BY KOKI WATANABE

Hirotada Ototake was born in Tokyo in 1976. He was born with congenital-phantomlimb, so he does not have any arms or legs. Despite having no arms or legs, he has enjoyed his life more than normal people.

Those who have no contact with disabled people think that they go to special schools and receive a different education than normal people. But he has gone to the same primary school, junior high school, high school and university, as non-disabled and has gotten the same education as people without physical disabilities have.

I guess that this was possible because of the support from the people around him. But fundamentally it is due to his cheerful and constructive character. There is an episode that reflects his character. When he was a schoolchild and quarreled with a girl classmate he said, "I have something that no one can defeat. It is that I have no arms or legs." I can not believe that a disabled person could say such a thing. He thinks of his "defects" as "traits." That is to say, he hardly realized he was disabled himself.

He can have this way of thinking, because of the influence of his parents. He describes in his book, "They do not think of disabled people as disabled. But that is good." If more people who think like them exist, there will be a sensible society toward disabled people.

After he entered the Waseda University politics and economics department the met a meeting of the "Waseda Town Life Executive Committee." So his life reached a turning point. Since then he has done things that only he, as a disabled person, can do. He asked the university for a barrier-free education from the disabled point of view in the opening ceremony of the second "Eco Summer Festival," which is held at Waseda. As a result of his efforts, a barrier-free school building designed for disabled people was completed spring of 1998. He gave as many as 60 lectures about his experiences and a barrier-free society in all parts of the country last year.

On the book cover it reads, "I am not asking you to be moved, but but to by this as an example." This language sincerely expresses that it is good to treat disabled people as normal.

Despite having this serious defect, His ability to think of "defects" as "traits" is admirable. He has had more trouble than I could ever imagine. This book, "An unhealthy and abnormal body," which he wrote, will be a big influence in my life from now on.