Useful. That is what 25 year old Roger Chia, through his art, wants to be. Roger has post viral encephalitis and, like many other artists, he expresses himself through drawing and writing. It helps him to forget the real world. Before his illness, Roger already had a penchant for art, scoring an A1 for his GCE ‘O’ Level art exam. Through his own self teaching and a volunteer art teacher, Roger advanced as an artist.

However, in Roger’s eyes, there are difficulties abound in the world of a disabled artist. He feels like a pawn in a chess game, whereby people want him to ‘obey their instructions in what to draw and behave myself’ and most importantly to keep quiet. He yearns to be accepted as an individual. For the rest of the world to see that he is like any other human being, with anxiety, anger and fear.

He feels that ‘society, in general, is very impatient, unkind and cruel to people like him, who forgets things’. Hence stress and pressure are put on him to obey instructions or face harsh treatment as a consequence. People then have the misconception that he is pretending not to listen to instructions or is just plain stubborn. What angst ridden words. But deep down inside everyone of us, we know how true these words are. Roger has dreams and aspirations like the rest of us. He wishes to study, to share and exchange ideas with others - able bodied or disabled, and to encourage other disabled people. Roger needs society to learn that he is actually a very friendly person, just confused at times. His plea is, simply, ‘help me to be accepted’.