Inside the store

They got to the front of the store. The automatic doors opened and they went inside. Taku noticed that the atmosphere of the store was different from the stores he usually went to. It felt more relaxed and the aisles felt wider. Saying hello, Chii started moved around the store.
The aisles were wide enough for wheelchairs to move around easily. Checking her shopping list, Chii found the goods she was looking for and put them in the basket that Taku was holding. She seemed to be used to going shopping. Taku watched Chii, who was living cheerfully with her wheelchair in this town, and murmured, "Chii, you live really strongly."
At that moment, a lady called out to Chii.
"Hello, Chii. I'm sorry, but, could you tell me what is written on this?"
"Shampoo and Rinse," Chii read aloud. "Thank you. The shampoo that I always buy was sold out today, and I thought this was good enough. Besides, it has dots, too. I'll take it. Thank you," she said and headed for a cashier with the shampoo in her basket.
"Who was she? What are the dots?" Taku asked Chii in a low voice.
"She is not good at reading and writing. That's why she asks people when she finds letters she can't read. It is no good to buy things you don't need. But, she lives alone. After we met here few times, I realized that she is only little different from others and, other than that, she is gentle and kind, and then we became friends."
"I see. She lives alone? That's something!"
"Taku, you are different from me. Everybody has a different body, different thoughts, and different things they can do. Since I started life in a wheelchair, people have sympathized with me and cheered me up because I can't do what people normally do. One day I thought about what my future would be. Maybe, I would always have to be helped by people and never help back. I felt very sad.I felt I had lost all the power that people have from birth...not just the power of my legs. I had to decide what to be...for myself. So, now I am trying to find things I can do, and not feel sad."
"When you can not do something by yourself, you ask somebody, right? That lady does the same thing. When you can not read something, you ask somebody to read it for you. People help others when they need help, and that's IT. I have been doing that and I made lots of good friends. It keeps me cheered up."
"I see. You are a really marvelous girl. You have a talent for making friends with everybody...and you made me see that, deep down, everybody is the same ... even if everybody acts in different ways. But, hey, what are the dots, anyway?"

People with intellectual disabilities

Among us, there are people with intellectual disabilities. Some are that way from birth, others from serious illness in early childhood.
As of March of l998, there are approximately 29,000 people with intellectual disabilities living in Hokkaido. Just like you, they have things that they are good at and things they are not good at.