October 23, 2009: Lecture: Welfare Service and Systems for Persons with Disabilities Ⅱ -
from the perspectives of persons with disabilities
Training Report - Leadership Development Course
Since the Japanese government has changed and The Democratic Party of Japan took power today's lecturers became very busy for abolishing the Law for Supporting Independece of Persons with Disabilities and creating a new comprehensive law for persons with disabilities based on the concept of CRPD.
In the morning Secretary General of Japan National Assembly of Disabled Peoples' International (DPI-Japan) started his lecture by introducing the outline of DPI and then sharing his own childhood experiences in an institution with the participants.
Lecture material : Policies for Persons with Disabilities in Japan from the Viewpoint of a Person with a Disability
In the afternoon staff of DPI first lectured on the movements of persons with disabilities by showing the video about the transportation barrier-free movement in the 1980's. Then He explained about the shift from medical model to social model, the development of the independent living movement and postwar policies for persons with disabilities, the International Year of Disabled Persons and dissemination of the idea of normalization. It was only from the late 1990's to early 2000's when the support for the community life or independent living in the actual systems and services started.
Through their lectures, the participants could learn that the current welfare services and systems were not available for persons with disabilities from the beginning. But the movements and involvement of persons with disabilities over the last 50 years had played important roles in their development.
