After Li Caimao took the college entrance examination 18 years ago, he found it very hard to gain entrance to elite universities, despite his academic qualifications, because many college majors did not admit the disabled.

So he took the exam three times before he finally became an undergraduate.

"For the disabled now, there is no barrier to college. They have the same conditions as everyone else," says Li, director of the disabled committee of the Beijing Municipal Government.

He attributes the improvements to laws and regulations safeguarding the rights of the disabled in culture, education and employment.

But he admits, "Discrimination is still there."

The change in public attitudes needs time, Li says. Many disabled people are stepping out of their homes to attend "simple but meaningful" social activities.

China has 83 million disabled people, accounting for 6.34 percent of the population.

"The lack of knowledge (about the disabled) leads to a lack of understanding by society," Li says, adding the Paralympic Games from Sept. 6 to 17 will be the best platform for understanding and help.

More than 200,000 disabled people in Beijing have taken part in Olympic and Paralympic-related activities, and 12,000 applied to become volunteers.

Sixty-three disabled volunteers are serving at the Olympic and Paralympic venues and 680 disabled performers are joining the performances of the opening and closing ceremonies and those in the Olympic Green.

Another 1,500 handicapped artists are performing at Olympic cultural squares in Beijing. Ten blind massage specialists offer traditional Chinese medical services at venues to alleviate athletes' fatigue.

The capital has almost 1 million handicapped people, or 6.49 percent of the population.