When the college admission notice arrived at Zhang Yaodong's home on Tuesday, the 18-year-old blind man and his parents in northwest China's Gansu Province heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Zhang's admission into the Hubei University of Chinese Medicine symbolizes a rare success for the visually impaired who crave equal access to higher education.
Zhang is legally blind in the left eye and has a minor phototonus in the right eye. He took the college entrance exam, or gaokao, in June, reading and writing his exam on paper printed in large type with a magnifier. His score, 558, was enough to get him into a decent university.
The rare considerations were a response to an instruction by the Ministry of Education in March stating blind candidates should be given assistance when taking the exam.
There are no official records on how many blind or visually impaired students take the gaokao each year.
"We're grateful the university gave him the chance to study with sighted peers. We won't ask for special care from the school, but will help him adjust to the campus life," said Zhang's mother, Li Xiaotao, adding that she does not view Zhang as any different from other students, regardless of his physical deficiency.
Li Jinsheng, another blind candidate who took this year's gaokao in Braille, did not share Zhang's success. The 46-year-old massage shop owner in Henan Province handed in two blank papers and completed only a very small portion of two other exams.
The life-shaping gaokao, which attracts millions of candidates a year, is a luxury for China's blind, accounts for 18 percent of the world's total college admissions.
The country has a special education system for the blind, including exclusive primary and secondary schools.
When it comes to university, the blind are usually limited to a handful of universities and only eligible for massage and music majors. They gain admission to these schools through a special set of exams.
Schools often lack qualified teachers and facilities for blind and visually impaired students.
Zhang does not want to be a masseur. Able to recite several ancient classic medicine texts, he wants to instead systemically study traditional Chinese medicine. This prompted him to attended ordinary primary and secondary schools, unlike the most majority of the population.
During the past 12 years, Zhang battled a learning environment which is unfriendly to the blind. He could not see teachers' writing on the blackboard, his classmates reading it to him instead. Most of the time he simply listened to the teacher and reviewed the lecture based on his memory.
Zhang was diagnosed with congenital eye disease when he was three months old. Since then, his parents have lived frugally in order to provide the necessary medical treatment.
Since their sons birth, the couple has only made three purchases for their 66-square-meter apartment in Tianshui city, a scanner, computer and printer to make his study more convenient.
They are trying their best to teach him to be independent and optimistic, Li said. In addition to Zhang's academic success, he is also an award-winning player of Erhu, a Chinese traditional instrument.
"Now I'm enrolled. It's a new start and all I can do is to work harder and harder," Zhang said.
