Pan Mingjing was granted his long-awaited legal professional qualification certificate on Friday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Dressed professionally in a white shirt and black trousers and holding a cane – the kind of cane used by blind people – Pan Mingjing waited patiently for his data review, face recognition, signature confirmation and related procedures on Friday at a public legal services center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

When he was granted his long-awaited legal professional qualification certificate, he was pleased.

"My career as a lawyer officially began," Pan told local media.

He became the first blind person to pass the national legal vocational qualifying examination in Guangzhou. He has worked as a masseur for more than two decades and said he has been waiting for this moment for more than four years.

He had already applied for an internship to practice law and had been hired by a local firm as an apprentice. He said he hoped to be able to offer more legal services for people with disabilities and use his knowledge of the law to protect his disabled friends' rights and interests and help them integrate into society.

Pan began to prepare for the national legal professional qualification examinations at the end of 2017. He would listen to the courses in law at double speed on his mobile phone, three to four hours every day between massage customers.

Local bar associations and volunteers helped Pan organize learning materials and register online for the exams. Sun Yat-Sen Library assisted him in simulation tests twice a week to help him improve his speed. The Guangzhou Bureau of Justice provided many conveniences and made it easier for Pan to attend examinations.

It was arranged for Pan to take tests in a separate examination room with convenient transportation and barrier-free access.

To improve test efficiency, invigilators – overseers who are skilled in standard Chinese pronunciation, have strong listening and recording ability and are familiar with legal terminology – were selected to support Pan.