A 23-year-old will soon become the nation’s first person with multiple physical disabilities to enroll into college.
Liu Yu-ling (劉育伶) is deaf and has also been plagued by visual impairment since her youth and can only use her sense of touch to communicate. Despite those challenges, Liu recently graduated from the Taipei School for the Visually Impaired and has enrolled in Nanhua University’s Department of Applied Sociology.
A modern-day version of Helen Keller, Liu did not allow her disabilities to get in the way of her ambitions. Rather, she learned swimming and track and field and became adept at handicrafts.
Photo: Chiu Shao-wen, Taipei Times
Liu has managed to communicate with people around her using Braille, computers for the visually impaired, a communications tablet and natural sign language.
Her family has also learned the unique spelling method, making it easier for them to communicate with Liu.
Hsu Hsin-fang (許馨方), Liu’s teacher, said tactile fingerspelling — a system that uses various finger positions to represent the 37 phonetic symbols used in the Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as Bopomofo) system and distinct signals for the four tones — enables students with multiple disabilities to easily communicate by hand.
The system was introduced in Taiwan about a year ago by a teacher from the Hui Ming School, a specialized school for students with disabilities, who had gone to Australia to study it.
Nanhua University said that because of Liu’s multiple disabilities, the teachers in the “resource room” would train themselves in tactile fingerspelling to facilitate communication with her and would arrange for students to assist Liu outside the classroom.
The university said it had specialized computer equipment and sensors for students with disabilities, adding that it would arrange for students to act as learning aides to accompany and take down notes for Liu during class and then use the computer to turn those notes into Braille.
The university will hold talks with Liu, her family and her high school teacher to better understand her needs and how to meet them, it said.
Given her interest in making friends, Liu has developed various ways to communicate with others.
Although she usually needs help for an assistant to translate her tactile fingerspelling and communicate with teachers and her mother, sometimes she would “type” Braille on the back of the hand of a visually impaired student, “chat” using sign language with students with hearing disabilities or use computers and a communication pad to interact with other people.
Not only does Liu like to learn, she also likes to win.
Liu says she likes the feeling of receiving an award on stage and has actively participated in every sport at school, including track and field and swimming, as well as writing competitions and Braille challenges, in which she often came out on top.
Liu also likes to do handicraft work. Although she can’t see, she often “guides the thread through the needle” by instinct. She has made about 30 rabbits by threading beads together and used those as a graduation gift for her teachers.
Not only has Liu enrolled at Nanhua University, she has also received the annual Presidential Education Award.
Liu said that although she has a class-C massage certificate, she wishes to continue her studies.
When Liu’s father Liu Chun-fa (劉春發) attended his daughter’s graduation on Thursday last week, he thanked the different people who gave Liu Yu-ling the chance to receive an education and did not forget to remind his daughter to be grateful.
The Taipei School for the Visually Impaired said Liu Yu-ling was the eldest and also the first student to receive higher education from the school, adding that her success has made her a role model for all.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITEr
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