For 60 years, Hong Kong Blind Union has been helping the visually impaired break barriers
The NGO provides funding, resources and other forms of support that aids the blind in achieving their goals
Social worker Mandy Kwong (from left), music teacher Gideon Tse, committee member Peter Yim and member Maggie Leung are all part of the Hong Kong Blind Union. Photo: Kelly FungHongkonger Gideon Tse Lok-pin’s love for music began when he was eight. That was when he had his first piano class. Later, he became interested in the violin.
But pursuing music is not easy because Tse has been left with only 10 per cent vision.
“For piano, the keys were a blur, and I am very slow at sight-reading,” the 23-year-old said. “Learning a new piece took me a long time, and even then, my performance was far from satisfactory.”
At 15, Tse made the difficult decision to stop playing music and leave secondary school.
“I tried different hobbies and vocational courses,” he said. For two years, Tse tried to make money through piano tuning, floral arrangement and even magic.
“But I soon realised these paths were not for me.”
In 2018, Tse turned to the Hong Kong Blind Union (HKBU) for career support. Through this organisation, he rediscovered his love for music. He decided to try the violin examinations again. After three years, he achieved Grade Eight, which is the highest level in the exam system.
Last year, he received HK$38,000 from the union’s Lee Bing Vocal Music Development Fund to help him develop his talents. Now, Tse is a music teacher at the union.
Hong Kong Blind Union’s history
Established in 1972, the HKBU is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It was the city’s first organisation led by the blind. At the start, the union focused on helping visually impaired students move to regular schools.
In 2005, the union established the Jockey Club Vocational and Educational Resources Centre. This had programmes to assist visually impaired youth in going to school and finding jobs.
One programme helped train participants for roles such as online show hosts and post-production assistants. These were different from traditional career paths for the blind, such as working in massage parlours.
Mandy Kwong Man-yi is a social worker at the union. She said the union’s goal was to help the city’s visually impaired find new career opportunities.
“We all hope to promote inclusive employment and help people with visual disabilities integrate into mainstream society,” she explained. “We actively reach out to different employers, such as information technology companies, hotels or banking to expand the career pool for them.”
More career choices
Peter Yim Tsun-on, 30, is a teaching assistant at a secondary school. He also serves on the HKBU committee by training visually impaired youth for job interviews. Before his current role, Yim worked part-time jobs to get by.
“After finishing Form Six and the DSE [Diploma of Secondary Education] exams, there was no support for students with special education needs,” Yim noted.
“We relied on the union for resources like amplifiers to help with text reading,” he added. This equipment can make text larger, so it is easier to read.
Yim said that Hong Kong’s workplaces needed to be more inclusive of people with visual impairments. He wants people to know that the visually impaired can be good employees if companies support their needs.
Yim recalled his first full-time job in 2018 at an NGO. He was entering data from handwritten surveys. He struggled to read the responses, but the organisation did not want to switch to digital surveys. Eventually, they ended his employment.
Agreeing with Yim, 53-year-old Maggie Leung Wai-sze shared that a former employer would not let her do certain tasks – even though she was capable of helping.
“It wasn’t until some co-workers spoke up that the employer began allowing me to work on these duties,” said Leung, who has joined HKBU since she was a student.
Yim hopes more employers will hire visually impaired people: “What matters is that employers are willing to communicate with us and would make an effort to assist and try to understand what we can and cannot do.”