At the 2026 China International Rehabilitation and福祉 Expo held in Beijing from September 3 to 5, Shenzhen's 38 technology companies and municipal/district disabled persons' federations showcased their latest innovations. AI-powered blind-assist glasses help visually impaired individuals recognize their surroundings, smart hearing aids enhance voice clarity, and intelligent wheelchair service robots overcome barriers posed by stairs and ramps. These technological achievements are not just practical tools that give special groups hope for a better life, but also reflect Shenzhen's pioneering role as a national key contact region for technology-enabled disability assistance, using the light of technology to warm the path forward for people with disabilities.

In the Shenzhen exhibition area, staff introduced the core functions of the "Bean Sprout Seeing" assistive smart glasses, jointly developed by Shenzhen Longgang Grace Glasses Company and Vector Space Technology Company, which will greatly enhance convenience for visually impaired individuals in work, life, and mobility.

Where to Begin: A Surge of Hardcore Innovation

Once confined to science fiction—exoskeleton robots, brain-computer vision reconstruction, and AI guide dogs—these cutting-edge technologies are now emerging from laboratories in Shenzhen's tech companies and being transformed into assistive devices that genuinely improve the quality of life for disabled individuals. The concept of "love without barriers" is becoming increasingly tangible.

At the Shenzhen exhibition zone, multiple products from Magic Cube Robots attracted significant attention. The Magic-TC1 Smart Wheelchair Robot features a track-type stair-climbing chassis that smoothly ascends slopes and stairs, flexibly navigates gravel roads and narrow indoor corridors, and its multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm assists users with daily tasks such as retrieving objects and pressing elevator buttons. The Magic MHC1 Smart Mobility and Care Robot, built on an embodied intelligence architecture, can handle household item retrieval, water delivery, and medication dispensing, while also aiding short-distance mobility. The MB3 Moxibustion Robot integrates traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy with modern robotics, offering constant-distance burn prevention, precise temperature control, and automatic acupoint positioning—suitable for hospitals, elderly care institutions, and community health scenarios.

The "digital eyes" for the visually impaired are continuously evolving. The Bean Sprout Seeing Smart Glasses, developed jointly by Vector Space Technology and Shenzhen Grace Company, look like ordinary eyewear but use AI to recognize the surrounding environment and provide voice-prompted navigation and scene interpretation. Yijie Technology's Guide Rabbit AI Visual Companion can identify objects and recognize acquaintances, offering real-time interpretation of the world for visually impaired users. Zhongke Xianjian showcased a semi-invasive brain-computer interface cortical visual reconstruction system that captures images via smart glasses, translates image information through an external unit, and uses flexible electrode arrays implanted in the brain's cortex to stimulate neurons, exploring ways to help blind individuals rebuild visual perception.

The communication gap for the hearing-impaired is being narrowed by technology. Shenzhen Zhiting Technology's Zhiqing RIC3.0 hearing aid features multi-scenario intelligent noise reduction, better tailored to the hearing needs of elderly users domestically. Shenzhen Qingxing Culture's subtitle AR glasses convert ambient speech into text projected in real time onto the lenses, enabling hearing-impaired individuals to communicate smoothly without sign language.

Pain points in caregiving scenarios are being addressed. Shenzhen Yueshang Robot's smart toilet robot can be summoned via one-touch call to move autonomously to the user, featuring a low-center-of-gravity chassis and mechanical legs for triple anti-slip and anti-tip functions, with automatic waste discharge, rinsing, and drying after use. Zhongxindao Robot has developed an autism AI companion robot that uses emotion recognition technology to provide emotional companionship and social intervention for children on the autism spectrum. The Sanqianbu lower-limb exoskeleton robot seamlessly transitions from wheelchair to standing chair, allowing users to wear it without assistance.

"Many people still think of assistive devices as basic equipment like wheelchairs or crutches, but in reality, technology is striving to understand user needs," said Wu Yi, founder of Vector Space Technology. He believes technology-enabled disability assistance should be rooted in real user scenarios and genuinely perceive the daily lives of disabled individuals. During the development of AI blind-assist glasses, the company established a complete visually impaired user participation mechanism, with visually impaired product managers and engineers involved throughout the design process, continuously refining features—from continuous environment scanning and voice navigation adapted for the visually impaired to elevator floor recognition and other life details often overlooked by able-bodied people—all derived from real feedback from visually impaired users.

"Technology must respond to the actual lives of disabled people," said Chen Qiong, Chairman of Shenzhen Magic Cube Robot Group. The company has gathered substantial R&D talent, collaborated with multiple universities on technical breakthroughs, and accumulated more than 200 patent applications, consistently prioritizing real user experience as the primary criterion for product iteration, ensuring embodied intelligence technology truly serves the real lives of disabled individuals.

Building an Industrial "Connector"

A technology-assisted product must navigate multiple stages—from creative concept to entering a disabled person's home—including R&D iteration, market connection, catalog inclusion, and adaptation services. The China International Rehabilitation and福祉 Expo is not just a product display platform but an industrial "connector," where policy and market ends align.

At the expo, the Shenzhen delegation proactively engaged with regulatory authorities, pushing to have a batch of innovative products—including smart prosthetics, brain-computer interface wheelchairs, and AI blind-assist devices—included in the national assistive device catalog, extending the benefits of cutting-edge technology to more disabled individuals.

The dialogue between R&D and demand ends was equally vibrant. The expo featured a dedicated Shenzhen technology-enabled disability成果 release conference, alongside investment promotion for the Shenzhen Hongling Science and Technology Disability Assistance Industrial Park. As the nation's first technology-focused disability assistance theme industrial park, it creates a collaborative platform integrating government, industry, academia, research, healthcare, finance, and application, gathering companies in life sciences and artificial intelligence, and building an integrated development model of "R&D innovation—achievement transformation—public welfare services." Through this platform, companies can directly connect with rehabilitation medical institutions and disabled users, rapidly transmitting frontline usage feedback to R&D teams, forming a virtuous cycle where demand guides R&D and R&D feeds back into application.

Seeds of cooperation continued to take root at the expo. The event attracted buyers from more than 20 countries and regions. Shenzhen exhibitors held face-to-face negotiations with overseas buyers, promoting exoskeleton robots, smart nursing devices, and visual impairment assistive products to international markets. Rehabilitation institutions from North America and elderly care service providers from Southeast Asia expressed collaboration intentions. Currently, Shenzhen's assistive technology products are sold to more than 50 countries and regions worldwide.

Behind this spotlight is a complete industrial cultivation system providing silent support. Shenzhen has built a full-chain service loop of "assistive device creative design competition—seed incubation—industrial park acceleration—catalog promotion—precise adaptation," forming a complete pathway from creativity to implementation.

Technology-Enabled Disability Assistance Integrated into the City's Development DNA

Shenzhen is advancing both its cause and industry in tandem, deeply integrating technological innovation into the full spectrum of social security, rehabilitation services, and barrier-free environment construction for disabled individuals, striving to ensure every person with a disability shares in the fruits of urban development.

Institutional "navigation" provides clear guidelines for innovation. Shenzhen has issued the "Shenzhen Science and Technology Disability Assistance Implementation Plan (2025–2030)," defining key tasks in core technology breakthroughs, achievement transformation and application, and industrial ecosystem cultivation, incorporating rehabilitation assistive devices into the strategic emerging industry cluster layout. Through a "bidding and commanding" mechanism, the city promotes collaborative breakthroughs among universities, research institutes, and enterprises, strategically focusing on frontier directions such as brain-computer interfaces, AI perception, and rehabilitation robotics, drawing a clear roadmap for the development of the assistive technology industry.

From barrier-free incubation spaces to the Hongling Science and Technology Disability Assistance Industrial Park, to the Greater Bay Area Assistive Device Innovation Center and the Pingshan Smart Assistive Device Industry Base, Shenzhen is building a multi-level industrial carrier matrix, establishing a complete tiered structure of "incubation—acceleration—mass production—application." Scientific research forces and clinical medical institutions across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau collaborate across regions, continuously injecting innovation resources into technology-enabled disability assistance.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen adheres to a demand-oriented approach, regularly organizing disabled representatives to visit companies and industrial parks to experience products, report usage pain points, and drive product iteration and upgrades. The Assistive Device Smart Experience Center is open to the public, offering over a thousand domestic and international assistive devices for hands-on experience, serving more than 50,000 people cumulatively. The "iShenzhen" government service platform has launched an accessible version, bridging the digital service divide and making online government services better adapted to the usage habits of disabled individuals, weaving technology-enabled disability assistance into the fabric of daily urban life.

Dong Xiu, Party Secretary and Director of the Shenzhen Disabled Persons' Federation, stated that Shenzhen will continue to leverage its technological innovation advantages, perfect the full-chain ecosystem for technology-enabled disability assistance, drive more innovative achievements into tangible benefits for people's livelihoods, and strive to develop more replicable and scalable practical models for the disability cause.