[NAGDU] FW: [GDUC Friends] FW: [Members] China has 8 million blind people, but only 200 guide dogs

Tue Nov 24 18:08:56 UTC 2020

-----Original Message-----
From: friends at guidedogs.groups.io <friends at guidedogs.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Alan Conway
Sent: November 24, 2020 10:20 AM
To: friends at guidedogs.groups.io
Subject: [GDUC Friends] FW: [Members] China has 8 million blind people, but only
200 guide dogs

-----Original Message-----
From: Members <members-bounces at lists.blindcanadians.ca> On Behalf Of John Rae
via Members
Sent: November 23, 2020 10:47 PM
To: Alliance <members at lists.blindcanadians.ca>
Cc: John Rae <thepenguin at rogers.com>
Subject: [Members] China has 8 million blind people, but only 200 guide dogs

China has 8 million blind people, but only 200 guide dogs

By Nectar Gan 

CNN, November 23, 2020 

Blind runner makes history with help from furry friends

At the age of 11, Yang Kang lost his vision due to a rare type of eye cancer.
But he considers himself one of the lucky few among China's millions of blind
people -- he has a guide dog.

Yang splits his time between living in Beijing with his wife and running a piano
studio in his hometown Tangshan, a sprawling industrial city some 100 miles
away. 

His weekly journey consists of a high-speed train ride, two bus rides and three
subway transfers through often-crowded stations. It would have been impossible
for most blind Chinese, but Yang is blessed with a furry companion that guides
him every step of the way -- Dick, a four-year-old Labrador.

Guide dogs like Dick are so rare in China that Yang waited five years to get
one. According to state broadcaster CCTV, China only had some 200 dogs in
service as of April -- which makes them even rarer than the giant pandas. 

The service dogs' scarcity is all the more striking considering the large number
of people who could potentially benefit from their help. The China Association
of the Blind estimates the country's visually impaired population to be over 17
million. According to the World Health Organization, eight million Chinese are
completely blind -- roughly equal to the whole population of Switzerland. 

That's one guide dog for every 85,000 Chinese people who have partially or fully
lost their eyesight.

In comparison, about one in 50 blind and visually impaired people in the United
States work with guide dogs. In Britain, over 1,000 guide dogs are trained each
year for a total of 36,000 people who are registered as blind or partially
sighted. 

Dangerous streets

Navigating Chinese cities can be a daunting task for the blind to manage on
their own.

A 2016 survey by the China Information Accessibility Product Alliance found that
30% of the country's visually impaired seldom leave their homes; only one in
four regularly go outside by themselves, with the remainder mostly shepherded by
family and friends. 

Before Dick came along, Yang had to rely on his white cane to get around -- but
he said it was difficult and dangerous to cross the multi-lane highways and
navigate the numerous pedestrian overpasses and tunnels that make up the Chinese
capital by himself. "I was in constant fear," he said. "The most terrifying
thing is that I have no idea what the road ahead is like."

After three years of researching and making calls, Yang finally found out where
to apply for one -- a guide dog training center in the northeastern city of
Dalian.

Founded in 2016, the China Dalian Guide Dog Training Center is China's first
such facility.

Wang Jingyu, an animal behavior expert at Dalian Medical University, decided to
train China's own guide dogs after noticing that, unlike their Western
counterparts, blind Chinese athletes did not have guide dogs to help them during
the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, said Liang Jia, a staff member at the Dalian
center. 

Without any prior knowledge or experience, Wang researched online how to train
guide dogs and sought help from international experts. 

When the center opened in 2006, about 50,000 people called from across China to
apply for a guide dog -- but Wang only had two to offer. "Our office phone was
ringing off the hook," Wang told state-run news agency Xinhua.

The facility has expanded over the years -- it now keeps 100 in various stages
of training, and more than 20 graduate each year. 

The puppies -- mostly Golden Retrievers and Labradors, chosen for their gentle,
friendly nature -- are first sent to foster families for a year to learn to live
with humans, before returning to the center for another year of professional
training. It is a lengthy and strict process -- along the way, about 60% of the
dogs will be disqualified and put up for adoption as pet dogs. The causes for
disqualification can include showing aggression, having excessive energy, being
overly sensitive to pressure, and lacking the ability to remained focus, as well
as suffering from car sickness. 

After passing all the evaluations, a qualified guide dog will be matched with an
owner and undergo another 40 days of joint training, before it can follow the
owner to its new home. 

Limited by funding

Over the past years, a few smaller guide dog training centers have opened in
China, but the Dalian center remains the country's largest, and one of the only
two recognized by the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF). In general,
it's hard to get the funding to start or continue running a center.
And to be qualified by IGDF, a center needs to pass a strict evaluation process,
which can be difficult for those without sufficient funding.

The other IGDF-approved school, Yunnan Erxin Dog Guides, opened in Shanghai in
2018. Before that, the Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation had been
commissioning a police dog training center in the nearby city of Nanjing to
train guide dogs for its visually impaired citizens. 

The lack of funding is a key constraint for China's guide dog schools, Liang
said. As a nonprofit, the Dalian center provides guide dogs to applicants for
free, but each animal costs about 200,000 yuan ($30,353) to train. In the early
years, Wang used his own savings to keep the center running. Then, in 2010, the
Dalian government started to subsidize the center with 60,000 yuan ($9,106) for
each guide dog it trains. The center also receives donations from the public,
but they're often not enough to cover the cost -- currently, it faces a 30%
budget deficit, according to Liang.

"If we had more sufficient funding, we'll be able to train more guide dogs,"
Liang said. "But the reality is, we can only operate on the money we've got."

The center currently has about 30 instructors. Many of them are young university
graduates who are passionate about dogs and helping others -- and are committed
enough to accept a monthly salary 60% below the city's average income. 

Liang, who graduated from university in 2011, gave up her job offer as a civil
servant to join the center as an instructor -- against the advice of everyone
around her. "My parents disapproved it, and my boyfriend broke up with me
because of it, but I had my mind set on the job -- it is a cause that's worth
devoting my passion and youth for," she said.

Liang hopes the government -- especially the central government in Beijing
-- can offer more funding, given that its guide dogs are offered to applicants
not just from Dalian, but all over China. The center is also trying to raise
public awareness about guide dogs on social media, hoping to bring in more
donations.

Public acceptance

Yang, and other guide dog users, said that guide dogs have become more accepted
by the Chinese public in recent years. More often than not, they are allowed on
subways, buses and trains, especially in first-tier cities such as Beijing,
Shanghai and Shenzhen.

But some other cities still have a long way to go. In April, in an attempt to
test public acceptance, a traffic officer in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, pretended
to be blind and tried to board a bus with a guide dog. He ended up being waved
off the bus by the driver and scolded by some passengers for wasting their time.
The video of his encounter went viral on Chinese social media, drawing calls for
more public awareness on the difficulties faced by the country's blind. 

While guide dogs have allowed Yang and others to travel more freely, there are
also obstacles -- many hotels still don't accept guide dogs, and buying a plane
ticket can sometimes turn into a bureaucratic nightmare. Even if a guide dog has
valid work permit and proper vaccine certificate, many airlines requires a
separate health certificate -- the kind needed for the transportation of pets
and farm animals, which can be tricky to obtain.

Chinese laws are vague on the use of guide dogs in public. The Law on the
Protection of Disabled Persons says "blind persons shall comply with relevant
state regulations when entering public places with guide dogs," but it doesn't
specify what the "relevant state regulations" are. 

Some cities have issued their own policies to allow guide dogs in public places
and transports, but enforcement can be spotty.

Yang said he had been turned down by bus drivers, hotels and restaurants, but he
wasn't discouraged. Instead, he treated every refusal as an opportunity to let
one more person learn about guide dogs.

"There are only some 200 guide dogs in a country of 1.4 billion people -- the
chance of meeting one is extremely low," he said. "That's why we need pioneers
to introduce them (to society.)"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/23/china/china

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