Cirong Zhang （张赐荣）, born in 1998 in Shanghai, China, is an accessibility technology specialist and senior software engineer, widely recognized as a driving force in the advancement of digital accessibility. He has devoted his career to the research and development of assistive technologies for blind and visually impaired individuals and to the accessibility remediation of internet products, demonstrating deep expertise in accessibility engineering across web, desktop, and mobile platforms.
Blind since early childhood and retaining only minimal light perception, Mr Zhang enrolled at the Shanghai School for the Blind at the age of twelve. It was there that he encountered a computer equipped with screen reader software for the first time—a pivotal moment that marked the beginning of his journey in information technology. He subsequently taught himself programming by reading technical documentation and digital tutorials through screen readers, steadily acquiring proficiency in a broad spectrum of languages and technologies, including C, C#, PHP, Java, .NET, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Upon completing his education, Mr Zhang pursued independent software development, designing and delivering a comprehensive assistive software suite tailored to the needs of visually impaired users. The suite featured capabilities such as enhanced screen reading, optical character recognition (OCR), and streamlined application shortcuts, earning widespread recognition and acclaim within the blind and low-vision community.
Mr Zhang subsequently joined a nonprofit accessibility organization established under the auspices of a leading Chinese internet company, where he served as an R&D Engineer for Digital Accessibility Solutions. In this capacity, he played an instrumental role in advancing the accessibility transformation of several major internet products, helping to foster a more inclusive digital experience for users with disabilities.
He has earned authoritative professional accessibility certifications from institutions including Microsoft and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). He also contributed to the drafting of the Research Report on the State of Computer and Information Technology Education among Visually Impaired Students and participated in the translation of the Guidelines for Accessible Web Development. In parallel, he has authored over one thousand technical tutorials published across prominent developer communities such as CSDN, CNBlogs, Juejin, and Zhihu, playing a systematic and sustained role in accelerating the adoption and dissemination of accessibility practices throughout China.