Opportunities and Challenges: An Examination of Educational Landscape for People with Visual Impairment in China
Open accessAbstract
In the last decade, the Chinese government issued several policy documents to guarantee the provision of reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities sitting in the national College Entrance Exam. This study explores how the new policies impact students with visual impairment. It begins by highlighting the recent policy changes in China that provide optimism about attention being paid to equal education opportunities for students with visual impairment. By gathering the statistics on number of students with visual impairment sitting on the college entrance exam in recent years, the paper assesses the reasons why virtually no students with visual impairments are taking the exam compared with their peers without disabilities. In light of significant barriers emerged from the analysis, the paper concludes with opportunities for improvement and directions for future research.
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The number of blind students who pursue higher education in China is small, especially at the graduate level.
“This understanding is valuable given the small number of blind students who pursue higher education in China, especially at the graduate level [39, 78, 80].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
The Introduction says very few Chinese students with visual impairments, especially those with blindness, access mainstream higher education. The paper also describes barriers to graduate-school entrance exams in “PWVI in Schools,” but gives no evidence that the number of blind students pursuing graduate education is especially small. Its higher-education statement is limited to mainstream institutions. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMost blind and low-vision students who need accommodations still choose the specialized exams and admissions because the quality of K-12 education in the special schools they attend is much lower than mainstream schools.
“Most BLV students who need accommodations still choose to take the latter because the quality of K-12 education in the special schools they attend is much lower than mainstream schools [39, 53].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
The Findings and Conclusions section describes low educational levels and inadequate provision in special schools for blind students. It does not say their K–12 education is much worse than in mainstream schools, or that most students choose specialized exams and admissions for that reason. The Introduction instead notes that very few students with visual impairment access mainstream higher education despite the availability of exam accommodations. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAlthough reasonable accommodations are legally mandated in gaokao, fewer than 10 students request Braille examination papers each year.
“Therefore, although reasonable accommodations are legally mandated in gaokao , fewer than 10 students request Braille examination papers each year [39].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
The Introduction and p. 104 describe policies providing gaokao accommodations, and Table 1 (p. 97) lists fewer than 10 Braille-paper applicants in 2014–2016. The claim overstates this as occurring every year: the References cite a report of 11 students using Braille exam papers in 2021. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn China, formal accommodation services remain limited.
“Our study seeks to expand this literature with a case in China, where formal accommodation services remain limited [39].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
Blind students are often grouped together with those who have low vision under the category of 'visual disabilities,' even though they may require very different support systems.
“Additionally, blind students are often grouped together with those who have low vision under the category of 'visual disabilities, ' even though they may require very different support systems [39].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
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Tang, X., & Zhang, W. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3790464 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hu, L.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hu, Luanjiao
- ORCID
- Hu, Luanjiao
- Venue
- Columbia University
- Publisher
- Columbia University
- Published
- 2022
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1523-1615 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4220731453
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Current Issues in Comparative Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
- Social Sciences › Education › Inclusive Education and Diversity
- Keywords
- visual impairment, students with disabilities, college entrance examination, reasonable accommodation, disability policy, equal educational opportunity, barriers to higher education, China
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