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Published on Oct 8, 2002
Prakai Potchanakit, who earlier
this year became Thailand's first deaf person to obtain a PhD, attributes
her success in life to her mother's determination that she grow
up and function just like everyone else.
Deaf from the age of six due to
an overdose of antibiotics, Prakai attended an ordinary school,
finished high school at Bangkok Commerce College, graduated in Economics
from Thammasat University, and now has a doctorate degree in Population
Education from Mahidol University.
Now 42, Prakai was raised by her
mother after her father died when she was 10. She said she was luckier
than most handicapped children because of her mother's determination
to raise her as a normal child.
"Mother did not want me to
learn sign language. But she was willing to repeat a word a hundred
times over so I could learn it. She thought there were very few
other deaf people and did not want me to be cut off from others
of my age. Mother wanted me to join a school attended by normal
children," Prakai recalled.
Prakai now communicates by lip-reading.
When she speaks her voice is bit low in tone because it is not guided
by a sense of hearing.
Her mother, who worked as an interpreter
in a court of law, convinced the school management that her child
could attend classes with normal children. She made sweetmeats for
Prakai to give her mates and teachers.
"I seated myself in the front
row so I could read my teachers' lips. I asked to look at friends'
notes when I missed a sentence or when they played tape recorders
in classes."
Despite her handicap, Prakai usually
stood first or second in class.
However, she could not get a job
for six months after leaving school because prospective employers
considered her handicapped.
In retrospect, she considers her
handicap a boon because it set her mind on completing her PhD.
Currently a policy and planning
analyst at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prakai
gives pep talks to the handicapped, and writes articles for magazines
and textbooks.
Prakai now lives with her husband,
whom she met at work in Nakhon Ratchasima, and a teenage daughter.
Benjawan Somsin
THE NATION
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