Jidapa Nitiwirakun, a 21-year-old from Thailand, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a young age when her mother noticed she wasn’t learning to walk. Despite the challenges of living with this condition and losing muscle strength each year, Jidapa has managed to secure a job. In September of last year, she joined the human resources department at Toyota Tsusho’s Thai headquarters, where she works remotely from her home in Pattaya, located in Thailand’s coastal Chonburi province.
Growing up, Jidapa had many dreams, from owning a bakery to becoming a Thai-Japanese interpreter due to her love for anime. While attending 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 for business, including coding, PowerPoint, and AI. Her internship with Microsoft Thailand gave her the confidence to train employees and clients to use Power BI.
During a visit from recruiters at Toyota Tsusho, Jidapa was offered a full-time job as an administrative officer in the human resources department. She is currently working on a project tracking the company’s carbon footprint using Power BI and creating graphic designs for internal communications. Utilizing tools like Dall-E from OpenAI, Jidapa generates images and uses AI to assist with analytics and information summarization at work.
Despite her busy schedule, Jidapa continues to volunteer at her old college, using her mechanized wheelchair to travel back and forth from her apartment. She also financially supports her family by contributing money to her father