Man born with head UPSIDE-DOWN works as inspirational public speaker

Claudio at home in Monte Santo

*Throughout my life I was able to adapt my body to the world. Right now, I don't see myself as being different. I am a normal person. I don't see things upside-down. This is one of the things I always talk about in my interventions as a public speaker. – Claudio

Claudio Vieira de Oliveira, 37, was born with his neck folded back on itself, as well as badly deformed legs and almost no use of his arms and hands. Strikingly, he has defied the odds to become an inspiration public speaker.

Claudio from Monte Santo, Brazil, has overcome his extreme disadvantages to graduate as an accountant from the State University of Feira de Santana and become a public speaker.

Claudio giving a talk to students at a university in Feira de Santana

  

Claudio said: "Since I was a child I've always liked to keep myself busy and work - I don't like to depend totally on other people." I do a bit of accounting, research for clients and consulting.

"I have learned to turn on the TV, pick up my cell phone, turn on the radio, use the internet, my computer - I do it all by myself."

Claudio types with a pen held in his mouth, operates phones and a computer mouse with his lips and has specially made shoes that allow him to move around town.

When Claudio was born, doctors told his mother Maria Jose he would not be able to survive.

Maria Jose said: "People started saying 'the baby is going to die' because he could barely breathe when he was born. Some people would say: 'Don't feed him, he is already dying'. "But there's only happiness now." Claudio is just like any other person - that's how he was raised in this house. "We never tried to fix him and always wanted him to do the normal things everyone else does."

"That's why he is so confident. He is not ashamed of walking around in the street - he sings and he dances."

At eight years old, Claudio, who had previously been carried everywhere, began to walk on his knees. His family had to change the floor of the house so he could walk around without injuring himself.

Doctors have recently diagnosed him with a rare condition called congenital arthrogryposis. They believe he has multiple joint contractions in his legs and arms, which mean they cannot extend properly.