Stories to Inspire
Kevin Lee
Kevin Lee was born with muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes a person's muscles to degenerate. Like any teen, he likes to play computer games and go window shopping. He has grown weaker and even requires a compressor to help him breathe as his lungs can no longer sustain his need for oxygen by themselves for long. Kevin's life experience is filled with ups and downs. He recently completed his diploma course at Temasek Polytechnic. Kevin gives his view in this article published in the July 2009 issue of Extrapage on the social barriers that he feels clouds many people with disabilities.
Hi, I'm Kevin. I am your regular guy on the street except that I have been using the wheelchair since the latter part of Primary 4. I am now working part time as a forum administrator for a website. I'm planning to study for a university degree online. My dream is to open an online shop selling clothes and sneakers.
Thanks to SPD's bursary awards, I received my education in mainstream institutions. In the process, I was able to experience the different ways people look at and treat people with disabilities like me.
Since primary school, my mum would follow me around as I required help in all my movements. There would be kids who would tease me but there would also be many others who would help a lot.
As I grew older and progressed along my educational journey, I found that there were lesser peers or classmates willing to help me. When there was no longer mandatory help appointed by my teachers, I did find myself left alone quite frequently.
Initially, my mum and I were sad that I was in a way 'ostracised' by the majority. An incident that prompted my mum to want me to quit school was when I was surrounded by empty chairs in a computer lab as no one wanted to be near me.
I have seen friends with disabilities plunge into despair due to their conditions or how people looked at them, but I persisted as I knew I was studying for my own good, for my dream to take care of my family. I was not studying to please others so I shut out all the negativity and concentrated on my studies.
There was one course mate who stuck by me and assisted me throughout my diploma course and for that we are very thankful. He had completed his national service before commencing on a course in Temasek Polytechnic.
At this point, I could easily generalise children as being really accepting, teenagers as non-accepting, and people above 20 as being mostly helpful. But I prefer to think otherwise. I think the behaviour of my peers stems from the fact that they lacked the knowledge on or exposure to disabled people like me.
Some were probably scared to hurt me or did not know the social norms or how to behave around me. They were unable to react to me or were unsure of how to behave so the natural reaction was to shun or keep away. I prefer to think that they were not nasty people, just that they didn't embrace wholly people with disabilities yet.
I can't blame them for thinking that I am different, but the difference is only on the outside. I'm actually just like everyone else on the inside. I hope that more children can be educated about and have more interaction with disabled people. With this knowledge and experience, when they grow up to be young adults, they would be more willing to include disabled people into their community and embrace us no differently as they do others.