October 20, 2009: AM: Accessibility Check in Tokyo Metropolitan City
PM: Lecture: “Aiming at realization of a barrier-free society”
Training Report - Leadership Development Course
In this morning, the participants were divided into 3 groups for accessibility check of public transportation and building in Tokyo Metropolitan City.
They were heading for 3 different famous sites in Tokyo.
Group 1: Ferris wheel “Big O”
Participants from, Namibia, Jamaica and Saint Lucia
Group 2: Roppoongi - Tokyo Midtown
Participants from Laos, Pakistan, and Fiji
Group 3: Hachiko
(Hollywood movie titled “Hachi” was modeled after this dog)
Participants from Sri Lanka, Philippines and Kazakhstan
On the way to the destinations, participants checked and experienced various barrier-free facilities provided for persons with disabilities.
There are Braille block tiled on the platform or on the street.
Platform gate which prevent persons fall down from platform.
Those facilities are very helpful for persons with visual impairments when they walk outside alone.
There are also services and facilities available for persons who use wheelchairs.
Train staff prepared a portable ramp to assist wheelchair users to get on and off a train.
Participants from Sri Lanka, Philippines and Kazakhstan had an opportunity to ride on a non-step bus.
Some participants had the impression that people are able to go anywhere by themselves in Japan.
In the afternoon, Board member, Japan National Assembly of Disabled People's International (DPI-Japan), gave lecture on “boarding rejection” of flat-type wheelchair user with severe disability to introduce about the reality of what is occurring in Japan.
From lecturer's own experiences, he said that he did not feel sadness when he could not get on a bus which was not wheelchair-accessible.
However, he was very chagrined when he could not get on a bus which was wheelchair-accessible.
He raised a question, “How do you feel if you are not allowed to use facilities which are accessible and barrier-free”. “What is to say, the right to get around using public transport is violated by the arbitrary policies of bus companies.”
The lecturer advised that the important point to promote barrier-free society was, to reflect opinions of persons with disabilities themselves in the process of making laws and policies.
