Job Discussion Forums

[teachfortoday]

I have never had a disabled student in any of my classes.
Where are they ?

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/07/16/40_percent_of_chinas_disabled_popul.php

"A recent study by US-based Human Rights Watch claims that nearly 40 percent of China's mentally or physically disabled population have not received an adequate education and are considered illiterate. The study places much of the blame on public schools that turn down disabled students, pressure them to leave, or fail to provide assistance to those in need.
The odds are certainly stacked against the disabled in China. Setting aside extreme cases (like the disabled toddler found in an illegal black prison) there are stories like Chen Guangcheng's; a blind man who wanted to be a lawyer, despite the fact that 90% of blind Chinese citizens are pigenholed into either massage or accupuncture jobs. South China Morning Post reports on HRW's findings:
China, which has at least 83 million people with disabilities, is working on a draft regulation to give sufferers the right to an education. Attitudes to the disabled are slowly changing, especially after China hosted the Paralympic Games in 2008. [...]
About 28 per cent of China’s disabled children do not receive compulsory basic education, the group says.
Cheng Yuan, a disability rights activist in Nanjing, said 70 per cent of children with disabilities were forced to attend mainstream schools.
“Even if they are sitting in the classroom, they are not getting the education they deserve,” Cheng said.
“The government has claimed that every five years, there will be a development programme for people with disabilities. But according to the previous outlines, they’ve never been implemented.”
China's disabled citizens have been the focus of several read-worthy investigative pieces in the past, including articles by Foreign Policy and the New York Times."

[dean_a_jones]

Hate to say it but having a significant disability here is means that you will probably end up dead, in the countryside with relatives doing something menial and being ignored, or on the streets.

The government does nothing, doesn't care, and won't anytime soon. China loves 'winners', not 'losers' is the general feeling I get here.

It is really hard on families where this is a problem, as there is no way out.

[Shroob]

I come from a family of carers, working with people with learning difficulties. During my time in China I was always aware of the 'invisibility' of disabled people, save the physically disabled beggars I saw, the mentally disabled seemed not to exist. Unfortunately I came away with the same conclusion as Dean~....

Not exactly the same, but the only time I heard about a mental disorder was when one of my private students cancelled lessons due to her mother developing Parkinson's disease. They referred to it as, 'Deng Xiaoping's disease', as apparently he also suffered from it.

[mwaltman]

[Banner41]

I volunteered to work with some disabled people at a local hospital with my company. When I got there I was not allowed to go in because they didn't want a foreigner to see the extent of the problem. As with many things here, if you don't see it, it doesn't exist.

[roadwalker]

I teach at a university and see one or two physically disabled students a year, but haven't taught them. Downtown I occasionally see Down's syndrome kids/adults with what looks like family caregivers. I also see groups of deaf people in shopping areas or on public transportation. But sure, not as often as I see any of these groups in the US. My city has a lot of mentally ill people roaming the streets and not being bothered by the police if they aren't causing trouble. There must be university students that begin to show symptoms of schizophrenia and other adult-onset mental illnesses, just based on the numbers, but I haven't noticed any.

[teachfortoday]

[dean_a_jones]