Visually impaired graduate vows to develop audio books

Chuang said she is committed to continuing her studies in the same field and to realizing her dream - developing and producing audio books to help other visually impaired people.

“I thought I had lost everything but luckily, I'm still capable of cherishing what I have,” she said.

Chuang had a happy childhood and had big, beautiful eyes that led to her nickname “big-eye girl.”

Upon reaching the age of 13, however, she began to experience a decline in her vision and was later diagnosed with macular degeneration.

Her parents took her on a desperate search for a cure that included trips to Japan and the United States, as well as a range of alternative therapies and folk remedies that contained grotesque ingredients such as centipede legs, bat guano and chicken gall.

They grasped at every possible remedy, but on each occasion, their hopes were shattered, which made Chuang worry that her parents would go broke on her account.

Her parents' support touched her deeply and gave her the courage to live as fully and passionately as she can.

“I did not want my father and mother to put the blame on themselves and think that my vision problems were their fault, “ Chuang said.

Because of the disease, she encountered numerous frustrations in her daily life, once showing her disability certificate to a bus driver in order to get a discount, only to be rejected because she did not “look” disabled.

Not being able to see clearly, she also had the experience of treading on a puppy by accident when walking on campus, while in class, she had to use a telescope to see the teachers' writing on the blackboard and a microscope to read her books.

Writing computer programs involved the help of a closed circuit television system with her face close to the monitor.

Work that would usually take her classmates seven hours to complete would often take her four times as long.

She kept telling herself to keep going because “if I give up on myself, no one in the world can save me.”

Having gained admission to a master's program in computer science at NTHU, Chuang said she will continue working toward her goal of improving the design of audio books from the user's perspective.

She pointed out that at present, users of audio books have to listen from the beginning and cannot browse back and forth freely. In addition, existing products do not allow users to underline or bookmark passages they think are important, which is a major inconvenience.

Chuang said she hopes her story will remind others to value what they have and encourage them to seek to fulfill their wishes whenever they can.

“You never know. If you don't do it now, you may not have the chance to do so later,” she pointed out.

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