School gives new opportunities to hearing impaired

Wu Xuejing graduated from university in July with a degree in art design, but the 24-year-old with impaired hearing found it difficult to get a job related to her major.

"My dream job is to design cute anime characters because I'm fond of Japanese manga," she said using sign language. "I started painting when I was 10 and always wanted to earn a living with my skills."

Many of Wu's classmates at Shanghai Xuhui Local University, the only university for the hearing-impaired in the city's Xuhui district, are unable to work as designers, despite extensive and top-class training.

But a new program may help them find employment in the booming e-commerce sector.

On Thursday, more than 30 hearing-impaired students completed a five-day course, launched by the university, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and the Puki Coordination Agency, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding job opportunities for the hearing-impaired.

Ten students were granted a month-long internship as designers in five e-commerce companies with the possibility of a permanent job.

Special education teachers from the university are first invited to Hangzhou, the headquarters of Alibaba, to learn e-commerce courses. Then, together with designers from Taobao, the online marketplace owned by Alibaba, they teach students Web design and advertisements, according to Chai Dong, chief of the e-commerce training center of Taobao.

"The program in Shanghai is valuable and shows the way," he said. "We'll train special education teachers in other cities, publish the detailed teaching program and update it regularly, so that more hearing-impaired students can be trained as online store designers."

Wu, the student, said the lessons she learned from the program are practical compared to what she learned in school.

"I'm especially inspired by the lesson on visual marketing. I feel more confident about finding a job," she said.

China's booming e-commerce market will need about 5 million skilled workers in the next three years and a fourth of e-commerce companies lack sufficient designers, according to Taobao.

A designer for online shops can earn from 3,000 yuan ($490) to 10,000 yuan a month, depending on their expertise and work experience.

Puki, the NGO, found that only 10 percent of the graduates find a job in design, although 95 percent of the majors at 85 universities in China that recruit students with impaired hearing are related to design.

"Many of the students study for more than seven years but they only get to low-level positions such as supermarket cashiers, assembly-line workers or cleaners," said Xiao Liang, Puki's founder.

"The reality is their efforts are often in vain, which can easily cause psychological problems."

Hearing-impaired graduates have a strong work ethic, said teacher Shen Xueqing.

"Feedback from the companies shows that these graduates are more focused and more efficient," Shen said.

According to the China Disabled Person's Foundation, 27.8 million Chinese suffer hearing disability, but few can find employment.

China's National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-15) is committed to expanding expand employment for people with disability.

The State will ensure that an additional 800,000 people with disabilities are employed by 2015.