It gradually brought him admiration and respect from people around him.

More of his classmates started turning to him for help with their schoolwork, and they and the faculty members showed him care.

In high school, the head of his class helped Yuan to apply for a scholarship and offered him 100 yuan ($15) a month out of his own pocket to improve his boarding conditions.

The warmth encouraged Yuan to work harder and give back.

His academic strength saw him enrolled in the Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2014.

After consulting with his teacher, Yuan settled on computer science as his college major.

"I figured it was less demanding on the 'hand' and more about brainwork," he says.

However, he had his work cut out for him from the start. Before college, he hadn't even touched a computer.

"I couldn't make any sense of the first class, and had no clue about the keyboard, not to mention typing."

To catch up with the class, for the next three months, Yuan spent his spare time studying and practicing in the computer room of the school library.

Initially, he would type in the program codes from the textbook for better understanding. After a year, he could design and develop programming codes on his own.

"I am slower, so I have to work harder and make up the time," he says.

In fact, it didn't take long before Yuan started to show his talent and inventiveness.

When he saw keyboards gathering dust, and subsequently malfunction, in the second semester of the freshman year, he thought of installing a protection cover over the keypads.

He then spent half a year looking into the subject, consulting his professor and experimenting.

In October 2015, he developed an idea and got a patent for it.

"Even for people who are not physically challenged, this high achievement is hard to come by," says Li Kenuo, Yuan's counselor during his undergraduate years, adding that Yuan took every learning opportunity seriously and always followed up with his own actions.

Yuan's doctoral supervisor Xu Xin has gotten used to Yuan's presence at the lab.

"He is always the first to arrive and the last to leave," Xu says.

Yuan hopes he will keep learning more and be able to contribute to the benefit of the public and the implementation of national strategy.

Speaking about the resigned attitude of some young people, Yuan says he disapproves of it.

"Although there might be many hard situations and competitors to face, you will make progress as long as you work for it," he says.