Just after 11:00 a.m., Mina's Restaurant welcomed its first guests. A waiter stepped forward, tilted his head slightly, and held out a finger to swing, and the guest immediately extended a finger and nodded. "One?" "One." If expressed in words, their actions are what it means.
This "sign language as the first language" restaurant has placed more than 60 people with hearing impairments in the 14 years since its opening.
According to the data of the China Disabled Persons' Federation's 2021 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of the Disabled Persons' Undertakings, the number of people with certified disabilities in urban and rural areas nationwide is 8.816 million, of which 818,000 are employed proportionally, 268,000 are concentrated, 635,000 are individuals, 148,000 are employed in public welfare posts, 143,000 are assisted in employment, 2.503 million are flexible employed (including community and home employment), and 4.301 million are engaged in agricultural cultivation.
Jobs are constantly being reborn, and more and more disabled people are going out of their homes to become workplace people around you and me.
Integration and sharing are the new employment concepts for people with disabilities. Liao Juan, an expert on the employment of the disabled and an associate professor at the School of Management of Capital Normal University, believes that the expansion of the employment of the disabled is closely related to the diversified development of society, especially the popularization of the Internet and the development of the digital economy have broadened the employment channels for the disabled. ”
In Mina's restaurant, sign language is the first language, and the hearing-impaired employees use sign language to express the name of the restaurant. Courtesy of respondents
The "Sign Language Restaurant" has hosted more than 60 hearing-impaired employees over 14 years
Straight east of downtown Beijing, just outside the sixth ring road, there is a small town of Songzhuang, famous for its many artists, and there is always a bustling long street and alley, and there is an exceptionally quiet restaurant.
The waiters here are all hearing impaired, most of the guests tacitly communicate with them in sign language and eye contact, and there are also diners who do not know where they are, and they do not receive "warm" hospitality after entering the door, which seems a bit restrained.
The store manager Fangfang stepped forward in time to point out to the guests the sign "Here are hearing impaired workers" on the door of the restaurant, and handed over a pen and paper for the other party to write down the needs. Fang Fang responds very quickly, and when the simple gestures are not explained clearly, she will write and express herself quickly. In addition to not being able to speak, she has many ways to communicate, and even relies on the sixth sense - the guest gets up, whether to pay the bill or ask the direction of the bathroom, she understands in seconds.
This is thanks to Fang Fang's 14 years of experience working here.
In 2008, documentary filmmaker Su Qing decided to open a sign language restaurant in Songzhuang. At that time, he had just finished making a documentary called "The Age of Sign Language", which focused on the disabled with hearing impairments, showing how the native speakers of sign language could solve the problem of food, clothing, shelter and transportation in society, and Fangfang, who had not heard sound since birth, was one of the protagonists of the film.
Su Qing wants to do something more practical for the hearing impaired to help them solve their work problems, "Opening a restaurant is the best choice, this is a relatively open place, they have more opportunities to contact the outside world, the threshold of the service industry is relatively low, so that everyone can start from scratch." ”
Fang Fang quit her job dancing in the disabled art troupe in her hometown and decided to drift north. As the earliest participant, she and Su Qing and Su Qing's girlfriend Mina began to build a house, decorate and develop dishes. At the end of 2008, Mina Restaurant, which is only more than 40 square meters in the front hall, opened, in addition to Fang Fang, there are also 4 hearing impaired waiters.
Several hearing-impaired waiters came from Tiannanhaibei and used sign language that were not uniform, so Su Qing had to hire a full-time sign language interpreter to help the waiter communicate with the back kitchen. "How does The Kung Pao Chicken Ding 'say' this? One person compares one thing to another. In order to unify the language inside the restaurant, he held a small blackboard for weeks of classes.
Tacit understanding gradually formed, sign language interpreter was cancelled a year after opening the shop, "because of him, the waiters will have unconscious dependence, hindering the sensitivity of the eyes and feelings." Su Qing said.
Now, for the diners of Mina's restaurant, it is nothing more than changing the phrase "hello, waiter" into a look, an arm-raising gesture, and nothing special.
Before the restaurant opened, Su Qing wanted to customize a badge for each person, writing "We are hearing impaired, happy to serve you" to avoid misunderstanding among diners. But this proposal was strongly opposed by Fangfang.
"So how do you make people feel your kindness?" The other party thinks you don't care about people. Su Qing asked. smile. Fang Fang explained, "Smiling is the greatest kindness." ”
At the New Year's Eve event held at Mina Restaurant, the hearing impaired employees performed sign language dances for everyone, and Fang Fang was in the middle of the first row. Courtesy of respondents
A young man with goods in a welfare factory
Zhu Chen was also in a silent world. At the age of 7, he became deaf due to drugs, and his language function gradually deteriorated since then. He was a cheerful and "talkative" big boy, typing very fast, "I am not behind in other aspects of perception except inaudible." ”
But after adulthood enters the society, the shortcomings are magnified, and the search for a job hits a wall everywhere. Later, he simply lowered his expectations, found some physical work, brushed dishes in small restaurants, washed cars in car wash rooms, and cleaned in public toilets. The most impressive was working as a waiter in a star hotel, who was fired for being complained about by a guest on the grounds that "dumbness affects appetite".
In 2010, Zhu Chen entered Beijing Yamei Daily Chemical Factory (hereinafter referred to as "Yamei Daily Chemical", now the company is called "Beijing Miqi Biotechnology Co., Ltd.") and became a cosmetics workshop worker, which is considered to be an "iron rice bowl". Unlike elsewhere, Asian-American Japaneseization was born to solve the employment problem of special groups.
Founded in 1987, Yamei Daily Chemical co., Ltd. is one of the earliest welfare factories under the Beijing Civil Affairs Industry Corporation, and is also a welfare enterprise with the largest number of employees for the disabled in Beijing, with a total of nearly 300 disabled employees mainly deaf and mute, and many employees have retired.
Welfare enterprises have a deep imprint of the times, and Zhang Zhi, director of the factory, uses "ensuring stability, employment, and people's livelihood" to summarize its functions. Around 2013, 65% of the more than 400 people in the factory were disabled.
But such welfare enterprises are becoming "past tense", and the manpower burden of enterprises is getting heavier and heavier. It is not that there is no way to reduce labor costs, a 60,000 yuan mask automated production line, 1 day of production capacity is equal to 20 disabled workers 3 days of production capacity. "What about employees with disabilities?" Zhang Zhili asked himself.
Although the burden is heavy, Zhang Zhili said that after the closure of other welfare enterprises in Beijing, the task of absorbing the remaining disabled people is still undertaken. "If they are really pushed into social self-employment, the handicraft manufacturing industry is shrinking, and some people are old again, and it is difficult to find employment again."
The way out that Zhang Zhili thought of was to let the surplus labor force go out of the assembly line. Train some people to participate in quality inspection, packaging, express logistics packaging, and the premise of these positions is that the sales market should be opened.
"The idea of small wealth is hindering our development, and an employee gets only five or six thousand yuan a month, how can this get a better life in Beijing?" Zhang Zhili said that the government is doing a bottom-up job, and the life that every disabled person with disabilities must not stay in just enough to feed. From 2020 onwards, while they began to develop domestic skin care products with "peony flowers" as the element, they pondered the market and segmented the consumer audience.
In the same year, another new thing appeared in the factory.
The employees on the assembly line stood in front of the mobile phone camera and began to broadcast live with goods. Zhu Chen, who originally had a preference for video shooting and editing, became the first anchor, in addition to the newly renovated live broadcast room in the factory, he was also in the filling assembly line, in the packaging warehouse, sign language to introduce products to netizens, but also about the work of the hearing impaired. His videos contain captions and music, and he even choreographs dances and stage plays.
Zhu Chen often wears headphones, walks "listening", eating "listening", and sleeping also "listening" to sleep. In fact, it was a pair of vibrating headphones, Zhu Chen used for 6 years, and the artificial leather that came into contact with the ear was worn. But this is the only way he can "hear" the music - feel the rhythm through the vibrating rhythm, and then figure out the mood of the song according to the lyrics, and listen to it repeatedly until he is familiar with it, so that he can "step on the dot" when editing videos and choreographing dances.
Feng Hao of the packaging workshop also joined the ranks of live broadcasting at this time, after graduating from the art design major of the Special Education College of Beijing Union University in 2008, in the past 3 years, looking for a job has encountered walls almost everywhere, until 2011, he entered The Asian American Daily and became a workshop packer.
Feng Hao is not resistant to being photogenic, he has been a member of the Beijing Disabled Basketball Team since high school, often participating in national competitions, and last year represented Beijing in the 11th National Paralympic Games Men's Hearing Impaired Basketball Tournament and won the championship.
They start broadcasting at work, promoting through the circle of friends, establishing their own IP, and becoming a distribution platform for the factory. "Everyone is an extension." Zhang Zhili said that the video also happens to satisfy the consumer's store visit psychology, and the company and employees get a win-win situation.
After the initial success of the test, Gu Jinrong, director of the Social Security and Employment Service Center of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation, saw another possibility for the employment of the disabled.
In 2020, the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation led and entrusted Beijing Yamei Daily Chemical Factory to organize a live training for the disabled in the whole society, with a total of 228 people participating. To date, more than 600 persons with disabilities have participated in the training.
Feng Hao is a workshop packer in Asia-America And Japan, and also a sign language anchor with goods. Beijing News reporter Wang Jianning photographed
Disabled anchor in front of the camera
In March this year, the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other five departments issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Improvement of Vocational Skills for the Disabled", which emphasized that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to vigorously carry out vocational skills training for the disabled.
Liao Juan, an associate professor at the School of Management of Capital Normal University, who is engaged in the study of the employment of the disabled, believes that if the employer can do vocational training for the disabled, it will be more targeted and more able to meet the needs of the job market.
In May 2020, the Beijing Dongcheng District Disabled Persons' Federation also launched a three-month live streaming training. This is a new exploration of the Employment Department of the Dongcheng District Disabled Persons' Federation, and the head of training, Wang Zihao, said, "The job market of the whole society is changing, and we disabled people also want to 'new recruits'." ”
After that, the Dongcheng District Disabled Persons' Federation selected more than a dozen outstanding people from the 50 disabled people who participated in the training to become anchors, and in early 2021, the Dongcheng District Disabled People's Fireflies Live Streaming Team was established. In April of that year, the first live broadcast began in an idle office of more than 20 square meters in the Disabled Persons' Federation.
The live broadcast was done by Yan Fei and Xue Fei, who recommended several Immortal Flower Crafts.
It is difficult to associate them with the disabled, Yan Fei's long hair is half tied behind the head, a black dress with a large color difference silk scarf, elegant and intellectual. When recommending an Immortal Flower craft, she almost touched another item next to her when she took off the handicraft glass cover, and the mistake was not due to her carelessness, but to see clearly.
Yan Fei is a visually impaired person. Blurred vision begins at the age of 12, and "retinitis pigmentosa" is diagnosed at the age of 18, a rare disease with no effective treatment, "According to the statistics of the case, at most by the age of 50, it will be completely blind." Yan Fei, 37, sees the world as "tubular," with a field of vision that is circled within almost 1 meter, and that "the tube is becoming narrower year by year." ”
In front of the camera, Xue Fei is rosy under the red dress, and the verbal communication and demeanor are normal. But if you look closely, every time she displays the goods, her right arm will deliberately dodge away. In 2018, 35-year-old Sheffield was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the operation removed her breasts and axillary lymph in a large area, resulting in edema of her right arm, although the appearance was no different from that of the left arm, it could only withstand a maximum of 5 pounds of heavy objects, cutting vegetables and holding bowls. In 2019, Sheffield was identified as a physically handicapped person.
They all used to have glamorous jobs, and Sheffield was a producer with an annual salary of 500,000 yuan before she fell ill, but after becoming disabled, she ran into a wall everywhere when looking for a job. "That is, you can only move two or three folders?" "I can't lift my arm, and I can't keep typing?"
Live streaming brings new opportunities. Sheffield's past job was to appear on camera for interviews, and after 3 years of leaving the workplace, she returned to the camera, the most obvious change was that she "made her face bigger" under the action of drugs, and the real change was that she had the opportunity to "output" again in front of the camera, and she felt that she was connected with the workplace again. This year, she also came up with the idea of starting her own business.
This is another difference between Wang Zichen and the previous vocational training, "Its employment efficiency is obvious, many disabled people get twice as much income through this way, and they themselves are the masters of employment income." ”
After a year of operation, the Firefly Live Streaming Platform has hired two full-time disabled anchors and 35 part-time anchors with physical disabilities, visual disabilities and mental disabilities to take turns, and the two pair up to complete the live broadcast three times a week.
When the effect is the best, the anchor conducts a two-hour live broadcast on two platforms at the same time, and the one-time income can reach 800 yuan. "Help them earn money." Prince Haunt said.
On the 2021 Disability Assistance Day, Sheffield and her companions shared the stories of the disabled in the live broadcast room, hoping to attract more people's attention to the disabled. Courtesy of respondents
A remarkable act of kindness
Su Qing also promoted the "sign language restaurant" model to other companies. Beginning in 2011, he and Fang Fang trained a number of companies interested in hiring people with disabilities, and the largest startup later opened a new factory in Tianjin, and Su Qing learned that two years ago, the company had placed more than a hundred disabled employees.
Su Qing pays attention to the hearing impaired group because his brother is also a hearing impaired person, he understands the loneliness of a hearing impaired person in a healthy crowd, and his positioning of his restaurant is, "Sign language is the first language." ”
Liao Juan has contacted many business owners who employ people with disabilities in her research, and she found that many of them are disabled themselves or have family and friends around them who are disabled. "The first factor that allows them to accept employees with disabilities is that they understand people with disabilities, break the discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities in their past relationships, and they are willing to help people with disabilities from the bottom of their hearts." In Liao Juan's view, cultivating the awareness and sense of social responsibility of enterprises and employers to accept people with disabilities is an important part of the smooth employment of disabled people.
Bo Lan does not mind that her disabilities are seen, and she is willing to help everyone break the strangeness of disabled people. Courtesy of respondents
Bo Lan considers herself a lucky person, despite a car accident at the age of 9 that resulted in the amputation of her left lower limb. Less than a year after the incident, she was selected by the Beijing Disabled Swimming Team. Since then, she has continued her studies while participating in training, and has represented Beijing in many large-scale competitions, winning the National Paralympic Games championship in her sophomore year of high school.
After graduating from the Capital University of Economics and Business, Bo Lan truly entered the society for the first time. She once read hesitation in the eyes of the interviewer, "Hire you, does the company want to take extra care of you?" Later, she joined an accounting firm and worked for an international public interest organization serving children in need. In 2017, on the recommendation of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation, she entered J.P. Morgan Chase Bank (China) Co., Ltd. after layers of screening.
Gu Jinrong told reporters that every year, the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation has to dig out some positions from different types of enterprises and then help them find suitable people. Let people with disabilities who have received higher education like Bo Lan and have a good professional background and literacy have the opportunity to enter good enterprises and get better development.
As a disabled person, Bo Lan does not shy away from his differences. The prosthesis was worn for a long time, and she would take it off and put it aside. If someone asked her, she would be happy to talk about her situation, and she wouldn't even mind how much the naughty child picked up and swept up the "leg".
In her view, the lack of understanding of others is one of the biggest obstacles to the integration of people with disabilities into society. She is willing to help everyone break through this strangeness and show more possibilities for people with disabilities. "No matter what kind of differences and differences we have, we all have the same rights and needs, not to amplify the attributes of disability." Under this cognition, Bo Lan not only accepted his own disability, but also began to learn to look at the differences of others with a more inclusive attitude.
Non-discrimination and equal employment are what Bo Lan has been pursuing, and now more and more enterprises are working hard to provide this opportunity for the disabled, "This is a great act of kindness for us." ”
Beijing News reporter Zhang Jingshu intern Wang Xiaochen
Edited by Liu Qian
Proofread by Xue Jingning