Running is becoming a way of life for many people, and for most people, it is the goal to keep speeding up and improving in practice. However, for the visually impaired community, stepping on the runway and taking the first step requires overcoming great obstacles and difficulties.
A 10,000-meter run for the visually impaired
Hu Liang is a teacher at Jinggangshan University in Jiangxi Province and a visually impaired person. He started running in 2021, not only by himself, but also by driving many visually impaired people out of the house to run. Not long ago, a "10,000-meter run for the blind with the disabled" was held in Jinggangshan, Jiangxi Province, where 95 visually impaired runners from all over the country ran hand in hand under the guidance of volunteers, and Hu Liang and his running group were among them.
After a crisp start shot, the runners rushed out of the starting line in turn. In the crowd of people running in pairs, there is such a team, they are dressed in uniform uniforms, and the two and a half stars on the waists of the leader and the visually impaired runners converge into a complete five-pointed star, which is the red five-star blind running group from Jinggangshan University.
Although Hu Liang, the initiator of the Red Five-Star Running Group for the Blind, has participated in many such activities, he is still worried about whether his visually impaired friends can adapt to the schedule.
Hu Liang: I am very worried about every minute and second, and I am not as easy as I usually run. I'm going to see how the people around me are doing, and see if my blind friends and volunteers from out of town can adapt to the weather.
"Take me by the hand and lead you out of the house"
Hu Liang, who grew up in a blind family, has been highly myopic since he was 4 years old. A few years ago, his retina was detached for the second time, and in 2018, he was completely blind in his right eye and had less than 0.05 vision in his left eye. From light to darkness, Hu Liang was desperate for a while, but it was the love of his parents that gave him the courage to start again.
Hu Liang: My parents are also blind, but they created an atmosphere for me that we are no different from other families, they helped me block a lot of negative things, and my parents supported the family with love.
This awakening made Hu Liang decide not to let his vision condition become a shackle that binds him, but to add a touch of color to the world in his own way. At the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics, he was motivated by the hard work and bloom of athletes with disabilities.
Hu Liang: I was very touched by the blind athlete Liu Cuiqing's victory in the Tokyo Paralympics, and I wanted to ask my students at that time, can we go around us and find some blind friends, and also go out for a walk, a turn, and a run.
Hu Liang is a teacher in the Fine Arts Department of the School of Arts of Jinggangshan University. After falling into darkness, he did not stop his teaching and creation, using the barrier-free settings of mobile phones and computers and screen reading software, his classes are still welcomed and recognized by students. After having the idea of initiating a blind running group, Hu Liang practiced it and ran first, from the stumbling at the beginning to the smooth and smooth later, he found that it was not so difficult to run.
But when Hu Liang set out to set up a running group with enthusiasm, difficulties appeared one after another.
Hu Liang: At that time, I was looking for the graduating class, and the graduating students were too busy, so the first lecture was not very successful. I also did some homework on the second preaching, I searched on the Internet and found that there are mature groups in Guangdong and Beijing, I found some responsible persons to communicate with them, I strengthened my confidence, and the second preaching was relatively successful, and I recruited more than 20 volunteers at once.
Volunteer Wang Qingxi: I don't think we can be a helper, but a guide, guiding blind friends from the dark to the light. Like the guide rope in our hands, it is a bridge of communication between the leader and the visually impaired friends, through the guide rope, we go to complete the race together, the performance and pace are not important, the important thing is the process, so that the blind friends have greater confidence to participate in the running and even the future society and work.
With the support of the student volunteers, the Red Five Star Running Group for the Blind was soon established. Through the Municipal Association of the Blind and the Municipal Disabled Persons' Federation, Hu Liang and the students sent the proposal of "holding my hand and leading you out of the house" to various blind friend groups. Initially, however, they received very little response.
Hu Liang: I would like to summarize this sentence now, it is called a person who has been in the dark for a long time, although he longs for light, but in fact he is a little afraid of light.
Only two visually impaired people were recruited for the first event, but the volunteers were not discouraged, and they were divided into two groups, wearing blindfolds, jogging in small steps, and practicing acoustic positioning in order to better lead the race.
Gradually, with the regular holding of running activities, more and more visually impaired people joined the Red Five-Star Blind Running Group under the word of mouth of the visually impaired friends.
Visually impaired runner Niu Xiaoqin: I think Mr. Hu's Red Five-Star Running Group is really good, allowing me to go to many places in Jiangxi as a person who never goes out.
Over the past two years, the number of visually impaired runners has grown from one or two to more than 100 people, and their footprints range from Jinggangshan University to Bailuzhou Park and Jizhou Stadium, covering most of Ji'an.
Barrier-free aesthetic education
"Watching movies" with the visually impaired
In addition to creating the Red Five-Star Running Group, in recent years, Hu Liang has also used his art expertise to let visually impaired friends feel the beauty of art. With the help of student volunteers, Hu Liang carried out the "Oral Description" - barrier-free aesthetic education project, which conveyed the picture information of film and television works to the visually impaired through the language description of visual images, which was welcomed by many visually impaired friends.
In addition to taking the visually impaired to watch movies, Hu Liang also cooperated with the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Museum to let everyone understand the red paintings through "oral images". So far, Hu Liang and his volunteers have compiled and written 250,000 words of reading scripts, recorded 1,500 minutes of audio, and guided students to create more than 600 illustrations on the theme of the visually impaired.
Hu Liang: Our first-generation volunteer Ye Xiaolong created a painting, and when he was about to graduate, he said that he would make a graduation work to commemorate his time and years in the Red Five Stars, and we also made it into a barrier-free version.
Nowadays, in Ji'an, more and more visually impaired people are willing to go out of their homes to feel the vastness of life. There are also more than 2,000 Red Five-Star volunteer groups, and up to now, they have served more than 20,000 visually impaired people, run more than 30,000 kilometers, won more than 400 marathon medals, and volunteered for more than 50,000 hours.
Hu Liang: Actually, I am also visually impaired, and I don't know when my eyes will be completely blind, and I am also very scared. But I think that when everyone comes to this world, we value ourselves a little bit, and we can measure our lives into it, so that it can develop sustainably, and we can help more people, generation after generation, class after generation of students, and many blind friends come out, I hope they can walk into the sun healthier and happier.
One person to a group of people
He lived himself as a light
"A person has been in the dark for a long time, although he longs for light, but he is actually a little afraid of light", this is the personal experience of "light chaser" Hu Liang, and it is also what he feels in the process of getting along with many visually impaired people. Therefore, he is willing to be the guiding rope that gives people a sense of security, and brings together volunteers, so that more visually impaired friends dare to pursue the sunshine, go outdoors, break the shackles of vision while running, and explore the wider world.
Hu Liang said that in the process of falling into darkness, he can always find strength in the spirit of Jinggangshan and move forward bravely in desperate situations. Now, he has passed on this power to more visually impaired people, from one person to a group of people, and brought them out of the darkness in their hearts. In the future, he will take his red five-star running group to run farther away. Not only chasing the light, but also living himself as a light, continuing to shine.
Source: CCTV news client