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The assistive fund for disabled people's employment varies in different provinces and municipalities. In Beijing, the figure is 33,636 yuan for each disabled headcount a company fails to employ.

Professor Zhang Jinming, research fellow with China Rehabilitation Research Center.[Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

Zhang Ce's example shows complications may exist beneath the government's optimistic statistics. His nominal employment helped improve the statistics but made little difference to his own financial situation. He was still reliant on his parents and younger sister for a living.

"Our policies do not intend to let people like him get the meagre money, but encourage the society to provide more working chances for them; in fact, many employed disabled people are in factual employment, just like him," said Professor Zhang Jinming, research fellow with China Rehabilitation Research Center.

Zhang Jinming maintained that all but the most severely disabled are capable and qualified for valid employment..He also noted that disability is a relative concept in that a disabled person can function well in an obstacle-free environment. "For example, a wheelchairs and proper ramps will largely ease the problem for those who cannot ambulate; likewise, trained guide dogs and availability of Braille make the blind see and read," he said.

Both the disabled and their able-bodied peers may need to shift their perceptions to understand just how able many disabled persons actually are. Man Xiangyu, a statistics professor with Central University of Finance and Economics and an activists for the rights of the disabled, said disabled people should be eligible to a far wider range of works than the ones stereotypically thinks of.

According to Man, disabled persons often develop highly nuanced senses or abilities to compensate for those that they lack. "For example, blind people sometimes have better hearing and sense of touch [than do seeing people]. This will make them nice customer service operators and even music instrument tuners," Prof. Man said, refuting the old notion that blind people can only find their employment in roadside massage shops. "Likewise, editors, programmers, translators, and other jobs that do not require walking around all the time fit the physically restricted," she said.

She encouraged the public to "focus what they [the disabled] can [do], instead of what they cannot." She also encouraged the disabled population not to become discouraged if a task requires them more effort than it would a non-disabled peer, or if they occasionally do not succeed. If the disabled are to succeed professionally, Man said, they "should be open-minded and willing to enter society."

Mr. Zhang Ce does fairly well in this regard. Besides his "nominal job," his "real occupation" is working in an online forum. Mr. Zhang never went to school due to his severe paralysis. He taught himself computer and Internet skills after basic schooling from his mother.

He said he by chance became an online forum administrator and that has brought him friends. He said he had difficulty in going out but this "brought the world to him."

"A plenitude heart gives you different perspective to see the world; your outlook decides your forbearance," he said, commenting how his life on the Internet has brought change to him. Zhang added he always has an optimistic attitude, and attributed it to his zodiac sign Sagittarius. "Zodiac signs do matter," he said with a laugh.

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