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Keynote Speech at the High-level International Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons
(2002, 10.25-28 Shiga, Japan)

The New Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons: Communication and Liberation

Good morning. Distinguished guests, colleagues and friends from all over theAsian and Pacific region. Welcome to Japan. My name is Satoshi Fukushima. I amgreatly honored to give this key note address at this auspicious occasion.

It is my great pleasure to meet all of you, from so many differentcountries, here in Ohtsu City. I feel tremendous joy to be able to share inthe success of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. And, as aperson with a disability myself, I sincerely hope that productive discussions will take place towards the coming decade.

Today, I would like to give a brief account of my background and then sharemy thoughts and wishes on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons.

I lost my sight at the age of nine, hearing at the age of eighteen and became totally deafblind twenty-one years ago in 1981, which happened to be the International Year of Disabled Persons.

Though I had been totallyblind, I could not understand how entirely different it was to be totally deafblind until I turned out to be one myself.

Transition from being blind to being completely deafblind at the age of eighteen was an enormous shock for me. It was as if the "real world" had simply vanished from me.

I felt as if I had been thrown into the outer space on the "night side" of the earth - the dark, vacuum, weightless space where the light from the sun could not reach. It was an experience of absolute emptiness and solitude.

Why was I struck by such an enormous shock when I became deafblind? Was it because I would never again behold the beauty of a starlit sky or the sea at sunset? Or, was it because I could no longer wake up in the morning to the song of birds coming through an open window? Or, was it because I could never again listen to the beautiful melody of Bach or Mozart?


I would say "No" to all these questions. It is true that I miss the scenery and music which I used to enjoy. Yet, the most painful part of being deafblind was not the loss of sight and hearing itself but the vanishment of communication with others.

I was taken by surprise. Till then, I had never thought of communication as having an importance as such. I meditated amidst the fathomless solitude and distress. "Perhaps one can still live without sight and hearing. But can one really live deprived of communication?"

I was left in a state of despair. However, the time came when I would be liberated from the jail of darkness and silence. There were three stages in this process of liberation.

The first was the acquisition of a new communication method. In my case, it was the discovery by my mother of a new method called the "Finger Braille."
With this method, I was able to regain communication with others which revived my desire and courage to live.

I entered the second stage of liberation when I was blessed with people within my immediate circle who would communicate with me using this new method.

The third stage of liberation came when I was provided with interpretation services on a stable basis which guaranteed me of freedom of communication.Through these experiences, I have come to realize that for people with disabilities there are three keys to liberation, that is, the keys to independence and social participation.

The first key is the provision of basic means necessary for disabled people to live and thus encourage each and every disabled person to keep the desire and courage to live. This includes efforts in education and rehabilitation.

The second key is the cooperation of people who have actual contact with disabled people in their living environment. In particular, mutual cooperation among peers who have the same disability is very beneficial. This includes self-help efforts on the part of a disabled person and his or her family as well as changing discriminatory attitudes of the general public towards people with disabilities.

The third key is the legal and institutional framework of the society that offers a stable basis for the cooperative efforts of people who support thepursuit of happiness by individuals with disabilities. This includes the enactment of laws prohibiting discrimination against and respecting the dignity of people with disabilities and the establishment of institutional systems promoting welfare and employment of people with disabilities.

Now, let me venture a question to all of you.

Why must a society support the lives of people with disabilities?

After all, people with disabilities are minorities in any country. For instance, the incidence of people with deafblindness like myself is said to be one in several thousand. Does not the investment of social resources in the minority affairs work against the improved productivity of our society?
No one would dare say this opinion aloud. However, among people who give top priority to economic growth of the entire nation, whether in Japan or elsewhere, I suppose that there do exist some who consider it a waste of resources to provide generous support to disabled people.

Let me ask once again. Why must a society support people with disabilities?

I believe that the answer has already been given to us more than twenty years ago in a document issued by the United Nations.

One sentence in the introduction of the International Programme for the International Year of Disabled Persons reads: "A society that shuts out a number of its members is an impoverished society."

It means that a society that discriminates and excludes a part of itsconstituent members, like people with disabilities, is essentially an impoverished society no matter how it may look. I think such a society is also a fragile society pregnant with possible risks that may eventually lead to its collapse.

Conversely, if a society warmly embraces the struggling minorities, such as the disabled people, and aspires for a steady development together with the
minorities no matter how gradual the change may be, such a society would be truly rich and resilient. True richness cannot be measured just by tangibleeconomic indexes such as Gross Domestic Production.

Helen Keller once said:
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.They must be felt with the heart."

I believe that the way to share "the beautiful things felt by the heart" is communication. And it is communication which is the most important activity in leading a life as a human being. It applies to people with disabilities also. Rather, I am fully convinced through my own experiences that communication is all the more significant for people with disabilities.

In the natural environment, there exists an ecological system. Likewise, I believe that in a society there also exists a kind of "symbiotic ecological system." In other words, it is a "symbiotic ecological system of the human mind" generated and sustained by people in the society. The ecological system in nature is supported by the flow of physical substances and energy as well as the existence of a large number of organisms and their activities. The "symbiotic ecological system of the human mind," on the otherhand, is supported by person-to-person communication. Thus, we may also call it an "ecological system based on human communication."

This system is created and sustained by rich communication each member of the society exchanges with the people around him or her in the sphere of his
or her life. If it is so, the enrichment of communication of a minority group such as people with disabilities not only benefits the population with disabilities but may also generate positive effects on the society as a whole.


What do we people with disabilities expect from the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons?

What we want is neither sympathy nor pity but rights and obligations,freedom and responsibilities that belong to all citizens.

What we want is neither charity nor handouts but appropriate education, a chance for rehabilitation and a place to work.

What we want is not lifetime care in institutions but a place to live with our family and friends in the community.

What we want is not a one-way transmission of information from the society to us but mutual communication that includes transmission from us.

What we want is not a liberation of people with one category of disability but a liberation of people with disabilities of all categories.

What we want is not richness in life for people with disabilities in just one country but in all countries.

What we want is not just happiness for people with disabilities but happiness for all people, with or without disability.

Last but not least, what we want to be is not being the existence loved by the society but ourselves being able to love others, meet someone to love and to live with them sharing joys and sorrows.

In closing, I hope from the bottom of my heart that the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons will be the decade in which wishes of those of us who live with disabilities in this region will come true.

My friends and colleagues, let us work together and do a good job.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Profile of Mr.Satoshi Fukushima
Born December 25,1962.Lost sight at 9, hearing at 18 and became totally deafblind in 1981. In 1983, enrolled into TokyoMetropolitan University (pedagogy major) as the first deafblind person in Japan to study in a university. After completing the doctoral course, worked as an assistant at the Tokyo Metropolitan University and then as associate professor at the Faculty of Education, NationalKanazawa University (Education for Children with Disability). In 2001, appointed as the associate professor of the University of Tokyo at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (Barrier Free studies). Since 1991, serves as a member of the board of directors for Japan Deafblind Association. Cullently,Academic Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo at ResearchCenter for Advanced