Diving to a dream

Now in its fourth year, this very special five-day-four-night scuba diving training camp is composed of students with physical disabilities, low vision or hearing impairments. All eleven people so far trained through the camp to the 4-Star Diver certification level, including ten with hearing impairments and one with a physical disability, attended this year's camp to provide assistance to other participating students.

In any training activity, especially connected with scuba diving, safety comes first; therefore, in addition to an assistant coach, each student must also have a volunteer to accompany them. Chen Ke-cheng (陳克誠), who has served as head coach at the training camp for the last four years, emphasized that the requirements for this group of students is no different to any other group and that there is absolutely no leniency simply because of disabilities. Sun Hui-ting (孫惠婷), a sign language translator from Pingtong and the person responsible for the very important work of translating during the training process, was so deeply moved during her participation in the activity two years ago that she set her mind on learning to scuba dive and got a license.

It is not always easy for those affected by physical and mental disabilities to move forward in life; however, with a personal assistant provided alongside access to specialized facilities, this five-day-four-night diving training camp is, in the words of head coach Chen Ke-cheng, “providing an important start.” The subsequent training and guidance are where the real journey begins and students are challenged to overcome their deepest fears.

Diving to a dream

URL： https://www.peopo.org/news/339873

(以下是中文對照)

潛進夢想

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這是一個五天四夜的潛水訓練營，不同的是20名的學員中有肢障、低視能視障及聽障朋友，這個營隊已經是第四年舉辦，今年營隊更由前三屆訓練出來的11位四星潛水長，參與協助學員。其中包含10位聽障以及1位肢障朋友。

潛水訓練的活動安全第一，每名學員由一位助理教練與一位志工陪伴，第四年擔任營隊的總教練陳克誠表示，對學員的要求跟一般人的要求一樣，不會因為是身障朋友而心軟。在訓練的過程中，擔任翻譯的工作也是很重要，孫惠婷是屏東的手語翻譯員，也因為參與了兩年前的活動深受感動，她特別去學了潛水並取得證照。

身心障礙朋友需要踏出這一步其實不容易，除了人力上的協助外，更需要無障礙設施的硬體配合，五天四夜的潛水訓練營，就如總教練陳克誠所說的，只是一個起頭，後面的訓練跟陪伴才要開始，克服恐懼更是學員很大的挑戰。