GUANGZHOU –Visually impaired Chen Yang is dressed as leyangyang, the Guangzhou Asian Games mascot, at the Aoti Main Stadium as a volunteer at the Asian Para Games.

"It is very hot inside, but my fellow volunteers and I enjoy the moment when joyful spectators queue up to take photos with us," said Chen, who is chairman of the Guangzhou Blind Persons Association.

Chen is only one of the volunteers with disabilities at the Games, including 20 at venues, 20 providing free massages at Athletes Village and nearly 1,000 providing free massages at 10 parlors around the city for athletes and officials.

"We received many calls from people with disabilities before the Games who hoped to become a volunteer."

Chen is one of five working at the Aoti Main Stadium. They work from 6 am to 7 pm. Li Jia, who had a limb amputated not long ago, takes a taxi to the stadium, which is not close to the city center, to be on time for work, and takes the subway after work, Chen said.

Liu Siqing, who worked at an English training center for disabled people and now works at a theme park in Guangzhou, once walked all the way around the stadium to help a spectator from Thailand find his seat.

"We look after each other, which ensures a sound operation of our team," Chen said.

Before the Games, Chen, who competed in the National Para Games in Guangzhou in 1992, gave lectures to people working at the Games about the disabled and how people can help them, with the largest audience consisting of more than 6,000 people.

"The first thing I told them is how to face and get in contact with disabled people. That helped remove some obstacles and misunderstanding."

To Chen, the Para Games is not only a sports event, but an opportunity to promote love and consideration for disabled people and among people without disabilities.

"Access is important not only in public facilities but also in people's mentality."

"We want to promote the idea that we are all equal. We just have a kind of functional defect, which calls for some help. We travel to other parts of the country and the world, we sing in karaoke boxes, just like other people. I use the same computer like others. I just need to install special software."

Recognizing the great steps Guangzhou has taken in installing handicap-accessible facilities, Chen said the next step should focus on materializing every detail of the documents concerning disabled people.

"We benefit from every single improvement, such as the special room for the blind at Guangzhou Museum. You just need to print a menu in Braille and build a small ramp at restaurants. Small efforts from every sector of our society will lead to the rapid build-up of the public service system," Chen said.