[Blind-international-students] How's life for blind people in your native country?

[Jing Crystal Wu 吴晶]

Hi all,

I am Chinese who lived and studied in the US and now live in Stockholm, 
Sweden. In China, blind people are limited in many ways. General attitude 
and expectations toward blindness are very low. People simply prefer if you 
may just stay at home, don't go out to bother others. Kids still go to the 
school for the blind here.

In the US, the social and educational opportunities are bigger and more; 
however, it is extremely costly to study in the US, plus all the blind tech 
equipments are expensive.

In Sweden, the attitude is in between China and the US. People do give you 
fair chance, but you can feel that they are not very confident in your 
ability. Swedish people, or let's say most of the Nordic people are very shy 
and reserved; therefore, it's a bit boring for blind people to live there. 
people do not like to talk to strangers. It makes it a bit difficult to make 
new friends by verbal communication. Sweden is a very well established 
socialistic country. Education is provided free of charge, same as the 
medical care. Plus, blind people may receive any technical equipment for 
free. For example, I have Braille embosser, Braille display, Braille sense, 
victor reader stream, all received free of charge. As far as I know, we can 
also apply for Knfb reader free of charge if we need one.

There is always pros and cons to live in a country. There is no perfect 
place, but that's the fun part to try different countries, learn different 
languages, meet different people, eventually to understand that they are the 
same in human principle law.

Hope to share more later.

Regards,
Crystal
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kwakmiso at aol.com>
To: <blind-international-students at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Blind-international-students] How's life for blind people in 
your native country?


> Hello all,
> I think it's an interesting topic to share with others.
> I lived in South Korea for about 13 years.
> I think USA definitely has more opportunities and better treatment/opinion 
> toward visually impaired persons than South Korea.
> For instance, I attended school for the blind in Korea, but I go to a 
> public school in USA.
> There are some exceptions, but most visually impaired people work for 
> similar jobs. The job choice is more limited in South Korea compare to US.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Philip So <philipso101 at gmail.com>
> To: Blind International Students Mailing List 
> <blind-international-students at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sun, Jun 26, 2011 11:09 am
> Subject: [Blind-international-students] How's life for blind people in 
> your native country?
>
> Hi all,
>
> Do you think blind people in America have the most social and economic
> opportunities? Or do you know of other societies that fare better,
> such as Britain, Scandinavian nations, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada,
> or some other places.?  How's life for blind people in your native
> country?
>
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Phil
>
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