Visually impaired students in Hong Kong seem to be at a disadvantage when it comes to studying.
Blind candidates in this year's HKCEE were forced to play catch-up with their sighted classmates when studying for the exam. They had to wait up to three months for books and course notes to be transcribed into Braille.
Terry Lam Wing-shun, a blind 19-year-old Form Four student, recalls his friends struggling. 'My friends got their class notes later than other students so they didn't have enough time to prepare for the exam. It really affected their performance,' he says.
Every year, the revision materials that visually impaired students need are transcribed into Braille by The Hong Kong Society for the Blind.
But the society is overloaded with materials to be transcribed, and the transcription process is complicated and time-consuming. It's almost impossible for the students to get their textbooks by the start of the school year.
'Every page of a book has to be scanned into a computer or typed out manually before being transcribed. It would be much easier if soft copies were available,' Terry says.