OPENING UP TO PEOPLE

Still, people didn’t understand why I wanted to attend university. They felt that getting a degree wouldn’t make much difference to my job prospects. I went ahead anyway and didn’t just study Math – I took up computing modules too, as I felt it would be a good chance to learn a new skill, never mind that I had never touched a computer in my life!

I think my lecturer was quite stunned when I walked into his office, asking if he would accept me into his computing course. But he agreed and did some research before introducing me to Jaws, the software I use for work today – it transforms my computer into a ‘talking’ one that can read out documents, e-mails and websites. I was able to download lecture notes, surf the web and even read the news online – I used to be clueless about current affairs as I couldn’t read newspapers. I ended up graduating with a minor in computer programming and applications.

So the thing I’ve learnt is this: There are solutions around us, if only we spend time figuring them out. If we go looking for a problem, we are definitely going to find some – problems are everywhere. Even a sighted person may, for various reasons, struggle in school or in a job, but that shouldn’t stop her from trying. We all have to start somewhere. Growing up, I was a shy kid. I kept to myself and didn’t like interacting with people. In school, I used to dread being called on by my teachers to answer questions – I hated the feeling of everyone looking at me.

Being blind didn’t help. Because of my walking cane, I tended to attract stares. When I boarded buses, friends would tell me that people were looking. I never took out my braille books to read in public and disliked asking bus drivers for help because I was terrified of drawing attention to myself.

But while my disability made me self-conscious, it also ironically helped me break out of my shell. After all, I had to interact with people to get about my life. There was the fact that I relied on classmates when transcribing my notes. At bus stops, I would ask people to tell me when my bus was approaching, or for directions, if I wasn’t sure of my way. Some kind ones even walked me all the way home!

Sometimes, people would approach me on the streets asking why I was blind or commenting that I was ‘a poor thing’. Others were more blunt. One taxi driver who picked me up at NUS said, ‘You cannot see, still can study here meh?’

I used to get annoyed and give curt replies like ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m just like that’. But after a while, I tried a different approach: When people asked, “Why can’t you see?” I would simply share my story.

What I didn’t expect was how this encouraged complete strangers to open up to me. Sometimes, while walking me home, they would pour out their life stories, their troubles and how they too were ‘very poor things’, spurned by