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Some 6.34 percent, or 1 in 16, of China's 1.3 billion population is registered as having a disability, up 1.43 percent from 1987, according to the preliminary results of the 2006-07 Second China National Sample Survey on Disability. The vast majority live in provincial areas where resources are scarce.

China's graying population and factors like rapid industrialization, pollution and traffic accidents account for the growing proportion of disabled people, the survey claims. Yet the percentage remains well below the global average of 10 percent.

One major hurdle facing Beijing is how to provide barrier-free access without destroying parts of China's cultural heritage, said Wang.

This rings equally true for the Great Wall and Beijing's famed hutong, or preserved alleyways, where the number of steps on a person's doorway used to signify their social rank.

China has tried to compensate by building welfare factories for the disabled. Cosmetics company Dabao has one in a hutong in Beijing's Xuanwu District. There are also programs for blind masseurs.

Despite recent efforts to make the city safer for Beijing's blind residents by adding embossed paving slabs to warn them of street corners, 58-year-old Wang Yaju said more work was needed.

"I think it is difficult for the blind to walk outside nowadays," she said. "The electricity cables on special pedestrian lanes hang in mid-air. We can't feel them with our sticks, so the cables brush our faces all the time."

Lu Jianhui, 49, said disabled people in Beijing still feel cut off. He said "barrier-free information" would be better than barrier-free facilities.

"We have no access to community activities, learning opportunities, cultural exchanges or jobs. Without the free flow of information, it's like we have autism."

Wang admitted there are still problems. "For example bicycles cluttering up pathways can cause problems for the disabled. We're working to improve this for 2008."

Much of today's efforts can be traced back to Deng Pufang, son of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

Deng lost the use of his legs during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s when he was hurled off a building by Red Guards. He established the China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped in 1984 and the CDPF in 1988. In 2003, the UN officially recognized his services.

China has also made efforts to integrate the underprivileged into sports and business, launching the five yearly National Games for the disabled in 1984 and fining companies where disabled people make up less than 1.5 percent of the workforce.

The Chinese government signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30 to ensure that the changes being felt in Beijing spread to other parts of the country.

"Compared to five years ago, life is much easier now," said CDPF's Shen. "But the most obvious change is people's attitude. Five years ago people would reject someone in a wheelchair from a restaurant or school. Now it's considered normal to go side by side."

"In a word, the situation is improving, but the challenge is still very serious."

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