Interview with the visual impaired people（Part 1）

Title：Jobs of the visually impaired people

Me: Hi, everybody, I’m studying subjects related to the visually impaired people. Now, I’d like to have a talk with all of you, and get a knowledge about their life.

An Yu: Fine.

Me: So what do you do?

JING WANG: I work in a massage parlor of blind persons.

Ni Liang: Me too.

Me: Are you workmates?

Ni Liang: No, we were school mates. We studied in the same special school before. Now, we work for parlors in different neighborhoods.

Me: Can you tell me about your job in detail?

Jing Wang: Surely. Simply, we do massage for customers, and

then get paid from their payments in the proportion agreed with

our boss. So it is some kind of distribution based on work. We have the fixed base pay. However, if we serve more customers, we will get paid more.

Me: Paid by hour? How long do you work a day?

Jing Wang: You can think in this way! It depends on how much the customers would like to pay. Sometimes, they will give us tips. These are our extra income. However, it is not the usual case in China. During the Spring Festival Holiday, some generous customers will give us red envelops.

Ni Liang: In my parlor, we work alternately from 9:00 a.m. to 22:00 p.m.. When there are not so many customers, we have several idle hours. Also, the meal time is included as well. If customers come one after another, we have to work over eight hours. It is hard in this case, but most of us like it. You know, more work means more paid. Let alone that some of us have to support the family.

Me: Sorry to break in. Do your children suffer the same problem as you? I mean the visual problem.

Jinna Guo: It depends. As I know, it won’t happen generally. Parents of most of us have the normal vision. Our kids are sound in wind and limb. My daughter, Ni Liang, has the good vision. She is very considerate to us.

Me: Do you also work in a massage parlor?

Jinna Guo: I used to. In fact, I knew Ni Liang there. I made a small number of money later and started a small clothing shop. I have the better vision than Ni Liang, so I can see such big things as clothes clearly. By contrast, the job in the massage parlor is much harder. You don’t know when the customers would come and how long they would stay. However, in view of the income, you surely hope for more customers and longer service time. However, it takes up your rest time as a result. Sometimes you have to stop your meal to serve the visiting customers. Otherwise, they would leave or turn to your workmates. After you finish the work, the dishes become cold as well.

Me: What about you others?

An Yu: I run the clothing shop with Jinna Guo. We are cooperating partners.

Xiaoyu Ma: I stay at home. My husband works in a foreign company to support me and our child. He is hard surely, so I have to take better care of our child and family. Fortunately, I can look after myself.

Liu He: I’m a balladeer. I sing on streets and bars to earn money. I almost see nothing. However, I always come across some kind persons, including my landlord. She often takes me to have meals in their house, and helps me to calculate the money I earned.

Me: Is that most visually impaired people have jobs?

Ni Liang : No, some of them rely on social assistance, because they probably have other disable problem as well. Some of them run a business by themselves. As far as I known, the visual impaired people will keep tryingto find jobs for them .

Summary: From the interviews I found that society still need to give more opportunity and the possibility for the visually impaired people , eventhough it is limited choice of career . Some jobs maybe very hard. But most visually impaired people are struggling to make their lives better. I think social and government also need to make more efforts in terms of improving them.

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