My cousin

April 12, 2008
Dad became cabby to take her to university
NEVER GIVE UP: Despite being afflicted by pereoneal muscular atrophy at a young age, Ms Chia Yong Yong, now 46, went on to become a lawyer. Her younger sister, who suffers from the same condition, also made it to university. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG IT WAS the worst of times. Her father's small shop was struggling. Her mother, a snacks and drinks vendor, was barely making ends meet. Afflicted by a nerve and muscle disorder, 19-year-old Ms Chia Yong Yong's legs started giving way. Soon, she would never walk again. Her younger sister, too, suffers from the same condition, known as pereoneal muscular atrophy. In school, though, Ms Chia was doing well and, in 1981, qualified to do law at the National University of Singapore. Relatives offered her parents well-meaning advice: 'Why waste money educating her? She is disabled anyway.' But 'mum and dad thought going to university was my only chance at a better life', says Ms Chia, who grew up in a three-room HDB flat in MacPherson. Because she found it impossible to use public transport, her father became a taxi driver so he could ferry her to university. Today, Ms Chia, 46, oversees the commercial department at Goodwins Law Corporation, a mid-size law firm in Anson Road. Her sister also made it to university and works as a manager. Home is a corner terrace house which she shares with her parents. Her job is to advise financial services companies on regulatory compliance. She is also involved in various charities. But in her office, decorated with an old Celtic cross, an Indian tapestry and a silk bouquet, the soft-spoken woman who gets around in a wheelchair lets on that success did not come easy. At 23, starting out as an intern at a small law firm, she was paid less than her peers. Her employer constantly worried that her disability would be a liability. Later, she found herself doing all the backroom work, while her boss took all the credit. There are audible gasps from clients who meet her for the first time as lawyers in wheelchairs are a rare sight here. Once, a client insulted her when she told him she would have to consult his file and call him back. He snapped that her being 'different' from other people was 'no excuse for shoddy work'. Ms Chia says she can accept prejudice from the man in the street, but finds it harder when it comes from the authorities. For instance, when the MRT system was built in the 1980s, she was appalled that stations were not wheelchair-friendly. The policy has since been reversed. 'Policies that are designed to exclude should never be implemented,' she says. Even today, the situation is far from perfect. There are few wheelchair-friendly buses on the road. And their manual ramps take a long time to crank out. This holds up other passengers and makes the disabled feel like a burden, she says. It's not true that disabled folk do not aim high, she says. 'It's just that circumstances often force them to scale down their ambition.'