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Setagaya Ward Employment Support Center for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities
Leadership Development Course 2007 Go back to Global Navigation

Training Course in Leadership Development of Persons with Disabilities - 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

  • 202 persons: This is the number of persons with intellectual disabilities whom this Center has sent to private companies/corporations for the past eight (8) and half years since 1998 when it was established. (As of August 31, 2007)
  • This Center is a non-residential sheltered workshop-type of employment support center for persons with intellectual disabilities residing in Setagaya Ward who has a strong desire to work in private companies.
  • Here in this Center, we provide employment support, keeping in mind that the most important thing is finding the type of work that the users want to do most and getting employed for such job. Because of this policy, only the small number of people resign due to negative factors, thus allowing many to continue working in the same companies.
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<ACCESSIBILITY OF ROUTE BUSES>

As for route buses, 19 non-step buses were introduced for the first time in 1996. Currently its number exceeds 8,639. Also, the total number of low floor buses, which include one-step buses with a ramp and buses with a lift, is over 16,327. From now, under the New Barrier-Free Law, how to deal with the gap between various regional areas in introducing those buses is being questioned.

As to the introduction of non-step buses, there is a problem of regional disparity. No non-step bus has been introduced in Akita Prefecture and Okinawa Prefecture. They are concentrated in Tokyo metropolitan and other large urban areas.

Furthermore, the operation of wheelchair-accessible buses (non-step buses, one-step buses with a ramp, and buses with a lift) has “no specific route, no specific time, and no announcement of time schedule.” This can be considered as a discrimination against persons with disabilities as wheelchair users cannot utilize the services as needed and also because only wheelchair users are treated in such an unfair way and not other passengers. This point should be brought up more as a problem.

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<ACCESSIBILITY OF STREETCARS>

There are 19 streetcar companies in Japan. After streetcars are made barrier free by introducing a new type of low-floor vehicles and by raising the level of platforms, it is recognized that streetcars are the easiest to get on and off and the most convenient for wheelchair users, the elderly, and others.

Especially on the Toyama Port Line (popularly called “Portram”) of Toyama Light Rail Co., Ltd., which opened in April 2006, all vehicles and stations are made accessible in accordance with “universal design,” and finally making streetcars with universal design has started on its full scale in Japan.

The accessibility of existing streetcars are also being challenged well. In Tokyo, all the stations on the Toei Streetcar (Toden) Arakawa Line and the Tokyu Setagaya Line are barrier-free. It is very easy for wheelchair users, the elderly, and those with a baby carriage to get on and off at barrier-free stations of super-low-floor streetcars in Hiroshima City, Okayama City, and Kagoshima City. Currently, in various places in Japan, planning for streetcar operations of low-floor vehicles is under consideration.

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<ACCESSIBILITY OF TAXIS AND COMMUNITY BUSES>

The Traffic Barrier-Free Law was not applicable to taxis, but the New Barrier-Free Law requires taxis to be barrier-free, so attention is being paid to future developments In Tokyo, taxis equipped with a lift or a ramp has started to operate. Still, only 5,000 out of a total of 260,000 taxis (only 2%) in Japan are barrier-free.

Also in recent years, local governments are operating “community buses” to secure transportation for those who have difficulties in transferring such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, and citizens living in areas where transportation is insufficient within their administrative regions.

More than 900 cities, towns, and villages operate community buses. Some community buses are equipped with a lift or ramp and also the number of non-step buses is increasing. Accessibility stated in the new law is also applicable to community buses. From now, it is necessary to appeal to local governments to require that a community bus should be a non-step bus.

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<TASKS AND OUTLOOK>

Thus, measures towards accessibility in public transportation in Japan are becoming increasingly diversified. However, new problems have been brought up and still the problem of regional disparity is becoming more serious. In urban areas, barrier removal in railroads and buses is progressing. On the other hand, in local areas, the abolition or decrease of railroad and bus lines bring a critical state of not having public transportation.

Furthermore, there are serious cases of refusal to give services to persons with disabilities in cars, planes, boats, facilities, and accommodations, due to the lack of understanding, prejudice and discrimination towards them.

Also, wheelchair users meet accidents often when using equipments for traffic accessibility. For example, there are accidents such as falls and turnovers from a wheelchair-accessible escalator, from ‘Chair Mate’ (a caterpillar type of lift for going up and down a staircase), and from a slope of low-floor buses. Falls from platforms at railroad stations among persons with visual impairments and wheelchair users are still occurring.

We also have an issue wherein persons with disabilities using an electric wheelchair with a steering wheel are refused to enter into facilities and vehicles which accessibility should be guaranteed. This is not logical. The rights of mobility of persons with disabilities and the elderly to get around using public transport seems violated by the arbitrary policies of railroad companies.

Furthermore, it was revealed that Toyoko Inn Co., Ltd., a major business hotel chain, illegally renovated its facilities and violated both the Heart Building Law and the ordinance to build a comfortable living environments for persons with disabilities. This has made persons with disabilities and the elderly aware of being consumers as hotel guests. This hotel received a strong protest and criticism from organizations of persons with disabilities etc., and later this hotel has changed totally and become a good example of excellent application of universal design for the rank of business hotel.

We have been working so that those who have difficulties in transferring such as persons with disabilities and the elderly will become more aware of their rights as passengers, thereby truly ensuring their free, safe, and smooth participation in society.

Moreover, aiming for information accessibility, railroad, bus, airline, and shipping companies has made information on accessible facilities more open and public through homepages and at stations. However, access to the information we need is not sufficient enough yet. It is necessary that we demand more accessibility to information which we need.

We also need to actively cooperate in deciding the basic concepts under the New Barrier-Free Law and also participate from the planning stage in creating accessible transportation carried out by various companies. Once a barrier-free project is accomplished, it will be used for tens of years. Therefore our participation carries heavy responsibility. Under the concept of universal design, with solidarity, it is necessary to strive for accessibility through ‘spiral-up*’ development so that anyone can move and use facilities safely and smoothly.

*spiral-up:
It is a staged and continuous process in which users participate actively from the preliminary study stage to the post-project evaluation stage and share knowledge obtained through their participation process to apply it to other projects.

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