Against All Odds: How Jidapa Nitiwirakun Overcame Muscular Dystrophy to Secure a Job and Contribute to Her Community

At just one year old, Jidapa Nitiwirakun was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when her mother noticed she wasn’t learning to walk. Despite the limitations of her condition, she has been able to secure a job at 21 years old. Living independently in Pattaya, Thailand, she works remotely for Toyota Tsusho’s Thai headquarters, a company affiliated with the Japanese automotive giant.

Growing up, Nitiwirakun had many dreams, from owning a bakery to being a Thai-Japanese interpreter due to her love of anime. While at the Pattaya Redemptorist Technological College for People with Disabilities, she participated in Microsoft’s Skills for Jobs program. This program taught her basic digital skills like coding, PowerPoint, and AI, which ultimately led to an internship with Microsoft Thailand.

Nitiwirakun took pride in her ability to learn and adapt quickly to new technologies and software programs. She used this skillset to excel during her internship and eventually land a full-time job in Toyota Tsusho’s human resources department. She is currently working on a project to track the company’s carbon footprint using Power BI, as well as doing graphic design for internal communications. She uses AI tools like Dall-E from OpenAI to generate images and help with formulas for analytics and information summaries.

In addition to her job, Nitiwirakun continues to volunteer at her old college, using her mechanized wheelchair to travel back and forth from her apartment. Despite her muscle degeneration, she remains dedicated to helping her family financially, contributing