Nanjing Normal University of Special Education is located in Nanjing, the capital of fraternity. It is the only provincial undergraduate university in China mainly for cultivating teachers in special education. It is also for higher education for the disabled and cultivating specialized talents working for the disabled.

The university was originally founded in 1982 by the Ministry of Education and funded by UNICEF. It was first named Nanjing Normal School of Special Education , the first secondary normal school to train special education teachers in New China under the administration of the Ministry of Education.

In 1997, the school was placed under the administration of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government.In 2002, it was upgraded to a college and renamed Nanjing Technical College of Special Education.In 2009, it became a joint construction unit of China Disabled Persons 'Federation and Jiangsu Provincial People's Government. In 2013, approved by the Ministry of Education, the school began building Nanjing Normal University of Special Education and managed it in 2015.

Nanjing Normal University of Special Education is the national reform unit for cultivating outstanding special education teachers, the first pilot school of the Disabled Persons' Federation for disabled students’ higher integration education, “the National Vocational Training Base for Special Education Teachers” , China Promotion & Service Center of Braille and Sign language, “Jiangsu Provincial Guidance Centre for Special Education Development”, “Jiangsu Provincial Training Center for Special Education Teachers,” “Jiangsu Provincial Research Center of Educational Examination and Support for the Visually Impaired.

The university has been awarded many honorary titles such as National Advanced Unit of Special Education, National Model School of Language Standardization, Jiangsu Civilized Unit, the Advanced Unit of Spiritual Civilization Construction in Jiangsu Province, Advanced Grassroots Party Organization in Jiangsu Province, Harmonious Campus of Higher education in Jiangsu Province and Smart Campus of Jiangsu Province.

The university now has the main campus and Jiangning Branch campus, covering an area of 501.2 mu.The main campus is wonderfully located with the majestic Zhong Mountain in the south, the surging Yangtze River in the north, the magnificent Mufu mountain in the west, and the beautiful Qixia Mountain in the east.

The environment of the campus is very beautiful with a large area of grass, tall trees, many red buildings linked together with some white walls for ornament, small hills and peaceful pools. It is well equipped with rich modern facilities and characterized with good humanities and “indiscriminate love shaping the soul”.

The total building area of the university is 180,000 square meters, and the gross value of teaching and scientific research facilities is 76 million yuan.The library has 77.90,000 copies of paper literature,13 database resources and 3,173,000 electronic books.The collection structure is mainly about special education, preschool education, rehabilitation medicine, causes of the disabled and normal humanities, forming a distinctive collection system. Nanjing Barrier-free Library (the branch library on campus , also called Braille reading room,) has a collection of more than 10,000 copies of Braille or books with enlarged word size, 10 Braille journals and more than 330 barrier-free films. It is the top library in scale and collection of the same kind in China universities.

The university has 93 on-campus experimental (training) rooms and 184 off-campus practice bases. Rehabilitation Practice Education Center for Special Children and Practice Education Center for Special Education Teachers are provincial experimental teaching and practice education centers.The laboratory of Impairment and Intervention Technologies for Special Children  is a provincial key construction laboratory. Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching for Education and Rehabilitation of Special children  is a national virtual simulation experimental teaching project.

National Development and Promotion of Universal Sign Language Program Based on All-Media Communication Platform was approved as the first batch of national language promotion base construction project. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice Education Center of Nanjing Normal University of Special Education is the construction point of the provincial innovation and entrepreneurship practice education center for college students.

The university has the first educational special history museum -- Special Education Museum of China. It has a collection of more than 2700 pieces related to special education or the disabled, more than 3200 copies of related historical documents data, with literature museum, history hall, technology hall, experience area, collection area, film and television hall and Chinese stamp-collecting hall for the disabled.

There are 11 schools in the university including School of Special Education (Provincial Development Engineering Guidance Center of Special Education ), School of Educational Science (Educational Teaching and Training Center), School of Rehabilitation Science, School of Music and Dance, School of Languages, School of Mathematics and Information Science, School of Administration (Barrier-free Administration), School of Arts and Design (Sunshine School), School of Marxism,School of Physical Education and School of Continuing Education ( Office of Provincial Teacher Training Center for Special Education in Jiangsu ), with 22 undergraduate majors covering education, literature, medicine, science, administration, engineering and arts.

The university has won 2 provincial achievement awards in higher education and teaching .

Special Education is the first phase construction project of Jiangsu University Brand Major Construction. Special Education, Public Service Administration are the national first-class undergraduate major construction points. Sign Language Translation, Preschool Education, Rehabilitation Therapy, Educational Rehabilitation, Clothing & Clothing design and Music are the first-class undergraduate construction majors in Jiangsu province. The university undertakes the cultivating program for outstanding special education teachers of the Ministry of Education .

It has 2 national sharing courses of quality resource and 9 Provincial online open courses.More than 10 provincial or national key textbooks have been approved.

The university has two provincial key subjects--Education and Public Administration, theBarrier-free Key Laboratory jointly constructed with China Disabled Persons' Federation and Southeast University, the “Key Laboratory in Jiangsu Universities”, the “Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Science in Jiangsu, the“Off-campus Research Base”, the“ Office for Foreign Experts in Jiangsu Province”, the” Policy Consulting Research Base in Jiangsu” and so on.

The scientific research is based on characteristics of special needs and service for government policy-making. The university has completed some national standards like “the Curriculum Standards for Deaf Schools in Compulsory Education,Professional Standards of Special Education Teachers  , “Care Service Specification for Intellectually, Mentally or Severely Physically Impaired at Employment Age” as a main unit by cooperating with the Ministry of Education or the Disabled Persons Federation. A number of research achievements on policy-making have been adopted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Disabled Persons' Federation and etc, producing good social benefits.

In the past five years, the university has undertaken 18 national scientific research projects including the “Key Projects of the National Social Science Fund”, 80 provincial scientific research projects including the Humanities and Social Science Project of the Ministry of Education, achieving a batch of important achievements in special education or administration for the disabled. It has won 8 provincial or ministerial achievement awards including the “Excellent  Achievement Award in University Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education (humanities and Social Science)” and “the First Prize in Philosophy and Social Science Research in Jiangsu Province” and 30 bureau scientific research awards .

The university currently has 7,717 full-time students (including 341 disabled college students).The proportion of full-time teachers with senior academic titles has reached 52.5% and 81.5％teachers have a master's degree or above.

The university has many outstanding experts, one enjoying the Special Government Allowance of the State Council, one national candidate of the Top Ten Thousand Talents in the New Century, one of the Leading Persons in Philosophy and Social Science of the second batch of National’10,000 Talents Plan’,one talent from “Cultural Masters and ‘Four batchs’by Central Department of Propaganda, one candidate for the New Century Outstanding Talent Support Plan of the Ministry of Education, three Young or Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions at the provincial or ministerial levels, two Famous Teachers in Jiangsu Province, Five Excellent Educators in Jiangsu Province,  one of the Talents in Jiangsu Social Science, seven High-level Cultivating talents of Six Talent Peaks in Jiangsu Province,  20 second or third level cultivating talents of 333 High-level Talent Cultivating Project in Jiangsu Province, 13 Young or Middle-aged Academic Leaders of the Qinglan Project in Jiangsu Province, 38 Outstanding Young Expertise Teachers of Qinglan Project in Jiangsu Province.

There is 1 excellent teaching team of Qinglan Project in Jiangsu Province, 1 model (typical talent) around, 2 Labors’ Day innovation experts, 2 technical experts,1 Zijin Culture Excellent Youth (Social Science Theory) in Jiangsu Province, and 6 Excellent Special Education Teachers”titled by Bank of Communications and honored by the China Disabled Persons' Federation and the Ministry of Education.

Since the foundation 39 years ago, the university has always been committed to working for Chinese special education and the disabled, adhering to the school--running concept of indiscriminate love shaping the soul. The university is implementing four development strategies-- characteristic development, connotation development, integrated development and open development. The development is based on Jiangsu Province, facing the country and contacting the world with stronger special education, more rehabilitation education, characteristic inclusion education, excellent administrative talents cultivating for the disabled. It has cultivated more than 20000 special talents for special education schools,administrative or service institutions for the disabled nationwide, known as the Cradle of Chinese Special Education Teachers.(Updated to 20 June,2021)