I Want to Be a Lawyer Helping Disabled People Get out into the World

Mr. Choi was cheerful and energetic on the phone. He was about to finish the third grade in elementary school when he lost his eyesight. After being diagnosed with glaucoma when he was five years old, his eyesight gradually worsened, and he eventually lost his eyesight entirely.

“Words cannot express my agonies at the time. Those who have become physically disabled people all of a sudden might have the same kind of pains with mine. Instead of living in pains and anguishes, however, I decided to make my best effort for what I can do,” he said.

He attended a school for the blind at an early age and decided to become a lawyer when he was in third grade in his middle school to help lift barriers that handicapped people might face when they go out into the world.

Life was not easy for him, though. Since he received industrial education for the blind during daytime, he could only make time for preparing College Scholastic Aptitude Test during night. Books in braille were in short supply. In addition, it took him twice as long as other ordinary students to read books in braille.

“I tried every method I could come up with such as scanning books by computers and listening to them or recording books and listening them. My father would read books for me everyday,” he said, adding, “Mathematics was the toughest subject since I had to do sums in my head, and solid figures were hard to be expressed in Braille.”

“I was depressed to find that my adjusted standard score (367 marks) was lower than expected. Now I am privileged to be accepted by Seoul National University (SNU), and I feel those days in the past when I strived for achieving my goals are really happy moments.”

His parents always encourage him. His father (54), who works for a small-sized company, and his mother (50) have supported their son earnestly. His mother said she is thankful for her son to have grown up cheerfully, giving her son a tight hug.

He might face a number of difficulties to be a lawyer. First of all, SNU has insufficient facilities for disabled people. He needs to put in much more effort than ordinary students to pass the bar exam.

However, he said stately, “It took two hours for me to get to my high school and back home, and I have tried to develop my physical and mental strength during those days. I will keep on making every effort to achieve my goals during university days.”

Chung Un-chan, a president of SNU, said that the school will take care of him so that he can do his work without any inconvenience. A dean of the faculty of law in SNU said that Mr. Choi was accepted not because the school gave favors to him for his disability but because he was eligible.

podragon@donga.com