Anne Zhang

    zhangy49@gmail.com

Anyone with severe disabilities has much potential to achieve something.”

— Lei Wei, who launched China’s first online bilingual center of assistive devices

    WHEN Lei Wei became paralyzed in a car accident 20 years ago, God closed a door on him. But a window was opened when he got involved in the study of assistive devices for people with disabilities.

    He launched China’s first online bilingual center of assistive devices and has actively advocated for a barrier-free environment in Shenzhen.

    Lei visited Taiwan in early December to learn about rehabilitation training for paralyzed people and experiencing its barrier-free facilities.

    “Anyone with severe disabilities has much potential to achieve something,” Lei said in an interview with Shenzhen Daily in December. “The key is that you must dare to think big and make an effort to do it.”

    An unexpected disaster

    Born into a scholarly family, Lei received a decent education in his youth. He went to Finland to study metal material science in 1991 and got a master’s degree the following year. Until then, Lei had been envied by many of his peers for his academic success, good looks and sunny personality.

    But a car accident in 1992 changed Lei’s life. His cervical vertebra was severely damaged in the accident, giving him severe paraplegia. The spinal injury has meant Lei would be wheelchair-bound until medical science came up with a cure.

    “I felt like my entire life was destroyed and became meaningless,” Lei recalled the traumatic experience.

    Lei suffered a number of complications after the surgery. He had been unable to take care of himself and had been in pain and despair for a long time. The idea of having a successful career seemed extremely remote at this stage.

    But Lei persevered, inspired by his family’s meticulous and thoughtful care.

    “It was an unexpected blow to the family, but we all had to confront it,” Lei’s father, Lei Zhixing said. He and his wife have been frequently searching online and at local bookstores for information and methods to cure their son.

    “We have become knowledgeable about spinal cord injuries after years of searching and learning,” the father said.

    A silver lining

    Lei started to regain self-confidence after the Shenzhen Resource Center of Assistive Technology hired him as an IT engineer in 1999. Proficient in both English and IT, Lei found a good outlet for his talents.

    Lei participated in writing and compiling a book that comprehensively introduced assistive technologies around the world. The book is the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

    He also helped the center establish its first website in both Chinese and English. The website provides information about China’s cutting-edge assistive devices to people with disabilities.

    “Many people asked questions about assistive devices through the website. I feel happy that I could help them,” Lei said.

    Ren Hongping, an official with the Shenzhen Disabled Persons’ Federation, told Chinese-language media that she seldom knew any person with severe disabilities who was as well-educated, optimistic and independent as Lei is.

    But not until Lei participated in a rehabilitation training camp in 2007 did he frequently leave his home or have any social engagement.

    Lei said the people who trained him were from the Development Center for the Spinal Cord Injured in Taiwan and were all paraplegic, but they not only could take care of themselves but also came across the Straits to help mainlanders with similar disabilities.

    “They inspired me. It’s a silver lining in my life,” Lei said.

    A trip to Taiwan

    Lei decided to visit Taiwan after Shenzhen launched individual trips to the island in August.

    He took the trip with his wife in early December, visiting assistive device centers and seeing his trainers at the development center, which made him the first paraplegic patient from Shenzhen to visit Taiwan.

    Lei also tried most means of transport while traveling around the island to experience its barrier-free environment.

    “I was impressed,” Lei said, adding that people with disabilities can freely take buses, metros and trains in Taiwan.

    For example, he said, the train he took in Taiwan has a slope leading up to each carriage for people in wheelchairs to board and is equipped with restrooms for the disabled.

    Staff at each train station would offer to help if they’re informed that there are passengers with disabilities, he said.

    “Before the training camp I had never thought about traveling to Taiwan with just my wife for company,” Lei said. “Now I’ve made it and realized a promise I made to my wife on our wedding day.”

    Advocate for disabled

    Lei said Shenzhen has spent a lot of money on building infrastructure for the disabled in the past three years, but awareness about the need to help the disabled still needs to be spread.

    According to the Shenzhen Disabled Persons’ Federation, the city has built many sidewalks for the blind, required all the new buildings to have barrier-free passages for people in wheelchairs and all public parking lots to offer designated spaces for cars carrying people with disabilities.

    But in most cases, those supposedly barrier-free sidewalks and passages are blocked by bikes, cars and vendors, or could still be built in ways that are unfriendly to the disabled, Lei said.

    He cited an example of a barrier-free passage near his home, which is on a slope of nearly 60 degrees. “A normal wheelchair will struggle to climb a slope with such a big inclination,” he said.

    Lei has studied barrier-free taxis in Beijing and Hong Kong and proposed that Shenzhen should implement such taxis.

    The government had planned to put 100 barrier-free taxis into operation before the opening of the 2011 Universiade in the city, but until now the plan hasn’t been implemented, Lei said.

    Both Lei and his father agree that only when the public is thoroughly aware of the needs of the disabled, could Shenzhen become a real barrier-free city.

    Sitting in an electric wheelchair, Lei has been able to visit many places. He said he can go shopping or go to a hospital by himself. He went to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai and the high-tech fair held in Shenzhen in November on his own.

    Lei wishes to visit more places. He also hopes his work could help more disabled people find the most suitable assistive devices and be able to travel around.