This man had overcome the obstacle in his life, and became a special education instructor, something inspirational, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The doctoral student, who’s studying in the special education program of Tainan University received this year’s Presidential Education Award, which he will receive personally from the president next month; He was diagnosed with the rare condition Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, at fifteen, he’s blind, it took him seven whole years to finally get out from his home, and now, he’s not only a touring special eds instructor, with four children of his own, he is also involved in many of the visually impaired groups, fighting for the rights of the visually impaired.
“I look forward to everything!”, at the age of forty-five, Lee said, that there’s the genes for the eye conditions, that of the three generations of his families, there are currently seven members who’d been, diagnosed, but, none of this misfortunes can stop him from looking forward in his own life, “just keep pushing on in life!”
the man, working with a special needs student, photo courtesy of UDN.com
His conditions worsened in his second year of middle school, he had no clue what was happening to him, the doctors didn’t work, in just one month, his sight deteriorated to completely blind, he had a trying time, finishing his final year of middle school, and his mother took him all over to seek out treatment options, to the point she’d, finally given up on reversing his sight problems. “It’s okay, you stay at home, mom will open a grocery shop for you!”, and Lee stayed at home for seven year, but, when someone shoplifted from his family’s grocery store, he wasn’t aware of it, in his upset, he’d, asked himself, “Will this be my life?”
Then, he’d heard the story of the head of the eunuchs in the Ching Dynasty, how the man was born in poverty stricken home, and castrated himself, and, went into the palace, started from a tag-along, to the head of the eunuchs, it’d, inspired him, “he dared castrating himself, blindness is no big deal!”, and that finally got him out of his house, and started learning all he can about the visually impaired population, and the following year, at the age of twenty-three, he became, the oldest high school student, and continued in his education all the way.
He came from Miaoli, back then, there was little to no resources for the visually impaired, it’d inspired him to become a special eds instructor for the visually impaired children, to help others like him, but the certification process was a problem, he’d always gotten, scanned off at the interviews. Because people couldn’t tell that he was blind, he’d not mentioned it anymore, and, spent a lot of time working hard, studying, and finally, passed the teaching exams.
As he became a teacher, he’d married the younger schoolmate in his alma mater, she was from Malaysia, he’d laughed and told, “before her families knew me, I married her already!”; he’d toured all over as a lecturer, and returned back to his doctoral program in Tainan University.
He’d set up the Visually Impaired Persons Welfare Foundation, which had a ton of innovative service provisions for the visually impaired, including accompanying to the job interviews, along with certification for street performers, telemarketing training, “it made me feel that I’d given back helping others”, he’d even gotten involved in the multiple groups around the nation with the visually impaired persons, “if I can, so can you”, hoped, that he will be able to help as many as he can, “there are too many of the visually impaired persons who can’t get out of their homes”.
Although the Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy is a rare condition, Lee said, a lot of families are impacted by it, he’d hoped that people will become more aware of the condition, and get treatments early, to save the sight that the patients have left.
And, because of this man’s conditions, it’d made him more empathetic, and more understanding of others, and it’d driven him to become a special eds instructor, and he’d, beaten his own odds, overcome the obstacles that life has put in his path.
Life, the Obstacle Course 