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Chen finds inspiration in the mentally disabled

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do," Helen Keller, the renowned deaf-blind American author and lecturer, once said.

And one can't but agree with Keller after watching the film Capturing Dreams in the Dark and be in awe of Lu Wen-kuei (呂文貴), Lin Wei-chih (林偉智) and Chuang Fu-hua's (莊馥華) brilliance and persistence they display despite their developmental disabilities.

When one hears Lu play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, one can't believe that he is mentally retarded and totally blind. When one hears Lin pinpoint with ease any date on the calendar, one can't believe that he is congenitally blind and suffering from dereism; and when one reads the poems composed by Chuang, one finds it hard believe she is blind and suffers from paraplegia and communication difficulties.

Tales of their struggles and achievements depicted in the documentary produced by National Changhua University's special education professor Wan Ming-mei (萬明美) are examples of people who suffer from the Savant syndrome.

Savant syndrome is a rare but remarkable condition in which people with serious mental handicaps such as autism, Williams syndrome or other major mental illness have astonishing islands of brilliance that stand in stark, markedly incongruous contrast to the overall disability.

"I was deeply moved by the film and am grateful of the unknown heroes behind the set who are willing to put together the film," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday.

Chen made the remarks at the Presidential Office yesterday after watching the film with the three subjects, their teacher and families. Reporters covering the Presidential Office were also invited to watch the film.

The documentary was part of the National Science Council's sponsored research project on Savant syndrome.

The 21-year old Lu is a Paiwan Aboriginal who is blind and mentally retarded. Once isolated by his family when it was discovered he had a disability in Santimen, Pingtung County, Lu's musical talent was not discovered by his teachers until at age of 12, when he came across a piano and played without difficulty songs he had previously heard.

Lu's teachers later discovered that Lu could play many kinds of musical instruments, and play a song after hearing it only once, even though he cannot even solve the simplest math problems.

Lin, 19, although congenitally blind and mentally retarded, can pinpoint any day of the week in the past decade. Using only her sense of hearing, she can also distinguish between different types of trains, and tell how many cars there are attached to a passing train.

Chuang, 21, also suffers from visual impairment, paraplegia and communication problems after being injured in a fire at the age of 10.

By using a special tool for typing and wagging her head, blinking her eyes to express phonetic symbols, Chuang has written more than 200 poems. Some of her pieces have been published in daily newspapers.

Noting that developmentally challenged individuals have to work harder than others to achieve what they do, the president lauded the three as "life warriors" and encouraged them to keep in mind that "the most important thing of all is to keep chasing their dreams."
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