The year of 2009 is one in which the Chinese people achieved remarkable social and economical progress through concerted efforts amid various difficulties. In conformity with the Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Work for Disabled Persons, China Disabled Persons Federation makes earnest efforts to steadily develop social security and social service system for disabled persons under the new social and economical circumstance. New breakthroughs have been made in key areas of social security and social service, like special education, social endowment insurance for rural disabled persons, etc. Disabled persons at large have benefited from projects in the framework of the Work Program on Disability during the 11^thFive-year Period and those supported by special fund form the central finance. New progress has been achieved in basic work for disabled persons, including capacity-building of disabled people’s organizations, legal construction, informationization and theory research. Social environment was further enhanced by the success of the 4^thAward Presentation for Models of Self-strengthening and Assisting the Disabled as well as the 7^thNational Artistic Performance Show of Disabled Persons.

Ⅰ.Rehabilitation

In 2009, through implementation of some key projects, 6.2 million disabled persons received rehabilitation services of different degrees. Rehabilitation project supported by charity lottery fund was completed successfully, benefiting more than 408,000 PWDs in poverty. The Campaign of Building Model Community was staged to vigorously promote community-based rehabilitation (CBR). Guidance was given to the capacity building of rehabilitation institutions. The National Rehabilitation Personnel Training Program was implemented to further the work of personnel training. Measures were taken to enable PWDs in rural areas to be covered by new type of cooperative medical care. Basic knowledge of rehabilitation was publicized and popularized.

In the year, 1.043 million cases of cataract sight-restoring surgeries were conducted, including 373,000 free ones for poor cataract patients. 40,501 low-vision patients received vision aids. 15,264 disabled children’s parents got trainings for more effective family-based rehabilitation. 15,034 blind persons received orientation mobility trainings in the year.

 

Chart1-1: Cataract Sight-restoring Surgeries Conducted inChina

during the 11th Five-year Plan Period

 

Rehabilitation centers for deaf children further improved at provincial level and the network for deaf children’s rehabilitation was bettered. 19,830 deaf children across the country got hearing and speech trainings. Parent schools were further regulated and trained 25,654 parents of deaf children. 4,582 person/times trainings were provided to all kinds of professionals. 500 poor deaf children received financial support and 3,000 ones were equipped with hearing aids.

 

Chart 1-2: Rehabilitation for Deaf children Training inChinaduring the 11th Five-year Plan Period

 

A “socialized, comprehensive and open” model was promoted for the prevention and rehabilitation of psychiatric diseases. In 2009, the work of prevention and rehabilitation was carried out in 1,727 cities and counties, covering 4.903 million persons with severe mental illness. 84.19 % of the patients lived under guardianship, 69.54% of them showed signs of recovery, 55.36% participated in the society, and 0.35% caused incidents. 7,636 persons with mental illness were released from seclusion and 360,000 poor patients got medical assistance.

32 provincial-level autism rehabilitation institutions were set up and. 1,090 children with autism were provided with rehabilitation training.

Chart 1-3: Custody of People with Psychiatric Diseases during Year 2006-2009

 

 

1,166 cases of corrective surgeries were conducted on persons with leprosy-induced disabilities. Education campaigns were carried out to build a favorable social atmosphere for these patients to return to society.

Supply of assistive devices was advanced and cost-effective artificial limbs were extensively introduced. By the end of 2009, an accumulation of 2,309 assistive devices service stations had been established, installing 25,029 items of cost-effective artificial limbs for disabled person at preferential rate or for free, supplying 1.122 million pieces of assistive devices and installing 11,425 pieces of prosthetics.

 

 

Chart 1-4 Installation of Cost-effective Artificial Limbs and Prosthetics inChinaduring the 11th Five-year Plan Period

 

Accumulatively, 4,885 rehabilitation training services centers for people with physical disabilities had been set up. 2,817 disabled children from poor families got corrective surgeries, assistive devices and rehabilitation training after surgeries. 15,058 children with disabilities were trained at institutions and 90,588 disabled persons were rehabilitated in communities.

Chart 1-5：Rehabilitation for Children with Physical Disability in China during the 11th Five-year Plan Period

 

An accumulation of 2,006 rehabilitation centers for people with intellectual disability had been established, which provided training to 27,000 children aged 0 to 14 years old and over 20,000 parents. 10 experimental units were established to provide early rehabilitation and care for children with intellectual disability

Totally, 114,862 community rehabilitation stations had been established in 807 districts of cities and 1,569 counties. 209,000 CBR coordinators were employed and 9.844 million PWDs were served.

Chart 1-6: Rehabilitation for Children with Intellectual Disability inChina

during the 11th Five-year Plan Period

 

II. Education

In 2009, disabled persons’ right to education was better guaranteed. The quality of disabled persons and their ability to equally participate in social life were improved.

There were 1,697 special schools for the blind, deaf and intellectually disabled children and 2,801 special classes in mainstream schools, enrolling a total of about 545,000 students with the above categories of disabilities.

There were 104 special senior high schools, with an enrollment of 6,339 students. Among the schools, 84 are for the deaf with 5,197 enrolled students, 20 are for the blind with 1,142 enrolled students. There were 174 medium-level vocational education institutions with 11,448 enrolled students. In 2009, 6,586 students with disabilities were accepted by mainstream higher education institutions, and 1,196 disabled students entered special higher education institutions.

Chart2-1：Establishment of Special School in Year 2009

 

Chart 2-2：Admission of Disabled Students by Ordinary Higher Learning Institute During Year 2006-2009

 

There were 1,852 special vocational training institutions at provincial, city and county levels. 2,132 ordinary vocational training institutions took in trainees with disabilities as well. A total of 78,500 disabled persons received vocational education and training, 10,900 of them were granted with vocational qualification certificates.

By the end of 2009, there were over 211,000 disabled children and youth at school age who did not have access to education, including 31,000 with visual impairment, 29,000 with hearing impairment, 20,000 with speech impairment, 44,000 with intellectual disability, 46,000 with physical disability, 14,000 with psychiatric diseases and 27,000 with multiple disabilities.

Chart 2-3：Total Number of Unadmitted School Age Disabled Children in Year 2009

 

III. Employment

The work to promote employment of PWDs made new progress in 2009 despite the financial crisis. 350,000 disabled persons in urban areas were newly employed, including 105,000 through concentrative placement, 89,000 through quota scheme and 156,000 through individual business and other forms of employment.4.434 million disabled persons were in employment in the urban areas. 17.57 million rural PWDs had employment and 13.555 million of them took part in agricultural productive labor.

Massage business by the blind grew quite fast with big increase of the number of massage institutions. In 2009, 4,686 medical blind masseurs were trained. The number of healthcare massage institutions reached 10,405 and that of medical massage institutions amounted to 1,259. 606 and 1,992 blind masseurs passed secondary and elementary level qualification exams respectively. And 60 passed the senior level exams.

Chart 3-1 Newly-added Employment of Disabled Persons in Urban Areas in Year 2009

 

    IVSocial Security

Social security for disabled persons was further improved in 2009. 2.876 million disabled employees in urban areas were covered by social insurance. Among them, 1.903 million had endowment insurance and 1.298 million had medical insurance. 147,000 disabled persons engaged in individual business received allowance for participating in endowment insurance from a total of 49.82 million RMB Yuan supported by Employment Security Fund of disabled persons’ federation at various levels. The number of rural disabled residents with basic medical insurance reached 2.836 million. In the urban and rural areas where the basic living standard policies were applied, 7.536 million PWDs enjoyed the basic living allowance, 105,000 PWDs lived in all kinds of welfare institutions in the urban areas and589,000 inthe rural areas. 2.673 million PWDs in the urban and rural areas received temporary relief and 1.433 million had regular allowance. The number of care and service centers for disabled persons reached 3,474, 1,771 more than the previous year, providing service for 110,000 PWDs.

Chart 4-1: Disabled Persons Supported by Social Relief during Year 2006-2009

 

V. Poverty Alleviation

All provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) governments incorporated the work of poverty alleviation for the disabled persons into its work programs and performance evaluation. Social resources were widely mobilized to support poor disabled people. The work of poverty alleviation made remarkable progress with the living and production conditions of poor disabled persons further improved.

In 2009, 1.923 million poor disabled persons were covered by poverty alleviation projects and 1.085 million of them got rid of poverty through the projects. 220 million RMB Yuan were invested to provide training of practical technology for nearly 840,000 persons/times.

 

Chart 5-1: Rural Disabled Trained with Practical Technology

during Year 2006-2009

 

In 2009, 520 million RMB Yuan was allocated for poverty alleviation of disabled persons by the government (excluding 800 million RMB Yuan of interest-subsidized loans under poverty alleviation through rehabilitation project). 5.647 million poor disabled persons received support through implementation of preferential policies. 114,000 organizations and 838,000 individuals paired with disabled persons to get them out of poverty, involving an input of about 380 million RMB Yuan in cash and kinds. 4,021 poverty alleviation bases were established, with inputs of 200 million RMB Yuan, recruiting and supporting 301,000 poor disabled persons.

Chart 5-2: Construction of Poverty-alleviation Base for Disabled Persons

during Year 2006-2009

 

By the end of 2009, there were 1,897 county-level service cooperatives of disabled persons, with a membership of 5,672 persons and 13,943 branches with 140,000 members.

In 2009, 102,000 poor rural households with disabled persons had their houses renovated. 104 million RMB Yuan were invested, benefiting nearly 140,000 disabled persons.

Chart 5-3：House Renovation for Rural Disabled Persons in Poverty

during Year 2006-2009

 

VI. Publicity and Cultural Activities

In 2009, the work for publicity and culture for disabled persons made new progress through being incorporated into the overall work of publicity of the country and advocating the humanitarian spirit. With the theme of “caring children with disabilities and developing special education”, activities around the 19th National Day of Assisting Disabled Persons were successful, arousing wide social concern and positive response. At the occasion of the 4^thNational Award Presentation for Models of Self-strengthening and Assisting the Disabled, a reportage collection named the Song of Self-strengthening was published, introducing the good deeds of excellent disabled persons and models of assisting the disabled. A group composed of 8 outstanding models of self-strengthening and assisting the disabled had a lecture tour in 8 provinces such as Beijing, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong, delivering 28 speeches and reaching an audience of over 30,000. Activity of Selecting Good News Covering Disability inChinain 2008 was organized. Concentrated publicity were organized in accordance with the major tasks of CDPF and on such occasions as the 60 Years Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, cultivating favorable social environment for development of the work on disability. By the end of 2009, at the provincial level there were 39 special columns and 96 special editions in newspapers and magazines, 36 radio programs on disability, 26 TV news programs with sigh language, 18 special TV programs on disability and 29 disability publicity promotion societies. At the district/city level, there were also 423 special columns and 890 special editions in newspapers and magazines, 373 radio programs on disability, 142 TV news programs with sigh language, 323 special TV programs on disability and 181 disability publicity promotion societies.

The cultural life of disabled persons became more active and colorful. Persons with disabilities received wide attention and fully participated in social life. Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the General Administration of Radio, Film and Television and China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the 7^thNational Artistic Performance by Disabled Persons was participated by nearly 4,000 performers and staff from 31 provinces. The activity not only promoted the prosperity and creation of special arts at the grassroots level, but also provided a platform for disabled persons to demonstrate their artistic talents. On the basis of the performance, an evening entitled “Life & Sunshine” was organized with success. State leaders including Vice Premier Hui Liangyu and Mr. Deng Pufang, Vice Chairman of the National Political Consultative Conference, were present at the evening and gave high praise on it. The evening was broadcasted by CCTV and received very positive social feedback. The difficulties in getting reading books for disabled persons at the grassroots level were relieved. In 200 communities nationwide, book shelves for disabled persons were available during the campaign of “Culture into Community”. 21 books on services for disabled persons were included in the purchase list of rural Libraries. By the end of 2009, at the provincial level there were 36 libraries with Braille and audio reading materials, 77 cultural activity centers, competitions and exhibitions on culture or art of disabled persons and 17 disabled persons’ performing arts troupes. At the city level, there were 347 libraries with Braille and audio reading materials, 747 cultural activity centers, competitions and exhibitions on culture or art of disabled persons and 178 disabled persons’ performing arts troupes.

 

VII. Sports

On the basis of the good performance at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, the work on the sports of disabled persons had a sustainable and healthy development in 2009.

In 2009, 14 national sports events of disabled persons were organized with the participation of nearly 5,000 athletes, including 4 Special Olympics events participated by 549 athletes.ChinaDisabled Persons’ Federation organized 12 pre-games training attended by nearly 800 athletes.

Regulations on sports of disabled persons were improved. In 2009, China Disabled Persons’ Federation released the National Method on the Management of Sports Competition by Disabled Persons, the National Method on the Management of Classifier for Sports of Disabled Persons and Opinions on Strengthening the Mass Sports of Disabled Persons as well as the Notice on Organizing of the Activity of National Fitness Day together with the State Administration on Sports.

The mass sports were also promoted so as to benefit the majority of persons with disabilities. There were 165 sports centers for disabled persons at the provincial level and 1,693 ones at the city/prefecture level. 190 sports training base for disabled persons at the provincial level were formally launched, with 711 coaches and 1,637 respectively. At the provincial level, 110 games and sports for fitness were developed with 15,000 participants. At the city level, 2,120 sports competitions and mass sports activities were organized, with 15,200 disabled persons participating.

We took an active part in international sports exchange by attending 20 major international events of the Paralympics, Special Olympics and Deaflympics. 203 gold medals were scored. A delegation of 87 persons were sent to participate in the 9^thSpecial Olympics World Winter Games, getting 33 gold medals, 34 silver medals and 27 bronze medals. At the 21^stTaipei Deaflympics Games, the Chinese delegation ranked the fourth in the medal list by 12 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 17 bronze medals, which was the best scores of the Chinese delegation in the Deaflympics Games.

 

VIII. Rights Protection

In line with the National Program on Disability during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period and relevant action plans on legislation, accessibility and legal assistance, disabled persons’ federations at all levels further strengthened their work in rights protection for disabled persons. They built up their capacities of right protection, improved the legal systems related with disabled persons. Efforts were strengthened for law enforcement, monitoring, legal consulting and assistance. More assistance was given to the disabled deputies of the People’s Congress and members of the Political Consultative Conferences to participate in political decision-making and consulting process. The accessibility construction made progress. The work of rights protection was carried out in an all round way.

By the end of 2009, 7 regulations specially for disabled persons at the province level and 20 ones at the city level were formulated or revised. 10 regulations directly related with disabled persons at the province level and 21 ones at the city level were formulated or revised. Disabled persons’ federations participated in the formulation and revision of 38 provincial and 60 city/prefecture laws and regulations. 9 supportive policies for disabled persons at the province level, 88 ones at the city level and 484 ones at the county level were formulated or revised. 48 policies of protecting disabled persons at the province level, 134 ones at the city level and 460 ones at the county level were formulated.

People’s congress at and above the county levels carried out inspections on law enforcement for 728 times, including 10 times at the provincial level, 105 at the city level and 613 at the county level. The Political Consultative Conferences at all levels carried out inspections and studies for 942 times, including 8 times at the provincial level, 160 times at the city level and 774 times at the county level. Working Committees on Disabilities at or above the county levels had special inspections for 1,362 times, including 15 times at the provincial level, 171 times at the city level and 1,176 times at the county level.

In 2009, 7,058 times of law publicity and education activities were organized, including 45 times at the provincial level, 525 times at the city level and 6,488 times at the county level. 2,509 legal education courses were organized for 550,000 participants, including 18 courses at the provincial level for 40,000 participates, 197 at the city level for 60,000 participants and 2,294 at the county level for 455,000. 9.549 million copies of educational materials were published and distributed, including 44,000 copies at the provincial level, 3.035 million copies at the city level and 6.47 million copies at the county level. 897 training courses for legal professionals were hold with 23,000 participants, including 14 courses at the provincial level for 807 participants, 93 at the city level for 3,329 persons and 790 at the county level for 19,000 persons.

By the end of 2009, 2,870 legal aid centers were set up, handling over 19,000 cases of rights violation against disabled persons, including 27 centers at the provincial level handling 388 cases, 313 at the city level, dealing with 4,066 cases and 2,530 at the county level dealing with 15,000 cases. A total of 7,476 model rights protection units were awarded, dealing with over 33,000 cases of rights violation, including 552units at the provincial level handling 995 cases, 678 at the city level, dealing with 9,527 cases and 6,246 at the county level dealing with 22,000 cases. The work of legal aids and services for disabled persons were greatly promoted.

Disabled persons took a more active part in political consulting process. In 2009, 2,114 pieces of bills and proposals were raised by congress deputies and members of political consultative conferences from disabled persons’ federation systems. 1,569 pieces of bills and proposals were dealt with.

In 2009, legislation and standards of accessibility were further improved. 6 provinces, 58 cities and 279 counties issued regulations and administrative decrees on accessibility. Leading and coordination groups on accessibility construction were set up in 14 provinces, 136 cities and 677 counties. Systematic accessibility construction was carried out in 542 cities and counties. 2,066 times of special inspections on accessibility were carried out. 19,000 persons/times received trainings on accessibility. There were 5,331 times of media coverage on accessibility. 2.229 million copies of information materials on accessibility were distributed. All these set a sound foundation for the future work on accessibility.

In 2009, disabled persons organizations at the provincial, city and county levels cooperated with the relevant authorities in dealing with 149 cases of rights violation against disabled persons.

The disabled persons’ organizations at all levels received 374,000 compliant letters or personal visits in the year, including 43,000 letters, and 331,000 visitor/times, Among the complaint visits, there are 1,911 group visits by 26,000 persons.

 

IX. Disabled Persons’ Organizations

Disable persons’ organization is a bridge and linkage between the government and disabled persons as well as an important guarantee for good work for the disabled persons. With high importance attached by the governments and full support of the society as well as the concerted efforts of disabled persons’ organizations at various levels, the system of disabled persons’ organizations were further regulated and improved. The role of representation was strengthened The composition of the staff was markedly improved, with the staff’s quality generally increasing and the relationship with PWDs closer and the ability to serve the disabled persons becoming stronger.

More disabled leaders and staffs were appointed. In 2009, all the 32 provincial federations had disabled persons as president or vice presidents and 15of them had standing board members who were blind, and 13 of them had standing board members who were deaf. At 21.9% of the provincial federations, the percentage of disabled staffs was above 15%. Among 16 vice provincial level federations, 15 of them had disabled president or vice presidents in their offices and 4 of them had standing board members who were blind, 4 of them had standing board members who were deaf. Among 360 city-level federations, 228 of them had disabled president or vice presidents in their offices. Among 2,812 county-level federations, 1,773 of them had disabled staffs in their offices.

Grass-roots level organizations were strengthened. The three-tiered county-township-village network of organizations was further improved. 2,232 counties passed relevant evaluation, accounting for 72.3% of the total county number in the country.

40,436 towns elected and appointed 41,423 full-time workers with disabilities working at grassroots level associations; likewise, 568,000 villages and communities recruited 456,000 full-time workers.

Personnel training made progress. At present, there were 94,595 paid staff within disabled persons federations at provincial, city, county and township levels. In 2009, 22,460 training courses were organized for 508,000 person/times. The trainings played an important role in raising the quality of DPO’s staff.

Nationwide, there are 15,363 special associations of disabled persons under the provincial level, including 3,092 of the blind, 3,071 of the deaf, 3,136 of the physically disabled, 2,964 of the intellectual disabled persons and their family members, 2,958 of the persons with psychiatric diseases and their family members and 142 combined associations for persons with intellectual disability or psychiatric diseases and their family members. 94.9 % of provinces and cities as well as 88.9 % of the counties had special associations.

 

Chart 9-1：Establishment of City-level Special Associations in Year 2009

 

Chart 9-2：Establishment of County-level Special Associations in Year 2009

 

X. The Construction of Comprehensive Service Facilities for Persons with Disabilities

The construction of comprehensive service facilities for persons with disabilities was further advanced, providing better conditions for the work for the disabled persons at grassroots levels. By the end of 2009, there were 2,383 such facilities completed. Another 406 were still under construction, and 267 to be planed and built. Among those completed and in use, 59 were provincial-level facilities, with a total covering area of 753,000 square meters or 570,000 square meters built area, and a total investment of 1.69 billion RMB Yuan. There were 281 prefecture-level facilities, accounting for 84.4% of the total numbers of units at the same level, with a total covering area of 1.444 million square meters or 1.109 million square meters construction area, and a total investment of 3.19 billion RMB Yuan. There were 2,043 county-level facilities, accounting for 71.5 % of total numbers of units at the same level, with a total covering area of 2.848 million square meters construction area, and a total investment of 7.48 billion RMB Yuan.

Chart 10-1：Comprehensive Service Facilities Finished and In Use in China

in Year 2009

 

XI. Statistics on the Work for Disabled Persons and Informationzation

In 2009, in accordance with the major tasks outlined in the Work Program for Disabled Persons during the 11^thFive-year Plan Period, statistics collection and auditing were finished as scheduled. Reports including 2009 Statistical Information on Disability in China, Brief Mid-term Statistical Information on the Implementation of the Work Program for Disabled Persons during the 11^thFive-year Plan Period and 2009 Statistical Yearbook on the Work for Disabled Persons in China were compiled and published, providing important data support for policy-making, administration and activities like the publicity work for the 60 years’ celebration of the founding the People’s Republic of China and the meetings of the State Council Working Committee. The Evaluation Method on the Statistical Work of Disabled Persons’ Federation was revised so as to conduct an overall review and evaluation on the work of statistics at the provincial level. The statistics indexes were further regulated. Modification and improvement were made in the aspects of yearbook, brief statistics release as well as tables and indexes of personal files。The work of establishing statistical personal files was promoted continuously. In 2009, 31 provinces submitted electronic personal files and in 24 provinces all the units filled and submitted electronic personal files.The establishment of the basic database of disabled persons was launched in an all-around way. Efforts were made to strengthen the comparative analysis between statistical data, database and survey data so as to provide data reference for decision-making and management. The work team was strengthened. 3,341 persons were engaged in the work of statistics on full-time or part-time basis nationwide, and 17.6% of them held the qualification certificate of statistician. High importance was attached to the quality cultivation of the statisticians. 33 training courses participated by 1,434 persons/times at the provincial level and 264 ones participated by 4,284 persons/times at the prefecture level were organized to raise the professional quality of statisticians.

The main goal of the informationization is to promote the website construction of the disabled persons’ federations at the various levels, provide information services for PWDs and promote sharing of information on the work for disabled persons. As the official platform of information release and service window, the website of CDPF recorded 2.36 million clicks and 2 million visits in 2009.

By the end of 2009, 32 provincial disabled persons’ federations launched their websites. 225 disabled persons’ federations at the city level and 894 at the county level had built their own websites. Thus, the number of websites saw an increase of 283 compared with the previous year. The development of the websites laid a foundation for the comprehensive services to be provided by the websites in the future. The on-line information service provided by the disabled persons’ federations was gradually covering the whole country. The local disabled persons’ federations organized training courses on the information work. In 2009, 195 training courses on web technology and 7,476 persons/times of training for information collector were available at the provincial and city level.

In 2009, efforts were made to promote the accessible renovation of information at the local disabled persons’ federations. Shanghai Disabled Persons’ Federation actively promoted the government departments to renovate their websites to be barrier-free after finishing the accessible renovation of its own website. The websites of Shanghai Municipal Government, Shanghai Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security and Shanghai Bureau of Civil Affairs had all become barrier-free. At present, some local disabled persons federations were about to start accessible renovation of their websites. The China Digital Library for the Blind had received attention and praise of the blind people since it came into service. By now, the website included over 1,000 e-books, 2,600 audio and 400 video lectures. Since its inception, it recorded an average of 84,000 clicks and nearly 40,000 visits daily.

Disabled persons’ federations at various levels increased the financial input in informationization. In 2009, the national input in informationization saw a rise of 81.93% compared with 2008, which showed the support of the governments towards informationization. The awareness towards information security was further enhanced. The input in the purchase of anti-virus software, seclusion card and fire wall was obviously increased. The work team of informationization was strengthened. Nationwide, 947 IT professional were engaged in informationization at the provincial, city and county level. 23 LANs and 14 on-line office systems were established at the provincial disabled persons’ federations.