China is striving to improve access to higher education for disabled people by forbidding examination authorities from excluding people from national level exams due to their physical or mental disabilities, according to a draft law prepared by the top education authority.

The amendment to the Regulations on the Education of Persons with Disabilities also requires that due assistance be provided to enable disabled people to take exams, such as providing exam papers in braille for the blind, said Wang Daquan, deputy director of the legislative affairs office under the policy and legal affairs department of the Ministry of Education.

The move came after the story of a visually impaired woman's fight to take a self-study exam in order to be enrolled in a university was widely reported.

In late October, Dong Lina, 27, wrote a complaint to the Beijing municipal commission of education after the local examination authority twice rejected her application to take a self-study exam.

The self-study exam enables those who have not received formal schooling to get diplomas recognized by the government.

Getting a diploma by taking the exam was a prerequisite for Dong's application to study in the Communication University of China.

Dong, who hails from Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning province, told China Daily that she quit her job as a massage therapist and came to Beijing in 2006 to receive training in broadcasting.

After the media reported Dong's story, Beijing exam officials contacted her and promised her she would be able to take the exam in January on a computer with special software to read the questions.

To date, only three out of 31 provinces, namely Guangdong, Henan and Jilin provinces, permit disabled people to take self-study exams.

About 83 million people in China have some form of disability, among them, 10 million are of schooling age, according to statistics from the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

However, by the end of 2010, there were only 16 special education colleges nationwide, which due to a lack of funds were only able to enroll about 3,000 disabled students, said Zhuang Shufan, vice-president of Changchun University in Northeast China's Jilin province.

In addition, the special education colleges provide only limited options for disabled students, such as massage and painting, Zhuang said.

Shi Huimin, a mother of a 16-year-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy, urged the government to establish more vocational schools for disabled students.

"At present, our children (with disabilities) can only stay at home after finishing the nine-year compulsory education," said Shi, who is a member of the Beijing Parents' Association for Persons with Mental Disabilities.

"Vocational schools for the disabled are so rare and those that exist only accept children whose disabilities are not severe," she said.

According to the draft regulations, authorities across the country will be required to set up special funds dedicated to improving disabled people's access to quality education.

Moreover, all general schools and higher education institutions will be urged to become barrier free.