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A retired soldier Li Ngan Hong,now 47 and wheelchair-bound,was totally paralysed from the neck down by an accident in 1987. Since the accident,he has had no use whatsoever of his hands and legs. He is totally reliant on his loving wife to help him with all his daily needs.
But luckily Ngan Hong's mind and his speech were unaffected. And his determnation to live and work with his physical limitations deserves medal. Ngan Hong has bravely embraced the world of computers with a head pointer.He uses a 286 IBM PC,which performs a series of word processing programmes both in English and Chinese.He is determnated to live a meaninful and rewarding life with his IBM PC. Ngan Hong says he was disconsolate after his disabling accident because his family - a young wife and two little boys -had lost their breadwinner. But now, he need not worry too much about his financial problems.Every month,he receives a monthly disabled pension of 608 pounds sterling from the Service Corps and a disability allowance of slightly more than 1,000 from the Hong Kong Government. Ngan Hong joined the Hong Kong Military Service Corps in 1973 after graduating from St Francis school. He was assigned, after training,to the transport division as a driver. In 1979, he passed a stiff examination and became a training instructor.He promoted to Staff Sergeant and worked on Stonecutters Island until October 1987,when the accident happened. At that time, he believes, he was almost ready to be promoted to a commissioned officer. Ngan Hong recalls that one day in 1987 when he was off duty and on his way to the pier, the driver lost control of the car he was in and it crashed into a lamp post. He suffered head injuries and was paralysed. After three months' treatment in Queen Mary Hospital, he was transferred to MacLehose Medical Rehabilitation Centre where he met clinical psychologist,T.K.Kang,and was taught to operate a computer with a head pointer. He spent a few months at home learning to adjust to his condition and then began to involve himself in com- munity work. 'I am not at a dead end,'he says. 'I am just in another stage of my life.I want to share my experience with other disabled people. I am working to help them to overcome their disability.' He was the vice-president of the Handicapped computer User Group (HcUG),a local electronic disabled self-help group.HcUG (pro- nounced hug),had been well chosen.It means embracing each other in English and means to overcome in Chinese. It was T K Kang who got together the group for alternative learning and social opport- unities. The self-help group runs the HcUG Bulletin Board Service (HcUG BBS), an automated remoted computer-based message and file handling system enabling the home-bound disabled to communicate with the outside world through their computer. Ngan Hong has migrated to Australia with his family in 1996. 'If I am accepted,'he says,'I hope I can be granted a degree one day.' He is now running business at the south bank of Melbourne. 'I think the business community could help us more than the Government in some ways. For example.' He says the head pointer he uses is just a simple device which must be used with a special software, called One Finger, because the head point cannot press two keys at the same time.However, when Microsoft's Windows has solved that out. |
