Visually challenged master's degree candidate graduates

Dong Lina, the first visually impaired person in China to get a master's degree in radio and television broadcasting and who recently delivered a speech as the representative of the 2023 graduating class at the Communication University of China, has inspired countless netizens with her story.

"May we have dreams no matter where we are, and insist on doing what we love, and always remain down-to-earth and calm," the 39-year-old said in her speech at the Beijing-based university on June 28.

Born into a farming family in Dalian, Liaoning province, Dong was diagnosed with congenital amblyopia and lost her sight at the age of 10 but she never stopped pursuing her education, even during the three years she worked as a masseuse after graduating from secondary school.

Dong became a full-time master's candidate in 2020.

"This is an open and inclusive campus, with an integrated educational environment for special education students like me," said Dong, who credited her success to the supportive environment.

From the moment she enrolled and throughout her studies, the university held Dong to the same standards as the other students, but also provided support in the form of Braille test papers and electronic documents.

While writing her thesis, Dong thought often of her childhood, when she would read in the small library at her school.

"At the time, there weren't a lot of Braille books. Now, many visually impaired people can use the internet with the help of accessibility technology," she said.

Given her perspective and experience, Dong focused on oral narratives for her master's program. She read tens of thousands of pages in Chinese and English using screen reading software, conducted interviews with visually impaired people, and screened around 100 accessible movies to complete her 60,000-word thesis.

Dong's dedication and hard work paid off, and the girl who had been advised that becoming a masseuse was her only choice, graduated with a degree in broadcasting.

In 1992, at the age of eight, Dong started to study at the Dalian School for the Blind and Deaf.

"I was told right from the start that when we learned tuina, a kind of therapeutic massage, in the future, I should study hard, because it would be my only way out," she said. "I didn't know why, but I was reluctant to follow such a predetermined route."

In 2003, Dong left school and got a job at a massage parlor, a path many of the visually impaired follow in China, but she continued to study English after work every day.

In 2006, she quit her job and seized the opportunity to enroll in a training program for visually impaired individuals in Beijing, focused on broadcasting and recitation. Despite the challenges, she reached the top level in her Mandarin proficiency test and won second place in a national recitation competition.

To study more systematically, Dong applied for a self-taught exam in 2011, but was told that visually impaired people were not eligible.

She insisted and as a result, visually impaired individuals were allowed to participate in self-taught exams in Beijing for the first time, and continue to do so today. "This was a good experience. It made me very happy and proud," she said.

A few years later, Dong got an undergraduate degree in broadcasting and hosting by taking a self-taught exam at the Communication University of China, and was invited to host a radio program about literature. In 2018, she joined a nonprofit organization to give public broadcasting courses to visually impaired children nationwide. She also worked as a part-time teacher at a language institution.

Now, with a master's degree in hand, Dong hopes to become a teacher, to share what she has learned with others, and to empower visually impaired children.

"I also want to do more creative things to communicate with other people, and create more resonance," she said.