"Changes have been made, and more are on the way," Jia was quoted as saying. "The public's mindset is changing. People have become more accepting and caring as the society develops."

The Paralympic Games also would benefit the country's disabled population by promoting social awareness, integration, and the adoption of favorable policies, Jia said.

But Tang Xiaoquan, Deputy Executive President of the BOCOG, said that more work was needed to remove the remaining impediments and social barriers for the physically disabled.

"Beijing, for example, is not yet a totally barrier-free city," Tang told Xinhua News Agency. "It takes more social progress to see more changes, both in infrastructure and in people's minds."

Numbers By the end of 2007, the population of employed disabled persons had reached 4.33 million in urban China, while the number was 16.96 million in rural areas. Nationwide welfare institutions in China have supported 92,000 orphans with disabilities. There were 269 children's homes throughout the country at the end of 2007. Some 1.28 million disabled urban citizens are covered by the government's urban subsistence security system, a social program that grants allowances to people living in poverty according to the country's subsistence security standards. They account for 5.6 percent of the total urban population covered by the system. Source: Guangming Daily