“Even though I have a leg disability, I can still use the internet and see the power of AI that can help us just like anyone else.” — Phonthip Phommachan, age 12
There is a child who had a harder time getting to school than anyone else — but on the day he first had the chance to touch a keyboard, his mind soared farther than anyone else in the room.
Phonthip Phommachan, 12 years old, from Pek District, Xieng Khouang Province, was never asked “What do you want to study in the future?” the way other children were — because most people around him assumed that simply getting through daily life was already hard enough for him, and that the focus should be on caring for his legs, which have been disabled since birth.
But Phonthip thought differently. During his primary school years, he missed many days of class because he had to travel for medical treatment on his legs. Lessons came to him through his mother’s phone. He would focus and take notes, memorize, and study amid difficulties that other children never had to face. Through all of that, his curiosity and desire to learn never faded — if anything, it only grew stronger.
On February 10, 2026, Phonthip had the opportunity to participate in an “Hour of Code and AI” class at Phonesavanh Secondary School as a Grade 8 student, which is a part of AI Ready ASEAN, supported by ASEAN Foundation and Google.org. It was the first time he learned what AI really is — and discovered that AI learns from data the same way humans learn from experience. He found in it something he had long been searching for: a window he didn’t have to walk to, where information from the entire world would travel to him instead.
During the lunch break after class, Phonthip and his friends went to the school’s computer room. He looked at images, watched videos, and explored a world he had always felt was distant — through a small screen that his legs didn’t need to carry him to.
“People with disabilities like me can also use artificial intelligence and learn how it works, just the same as anyone else.”
These few words from a 12-year-old boy with a disability carry a quiet but powerful force — one that dismantles the assumptions held by some adults and children who still believe that technology belongs only to certain people.
Phonthip dreams that one day he will be able to create his own advertisements and produce his own videos. He already understands that AI has both benefits and risks, and he reminds himself: “I shouldn’t rely on it so much that I lose my own identity and become lazy.”
His story teaches us this: if a child with a leg disability in a remote town can turn Coding and AI into his wings — then what excuse do any of the rest of us have to stop learning?
