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Without any help from the normally sighted, do visually impaired people really have to live a lesser life? The truth might surprise you.
Recently, a group of 10 visually impaired people graduated from the half-year “Live the Vision – Visually Impaired Professional Life Coach Training cum School Collaboration Project”, sponsored by Link and organised by Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired under Link Together Initiatives, Link’s flagship charity and community engagement programme. These brave dreamers refuse to let their disability hold them back, and now, as professional life coaches, they are ready to serve society and help others.
Life coaches teach clients how to overcome obstacles in life and assist them in setting personal goals. Louie Lui, one of the project participants, has eight years of experience in financial planning. Born with glaucoma, Louie only has 3% of her eyesight. Knowing she would find it more and more difficult to handle her job as a financial planner in the future, she started thinking about training to become a life coach instead. “Life coaching is so different from financial planning,” she said. “Instead of simply giving advice to clients, a life coach must truly understand the client’s issue and work collaboratively to find a solution.
Louie took part in a variety of activities during her training under the Live the Vision project. She especially enjoyed the role-playing and real-life case studies, and noted that all her fellow trainees took the training very seriously. In the future, she plans to work as a part-time life coach to gain more experience at first, with the aim of becoming a full-time life coach in the future.
Another participant, Hui Chung-hong, was born with aniridia, which is defined as the absence of the iris. He initially joined the course out of curiosity, but when he graduated he had gained a different mindset. “I know that I might go blind during middle age, but a life coach doesn’t necessarily need to have good eyesight – hearing the clients out is way more important.”
Hong used to work with mentally handicapped persons and the elderly, and now he hopes to bring the public’s attention to the visually impaired and discover their talents. Having a visual impairment creates daily challenges, from performing daily chores to earning a living, Hong said: “As visually impaired people, our own challenges enable us to better understand the struggles of our clients and work together to find a way out. We might not be able to see clearly, but we have inner clarity within us.”
Dr Yim Chi-shing, the guest of honour of the graduation ceremony, is the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary Schools Council and the principal of Munsang College (Hong Kong Island). He wants his students to learn how people overcome difficulties, so he sometimes organises group activities to give his students the opportunity to engage with visually impaired people – they even went hiking together once. To his surprise, it was the visually impaired who taught the normally sighted how to hike safely! Dr Yim said, “The graduation event held in Lok Fu Place today was very meaningful, as it gave the public a chance to get to know more about the visually impaired community, and to see how talented and capable they are. This helps debunk misconceptions about them.”
Dr Yim also expressed his hope that the government will increase the number of school places for visually impaired people so that they can be better integrated into society across all aspects, from education to employment.
Dr Alice Yuk, the chief executive officer of the Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired, hopes that through the project, visually impaired people can be better integrated into society and have more career choices. She cited an example of a young visually impaired musician who earned money by playing the piano and erhu in cafés. Making money independently is not only meaningful to the visually impaired, but also to their parents, who can take pride in their children’s efforts.
Dr Yuk said, “With the sponsorship from Link, we can organise activities outside of schools and reach the public for the first time. The reason we are here today at Lok Fu Place is to enhance and build on the interactions between the visually impaired and the broader community. To build a more inclusive society, all it takes is for both sides to move one step towards each other.”
Among the people who stopped by the event, Ms Kwok participated in a game hosted by a visually impaired person. It was the first time she had ever heard about such jobs as life coaches, and she was very supportive of the initiative, saying, “Visually impaired people are fully capable of working as life coaches, so I think the government and employers should really consider employing them.”
Mrs Tam, who once worked with a visually impaired colleague, was also attracted by the event. She said she used to think that visually impaired people could only take up jobs like telephone operators, but after watching the performance given by the visually impaired musicians at the graduation ceremony, her perception changed. “Not only can they play musical instruments, but they can even do life coaching,” she noted. “They are really capable indeed.”
