【龙腾网】中国的年轻盲人：盲人学生参加中国的高考

正文翻译

Being blind and young in China

中国的年轻盲人

Only five blind students took China’s university entrance exam this year. What a waste of potential

今年仅有五名盲人学生参加中国的高考 潜能之浪费

This is almost certainly the best moment to be blind in Chinese history. The past was often exceedingly grim. Chinese literature is filled with stories of blind people who survive by begging or telling fortunes. As modern China grew more prosperous and opened to the world, it built special schools for the handicapped and, by ratifying such agreements as the un Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, gave domestic reformers new, albeit limited leverage to press for change. In 2014 China announced that blind students would be allowed to take the national university entrance examination, the fearsome gaokao. This breakthrough followed years of official foot-dragging. In 2015 almost 9.5m candidates took the exam. Just eight students took a special version in Braille or large print. No official count of blind school-pupils exists in China. But if the proportion of American youngsters with legally registered visual handicaps is taken as a guide, as many as 80,000 of those taking the gaokao each year should be blind.

这几乎是中国历史上盲人的高光时刻了。在过去，盲人的境遇往往异常严峻。中国文学里写满了通过乞讨或算命来维生的盲人的故事。随着国家越发繁荣和开放，中国建立了针对残障人士的特殊学校，并签署了联合国《残疾人权利公约》，从而对国内的改革人士施加了推动变革的新动力（尽管有限）。在2014年，中国宣布，允许盲人学生参加高考。这是一场相当可怕的考试。国家对这一决定拖延了多年，终于实现了突破。在2015年，接近950万名考生参加了高考。只有8名考生以盲文或放大版试卷的方式来参加高考。中国没有盲人学生的官方数据。但是，如果参考美国年轻人中经合法注册的视觉障碍人数的比例，中国每年应该有多达8万名盲人学生参加高考。

Alas, this also remains a frustrating moment to be blind and Chinese. Of 10.7m students who sat the gaokao this summer, just five took the Braille papers for the blind. Since 2015 candidate numbers have never exceeded ten in a single year, leading some Chinese to grumble about “wasting national resources” on the Braille gaokao, says Mr Cai. That ignores other hurdles still to be dismantled, he argues, noting that only about 30 Chinese universities admit blind students, and that even some of those fail to offer accessible tests and textbooks on a systematic basis. Other universities exclude the blind with medical tests and other gambits. Education officials do see a need to look after the disabled, he says. The problem is low expectations, and an attitude towards the blind and others that “what we give you is what’s best for you”. Doctors play a role in making families timid, too, says Mr Cai, who lost his sight at ten. Once they decide a progressive disability cannot be cured, they too often abandon hope and counsel risk-avoidance.

好吧，这也是令中国的盲人感到沮丧的时刻。在今年夏天参加高考的1070万名考生中，只有5名学生使用了为盲人准备的盲文试卷来考试。从2015年起，每年参加高考的盲人学生人数都不超过10名。蔡先生说，于是就有一些人抱怨说，盲文高考是在“浪费国家资源”。蔡先生认为，一些需要解决的问题仍未被认识到。他提到，只有30所大学接收盲人学生，而这些学校中的一部分无法提供系统性支持，如让盲人学生能够参加考试和阅读教科书。其他大学会通过体检和别的手段来筛掉盲人学生。蔡先生说，教育官员的确认识到了关照残障学生的必要。问题在于对残障学生的低期待，以及对待残障学生的这样一种态度：我们给你什么，什么就是最好的。蔡先生在十岁时眼睛失明，他说，医生也让残障孩子们的家人变得胆怯。一旦医生确定了孩子的发展性残疾不可治愈，他们也往往丧失了希望，并建议要规避风险。

Nonetheless a handful of blind students manage to stay in the mainstream school system and achieve gaokao scores that entitle them to apply for elite colleges, a feat that reflects luck, talent but also years of grinding toil. One such student, Ang Ziyu, a serious youth from the inland city of Hefei, is attending the Shanghai training course. He must wait until late August to learn if his score of 635 is enough to enter Beijing Normal University, a teachertraining school. He expects no special allowance to be made for years of having schoolwork read to him by his parents, or the trickiness of taking the gaokao in Braille, a tactile form of printing that is ill-suited to transliterating Chinese characters. Mr Ang currently leans towards teaching at a blind school after graduation. But he has heard that attending college often leaves students eager to explore new possibilities. “I feel like that, too,” he says shyly.

尽管如此，一小部分盲人学生成功地留在了主流学校体系，他们的高考分数足以申请顶级学府。这样的成绩来自于幸运和才能，以及多年的艰辛付出。昂子余就是如此。这是一个来自内陆城市合肥的不苟言笑的年轻人，他也参加了在上海开展的这项培训课程。他必须等到八月末才能知道他取得的635分够不够得上北京师范大学的分数线。这是一所培育教师的大学。多年来，都是父母为他读出学校作业的内容，高考是用盲文考的，盲文是一种通过触觉来进行阅读的印刷文字，而汉字并不适合转译成盲文。但他并不期待因为这些得到什么特殊补贴。小昂现在比较想在毕业后成为一名盲人学校的教师。但他听说进入大学之后学生常常会渴望探索新的可能。他害羞地说：“我也这样觉得。”

The soft bigotry of low expectations

低期待也算是一种偏见

Each year a few hundred blind students take simplified admissions tests set by special disabled colleges or sections of ordinary universities. That is the path taken by Zhang Shuxin and Huang Kan, two teenage girls from the southern province of Guangdong. Speaking at the Shanghai training camp, they volunteer that the education they received at high schools for the blind was “vastly different” from that of a normal senior school. Ms Zhang plans to be a music teacher. Already her father has offered to buy her a flat so she need not worry about earning a living—an offer not open to her two younger brothers. Indeed, her mother was reluctant even to let her attend the course in Shanghai, thinking it risky.

每年会有几千名盲人学生参加特殊学校或普通大学的特殊学院组织的简化入学考试。张书欣和黄瞰是两名来自广东省的年轻女孩，她们俩选择参加这种考试。在上海的培训营里，她们发言说，她们在高中接受的针对盲人的教育和普通高中里的教育“非常不同”。小张想要成为一名音乐老师。她的父亲已经决定要给她买一套公寓，所以她不用为谋生而担忧。她的两个弟弟就没有这个待遇了。实际上，她的母亲连在上海举办的这项课程都不愿意让她参加，觉得太危险了。

Ms Huang’s parents would not let her attend an ordinary high school. “They worried I would get in danger or impair my vision further,” she says, conceding: “A lot of us have lived a very closedoff life since we were young.” She credits the internet and screenreading software with connecting her to the world. She hopes to become a psychotherapist, and to help other Chinese know that the blind are as capable as others. “I have a lot of dreams,” she says. Unexpectedly, the thought brings on tears, but she wants no sympathy, instead apologising for her loss of control. These stubborn, impressive students know what they need: equal chances to show what they can do. Pity is of no use to them.

小黄的父母不愿意让她进入普通的中学。她说：“他们担心我会遇到危险或者视力受到进一步损伤。”她不情愿地承认道：“我们中的很多人从很小的时候就过着非常封闭的生活。”她认为网络和读屏软件把她和世界联结了起来。小黄想要成为一名心理治疗师，帮助其他中国人认识到，盲人也和其他人一样有能力。“我有很多梦想。”她说道。出乎意料的是，这一想法让她哭了起来，但她不想受到同情，而是为自己的情绪失控道了歉。这些倔强的、令人敬佩的学生知道他们需要什么：展示他们才能的平等机会。同情对他们来说没有意义。