November 19, 2009 AM: Visit: The Accessible Design Foundation in Japan
Training Report - Leadership Development Course
In the morning participants visited the Accessible Design Foundation in Japan.
The lecture was started with a question from Section Chief of General Affairs, “All of us use various products, services, and facilities in our daily lives. However, are they really accessible to everyone?” “Can persons with visual impairment distinguish between shampoo bottle and conditioner bottle?” JICA participants nodded no.
And she then continued, “from that point of view, the Accessible Design Foundation (the ADF Japan) started its activities to promote accessibility for all people including older persons and persons with disabilities. In order to promote products, facilities and services that are accessible to every member in the society, the ADF Japan collaborates with other organizations to conduct user surveys and research on the needs of various people. We aim to create a society where each member can live a happy and lively life.
Lecture Material :
To achieve everybody's conveniences
PDF file [ 01 (873KB) , 02 (954KB) , 03 (390KB) ]
JICA participant started to interest in the concept and asked the following good questions.
“We understood that we could recognize the differences between milk and juice by the notch,
however, we still have difficulty to recognize the differences between orange juice and apple juice.
Do you have any ideas to distinguish those differences?” “Even if we could recognize
the products, how persons with visual impairment get to know the price without any
assistance?”
Section Chief was very pleased to hear their opinions and promised them that they will try to solve
those problems.
And then a member the foundation who have low vision shared her experience how she developed the accessible designs at her work place.
Lecture Material :
People with low vision and the role of
disabled people in the society [ PDF file (32KB) ]
When she worked for one of the major transport companies in Japan, company faced a problem of the customers with disability. When a customer was not at home, delivery staff left a message card in the post, however, only contact phone number with message was printed on the card, so that the customers with visual impairment could not recognize what it is. Likewise customers with hearing impairment could not contact delivery staff on the phone. In order to solve the problem, the company added fax number on the card. As a result the company decided to notch on both sides of the card enable persons with visual impairment understand what it is.
At the beginning you can start from a small change, then the small change will gradually become bigger, she explained to the participants.
After the lecture, participants had an opportunity to touch and try the accessible products for daily use at exhibition room in the foundation.
