Approaching the young visually impaired engineer——
Light up the intelligent life for the visually impaired
Our reporter Yu Sinan
In a building in the Futian Free Trade Zone in Shenzhen, a reporter is interviewing Wang Mengqi, a visually impaired engineer of the Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Research Association").
A heavy rain came suddenly, and the big raindrops crackled on the windows.
"It's raining, is it convenient for you to go home later?" the reporter asked Wang Mengqi.
He is an engineer and a visually impaired person, who can hardly see anything.
Normally after get off work, he would take a shuttle bus to Yitian subway station, two kilometers away, and go home with his girlfriend after meeting with his girlfriend.
But at this time, taking public transportation is somewhat inconvenient for the visually impaired.
"It's okay, I'll take a taxi and leave." Wang Mengqi heard the reporter's worry and chuckled comfortingly.
He picked up the phone, approached his ear, and slid his thumb on the screen, with a focused and serious expression. After listening to a rapid tone, he skillfully completed the taxi operation.
Behind Wang Mengqi, there are many engineers in the office of the Research Institute who are immersed in their work, optimizing codes for different applications, conducting barrier-free testing... The life of the visually impaired is enriched by the Internet.
Some of them, like Wang Mengqi, strive to make the Internet illuminate more people.
Screen reading software builds a bridge
According to experts from the Research Institute, visual impairment refers to impaired visual function.
In addition to the blind, the visually impaired also include many people with low vision who need assistive devices such as magnifying glasses to see clearly.
Statistics from the China Association for the Blind show that there are more than 17 million visually impaired people in my country.
For this group, the use of the Internet is equivalent to opening a new door for them.
Wang Mengqi mainly relies on listening to the Internet.
The screen reader software will read out what text on the page, which window is opening, and what program is running.
Because he was used to listening, he used his mobile phone, just like a person with normal vision.
Eight years ago, in the last year of school in Henan Tuina Vocational College, Wang Mengqi went to a Tuina hospital in his hometown Xuchang for an internship.
It’s only 500 meters away from home, the job is stable, and the parents and family are very satisfied.
Unexpectedly, a recruitment notice from the Research Institute changed Wang Mengqi's life trajectory.
"I heard that the research institute is recruiting visually impaired engineers, so I want to give it a try. Young, curious about the outside world." Wang Mengqi said, submitting resumes and interviews with her family behind her back. When she was really going to work in Shenzhen, her mother was anxious: "One person. How can you take care of yourself after running so far and you can't see?" Wang Mengqi smiled and explained: "You can do a lot of things online, buy things, order takeaways, meet new friends, and you will be fine."
This stay is 8 years.
Wang Mengqi has adapted well to work and life, and also met his girlfriend in quality development activities.
Last year, my parents came to Shenzhen to visit, relying on Wang Mengqi as a tour guide.
There will be many visually impaired engineers like Wang Mengqi.
Liu Biao, who is slightly fat, loves to laugh, and shows two "squirrel teeth" when he smiles.
Once, Liu Biao was very afraid of going to the supermarket, could not find anything, and easily hit the shelves.
"Now I'm online, and I want to buy anything."
Traveling is also more convenient.
Liu Biao told the story of his friend, "I have a friend who can tell whether the car is a taxi or a private car based on the nuance of the engine sound. But he dare not stop the taxi because he doesn't know if there are people in the car. ."
"I'm fine now. I use taxi-hailing software. People don't look for a car, but the car comes to me. I often laugh at his'exceptional function' is useless." Liu Biao narrowed his eyes and continued, "A few years ago, I After getting in the car, the driver will be very surprised. In the past two years, they stopped asking me how to call the car and chatted with me along the way."
Screen-reading software is like a "blind cane" for the visually impaired to surf the Internet, but to lead the way, a smooth "Internet blind path" is indispensable.
Calling up the screen reading mode of the mobile phone, the reporter soon experienced the obstacles in the "Internet blind track".
The "play" key of a certain audio software can only be read as "button" after recognition; the "+" key on some pages expressing the meaning of "more", but read out a bunch of garbled codes; written on the picture The text can hardly be read.
Wang Mengqi said: "People with normal eyesight can understand these contents at a glance, but it is an obstacle to us. If some key links are blocked, the product may not be usable."
Optimizing the Internet experience is not easy
As a non-profit organization, in the past, the seminar mainly taught the visually impaired to use computers.
After the rise of the mobile Internet, mobile phones have slowly become the main tool for surfing the Internet.
Where are the obstacles, the user knows best, why not ask the visually impaired who understands the computer to optimize?
In this way, Liu Biao, Wang Mengqi and others joined the research group and became the earliest batch of visually impaired engineers in my country.
Unblocking the "Blind Network" is not just a few comments.
At the beginning, no one knew the obstacles to reading, interaction, and design. Visually impaired engineers studied them one by one and explored solutions.
Liu Biao's main job is to write code.
He doesn't have to turn on the computer screen, wear headphones, and write lines of code while listening.
Most of the time, he half-downed his head, put his hands on the keyboard, and crackled the characters.
Sometimes when encountering Kan'er, he would take off his headphones, thoughtfully.
In college, Liu Biao studied acupuncture and massage.
"I'm an 8-year-old Chinese medicine doctor." He showed two "squirrel teeth", recalling the days when he taught himself to program.
"My programming knowledge was when I asked my sister to read sentence by sentence according to the textbook when I was young." After my sister read it again, Liu Biao recorded it on a tape. After recording one paragraph, he memorized the next paragraph.
After listening to the first textbook in 50 days, I took more than 200 pages of Braille notes.
"It started like listening to the heavenly book, and then I slowly found some feeling." Liu Biao said, thinking of those codes now, my sister's reading sounded in my mind.
What Wang Mengqi does is barrier-free testing.
After joining the seminar, he summed up a set of test methods.
With the assistance of colleagues with normal vision, he also learned to use screenshots, annotations, etc. to convert the problems found and the submitted solutions into visual expressions.
"For this, the technical content is actually quite high." Wang Mengqi said proudly.
Once, a large Internet company found a research club, hoping that one of its products would be suitable for the visually impaired to operate with a keyboard.
Wang Mengqi and his colleagues in the research group wrote a thick interactive keyboard for barrier-free keyboards. The other party was surprised: "I didn't expect you to be so professional."
Wu Yiming, another visually impaired engineer, is tall and thin, and has the same strength to resist defeat.
In 2015, after graduating from Zhejiang Vocational College of Special Education, in order to make a living, he started Tuina work.
During that time, I went to work during the day and taught myself programming at night.
After more than two years, he joined the research group as he wished.
On December 26, 2017, he clearly remembered the day he received the call for employment, and he was so excited that he did not fall asleep that night.
The team of visually impaired engineers in the seminar is working together more and more tacitly. We work closely together, some do accessibility testing, some do user channel operation and maintenance, and some write optimized code.
Every day from 10 am until late at night, in the 200-square-meter office of the seminar, keyboards and telephones are heard one after another. When you are busy, you will say a word, like a lively market.
Looking forward to gathering more power
In the seminar, there is also a 25-year-old visually impaired engineer Zhou Fugui.
He once developed an application called "World in the Palm", which was the first product developed by the visually impaired to be put on the Apple App Store.
He joined the seminar in March last year, hoping that his work can help more people.
"Thank you for making all kinds of software easy to use and helping me to get my PhD all the way." This is a feedback from a visually impaired user of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Although the work is hard and busy, but there are more feedbacks like this, and the staff of the research group have more realized the meaning of doing this.
What makes them gratified is that more and more institutions and individuals are consciously participating in the construction of the "Blind Network".
For product optimization, visually impaired engineers give suggestions and solutions, but to make the "network blind channel" smoother, software and hardware companies need to adapt and adjust.
Liu Biao, for example, said that at the software level, some commonly used social software, shopping software, online banking software, etc., have cooperated with the research society to make refined adaptations to the products according to the needs of the visually impaired.
At the hardware level, mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei have deeply optimized the barrier-free system of the mobile phone system and formulated barrier-free design specifications based on the suggestions of visually impaired engineers.
Today, Liu Biao's life is no different from ordinary people.
He likes the job and the atmosphere where colleagues work together. He doesn't think he is inferior to others, and he doesn't think he needs deliberate help.
Every once in a while, he will ponder some new things.
He is obsessed with collecting all kinds of sounds, wind, rain, and traffic in the middle of the night.
When it rains, go to the street to collect the sound of rain, record the sound of traffic on the road at one or two in the middle of the night, and then re-arrange these sounds to make a song with friends.
The rain continued into the evening.
In a restaurant in a shopping mall near Yitian subway station, the reporter ordered a simple meal with Wang Mengqi, Wu Yiming, and Zhou Fugui.
Zhou Fugui had just returned to Shenzhen from Hefei that same day, and a company concerned about information accessibility asked him to record a public welfare video.
In the past two years, they have been frequently invited to attend some activities to share stories about being visually impaired engineers.
Wu Yiming said frankly that sometimes he feels a little tired, but he can think of letting people understand the "Internet blind road" and cheer up.
Wang Mengqi is also a frequent visitor to charity sharing.
"The media came to interview me. At first I thought it was pretty cool, but after a long time, I feel more responsibility." He told reporters that he hoped that more people would understand the needs of visually impaired people for accessing the Internet, and they hope to gather together. More power, together to promote this meaningful work.
Let the Internet benefit more people (Reporter's Notes)
Before contacting the visually impaired group, the reporter did not realize how important the Internet is to them.
Similarly, most of the obstacles caused by Internet applications to the visually impaired are unintentional "excesses."
Because many developers do not realize that visually impaired people still use mobile phones.
In fact, the visually impaired people's desire to go online may be more urgent than those with normal vision. This is a window for them to understand the outside world and an important bridge for them to integrate into society.
Build a well-off society in an all-round way, and let no one be left behind.
At the moment, the Internet is being integrated into all aspects of life, allowing the Internet to benefit more people. It can not only enhance people's sense of gain and happiness, but also a sign of social civilization.
Statistics show that there are more than 17 million visually impaired people in my country, including those who are totally blind and amblyopic.
What's more, everyone may need to use hearing to obtain information due to aging, eye diseases and other reasons.
When designing and developing network products, we must always keep in mind such a group.
During the interview, the reporter deeply realized that the spiritual world of the visually impaired is also rich.
They aspire to be self-confident, self-reliant and self-reliant, just like everyone else, and earn respect with hard work.
They use their efforts to break the inherent stereotypes-in addition to becoming blind masseurs, visually impaired people can also become IT engineers and musicians, showing a colorful life of struggle.
Layout design: Cai Huawei