorce.
On the day of the interview, Tan Ting had just received legal consultations from the deaf, and she was busy setting up a mobile phone holder with her partner, looking for a wall with a clean background, and preparing to record a new short video of law popularization-"Can the case file be eliminated?"
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Using sign language to record a short video of the popularization of law is also part of Tan Ting's work. She wants to use a combination of case and law to explain a simple legal knowledge to the deaf community in a few minutes.
In the recent video, she will also be accompanied by background music and subtitles, which is more in line with the current law of communication.
“The outside world always has misunderstandings. For example, how can a lawyer for a deaf person go to court if he can’t hear or speak? In fact, a lot of lawyers’ work is done outside the courtroom, and we are a team. Can help people in need." Tan Ting said.
Changing the society's perception of the deaf group is what Tan Ting wants to achieve more. "I understand the needs of the deaf better. Deaf people can do everything except hearing. I hope that through my efforts, I can make everyone aware of this. "Tan Ting proved with her actions, "It's not bad for the deaf, it's just inconvenience."
On May 15th, under the leadership of Tang Shuai, Tan Ting participated in the 30th Anniversary Symposium on the Implementation of the "Disabled Persons' Protection Law" organized by the China Disabled Persons' Federation.
At the meeting, Tan Ting spoke on behalf of the deaf for the first time.
"I believe it will get better and better. Let's work hard together to be a warm and positive ordinary person." Tan Ting said.