The exhaustive work, priced at 78 yuan took Shi Li, a deaf woman who serves as deputy head of the Provincial Association of Deaf People and her disabled husband Cui Jiping, six years and cost over a million yuan to compile.

“(Before reading the book) I never imagined that there were records about the culture of deaf people dating back as early as the Warring
States period (475BC to 221BC), and there were laws specially made to protect our rights,” said WAng Hongqing, a deaf man in his 50s.

“The book shows that we’re not alone, since it presents so many exchanges between the deaf across the world,” Wang said.

The encyclopaedia provides the deaf with a rational perspective on themselves and can help ordinary people know more about the group, which is significant in building a discrimination-free society, a senior official with the China Distabled People Union aid in a congratulatory letter sent to the couple.

Source: The Star