In the next room, with wide aisles between desks, the typing sounds like waves meeting the beach. Most of the people here are deaf. Many of them are handling very sensitive information. Some are translating from Japanese to Chinese. Sun explains that many companies feel comfortable handing over their information for EnSun to process. For highly secretive projects, companies bring their own computers in, and employees work in a separate room, far from others.
Not only do EnSun’s employees work in the building; they also live there. Near the computers is exercise equipment for physical therapy. English, Japanese, and Korean classes are also held. “Turnover is low,” Sun says. “All the people are family people. We get together because of similarity.” The cost of training is cheap. People are loyal to the company because Sun can offer his employees a job without their having to leave home. He extends an invitation to join them for a celebration during the next holiday. When you take into account families, there are around 200 million Chinese people affected by disabilities. The important thing now is solidarity, Sun explains, not only for convenience but also for what he keeps calling a normal life. He says that he spent much of his life thinking that the definition of humans was beings who could use their hands and walk. He still dreams of walking. But with the connections that technology provides, Sun has changed his mind about what it means to be human.
Stopping for tea, Sun points out three factors for the success of disabled people: (1) Because of their limited mobility, they can stay still for long amounts of time, which gives them (2) a high attention span. Because there’s no discrimination in the company, he says, employees have (3) a great appreciation for their job and keep it for the respect it brings their lives. Plus, companies like this are a rarity, so there’s no competition. EnSun’s money comes only from the work it does. Its self-sufficiency is its pride. Sun’s next goal is to have the company listed on the stock market. By the end of 2012, he plans to have fifty thousand disabled people using software to manage shops remotely.
For the disabled in China, the barriers that kept them from having what most considered a ‘normal life’ have been steadfast and difficult to overcome in the past. But because of the vision and purpose of people like Sun Shuming, these days are quickly coming to an end and a new dawn of living is rising in the east.
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